FIGURE 1.

Proposed heuristic framework to guide research on emotional functioning in major depressive disorder (MDD) through the investigation of emotion reactivity across functional domains (i.e., positive and negative valence systems), emotion component outputs (i.e., units of analysis), and regulatory processes, while incorporating the influence of environmental context, developmental processes, and biological substrates. Most pathways are likely bidirectional and interactive. For example, a current MDD episode may result in alterations in functional domains, component outputs, and/or regulatory processes. Preexisting alterations may also contribute to risk for development of MDD with individual variation due to other moderating influences on these systems (i.e., environment, biology). Components of this framework are informed by the NIMH Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) framework (see Insel et al., 2010)