Depressive attributional style.

143 undergraduates completed an attributional style scale designed by the authors, the short form of the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List. Results show that depressed Ss, compared to nondepressed Ss, attributed bad outcomes to internal, stable, and global causes, as measured by the attributional style scale. This attributional style was predicted by the reformulated helplessness model of depression. In addition, relative to nondepressed Ss, depressed Ss attributed good outcomes to external, unstable causes. (8 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychological and social effects of unemployment.

Discusses some secondary effects of unemployment, including the absence of health benefits at a time when family members are undergoing severe stress, poor nutrition in adults and children that also causes a rise in the infant mortality rate, decrease in parent nurturance of children coupled with an increase in child abuse, increased alcoholism and drug abuse, and erosion of the social service network. These problems are discussed as they pertain to the state of Michigan and its high percentage of unemployed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pulse of a nation: Depressive mood reactions of Israelis to the Israel–Lebanon War.

Eleven national Israeli samples (N?=?11,944) were interviewed regarding their depressive mood on 11 occasions between August 1979 and June 1984, including interviews prior to, during, and following the 1982 Israel–Lebanon War. We analyzed major newspaper headlines at the time of each national sampling in order to assess the relation between major national events and depressive mood. The outbreak of war coincided with an increase in depression. There was a decrease in depression subsequent to the most intensive period of the war, suggesting that adaptation occurs amidst continued stressful circumstances. Peak depressive mood occurred at the time of the massacre of Palestinians at the Sabra and Shatilla refugee camps. Reactions to the massacre were more pronounced among women, older adults, Jews of European or American origin, and the more educated; but group differences had only modest effect sizes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive reactions to failure in a naturalistic setting: A test of the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression.

Tested the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression and an integration of the two by examining whether a stable, global attributional style (attributional diathesis) and low self-esteem interacted with the outcomes students received on a midterm examination to predict their subsequent depressive reactions over the course of 5 days. Students' immediate depressive reactions (on receipt of grades) were predicted solely by the exam outcome, whereas their enduring depressive reactions during the following 4 days were predicted by the Attributional Diathesis by Low Self-Esteem by Failure interaction. The results also indicated that the 3-way interaction predicted enduring depressive reactions through the mediating role of hopelessness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive mood and estimates of reinforcement frequency.

To test the hypothesis that mood level is related to a tendency to underestimate the amount of positive reinforcement received, 104 undergraduates were administered a depression scale and given trials on a multiple-choice learning task with correctness of responses signaled by the experimenter saying "right" or "wrong." Estimates of number of correct response correlated significantly and positively with number of correct responses. Part correlations between the depression scale and estimates, with number of correct responses partialed out of the estimates, were negative and were significant for women alone and both sexes combined, thus confirming the hypothesis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and impaired respiration in sleep.

Documented the relationship between depression and impaired respiration in sleep among 176 males and 160 females (aged 50+ yrs) using the geriatric depression scale (GDS) developed by J. A. Yesavage et al (see record 1984-02939-001), which measures nonsomatic depressive symptoms. Although arbitrarily formed groups of Ss with low and high respiratory disturbance differed on the GDS, mean values and effect size suggested that impaired respiration in sleep was associated with only relatively mild depressive symptoms. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive attributional style and depression following childbirth.

The reformulated learned helplessness model posits that individuals who make internal, stable, and global attributions for undesired outcomes are more likely than others to become depressed when faced with important life events that are perceived as uncontrollable. Two questions arise from the reformulated learned helplessness model within the context of the event of childbirth. The 1st question is whether the relationship between depressive attributional style and concurrent depression found in college undergraduates can be extended to women anticipating the birth of their 1st child. The 2nd question is whether women's prenatal attributional style is predictive of depression in the 1st wk postpartum. 50 pregnant women (mean age 28.85 yrs) completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire and 3 measures of depression during the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and 3 days postpartum. The results provide negligible support for the notion of depressive attributional style as defined by the hypothesis. Depression of clinical severity was reported by 2–6% of Ss during the 3rd trimester and by 10–24% postpartum. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive self-presentation: Beyond self-handicapping.

An experiment was conducted to examine the notion that depressives' responses would reflect a protective self-presentation style (M. G. Hill et al, 1986), the underlying goal of which would be the avoidance of future performance demands and potential losses in self-esteem. In this study, depressed and nondepressed Ss were asked to perform a relatively simple visual–motor task. Half of the depressed and half of the nondepressed Ss were told that if they were successful at the task, they would be asked to perform a 2nd similar task. The remaining Ss were given no such expectation of future performance. We predicted and found that depressed compared with nondepressed Ss strategically failed at the task when presented with the possibility of future performance and further losses in esteem. Moreover, this strategic failure was associated with some costs; depressed, future performance expectancy Ss experienced more discomfort or negative affect as a result of their performance. The relationship between this depressive self-presentation and self-handicapping strategies is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms and lymphocyte proliferation in older adults.

In an 18-month prospective study, community-dwelling older adults, including both spousal caregivers of dementia patients and noncaregiving controls, were examined. Participants were selected on the basis of the presence or absence of chronic depressive symptoms that exceeded a cutoff score for clinically relevant depressive symptoms on a self-report symptom measure. Compared with nondepressed older adults, those with chronic, mild depressive symptoms had poorer T cell responses to 2 mitogens from baseline to follow-up. Additionally, among individuals with depressive symptoms, older age was associated with the poorest blastogenic response to the mitogens at follow-up. These findings extend the association between depression and immune function to community-dwelling older adults with chronic, mild depressive symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attitudes, values, and attributions: Explanations of unemployment.

Two studies demonstrated statistically reliable correlations between attribution measures and the attitudes and values that people hold. Ss in both studies rated 27 explanations of unemployment in regard to their importance as causes of youth unemployment, and subscales were derived on the basis of a factor analysis. In Study 1 (95 male and 170 female undergraduates), scores on these subscales were consistently related in the predicted direction to both general conservatism assessed by a conservatism scale by G. D. Wilson and J. R. Patterson (see record 1969-15017-001) and to conservative voting preference. In Study 2 (167 male, 164 female, and 3 unspecified high school students), scores on the derived scales were related in the predicted direction to the relative importance of some of the terminal and instrumental values from the Rokeach Value Survey—Form D. Results also indicate a number of sex differences and social class differences in the variables that were assessed. The major findings support the assumption that causal attributions for events are not simply the products of neutral information processing but are linked to the cognitive–affective system. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employment, unemployment, and the job search in psychology.

Data from over 7,000 members of the American Psychological Association imply the following: (a) PhDs fare better in the labor market than MAs. (b) Females (unless they are single) report more part-time employment, more underemployment, and more unemployment than do males. (c) The employment situation for minority groups differs little from that for Whites. (d) Females make less use of many methods to seek work than do males and also tend more often to limit their search to their locality. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptom patterns among older women.

The structure of depressive symptom patterns was investigated in a community sample of 344 women between the ages of 51 and 92 who were administered the SCL-90—R Depression and Additional Symptoms Scales. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test alternative measurement hypotheses implied by clinical formulations of depressive symptom patterns among elderly persons. The findings show support for the hypothesis that 2 somewhat different depressive syndromes, along with 4 more delimited forms of distress, underlie symptom-reporting patterns. Implications of these findings for future research on the relation between aging and depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Health and social costs of unemployment: Research and policy considerations.

Reviews recent studies of the social and private costs of unemployment. Although the experience of joblessness differs according to circumstances, prolonged unemployment is commonly a serious threat to health and the broad quality of life. These costs are borne not only by individual workers, but also by their families and communities. Research on unemployment has examined (1) associations between unemployment rate and indicators of strain such as psychiatric admissions and infant mortality, (2) ecologic studies of economic change, and (3) associations between unemployment and the demand for mental health services. The implications of this research for economic and social policy are discussed and contrasted with policy development premised on a benign view of unemployment. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depressive symptoms among physically abused and psychiatrically disturbed children.

Examined the relation of physical abuse and depressive symptoms among 79 6–13 yr old child psychiatric inpatients. Childhood depression, hopelessness, and self-esteem were assessed through questionnaire or interview measures administered to the children. 79 25–52 yr old mothers or maternal guardians also completed measures to evaluate their children's dysfunction. As predicted, the 33 physically abused children, compared with the 46 nonphysically abused patient controls, evinced significantly lower self-esteem and greater depression and negative expectations toward their futures. Among abused children, those with both past and current abuse showed more severe symptoms of depression that did those with either past or current abuse only. The differences in depressive symptoms between abused and nonabused children could not be accounted for by differences in child psychiatric diagnosis, age, race, gender, IQ, or severity of psychopathology or parent psychiatric diagnoses, marital, or SES. Results suggest that physical abuse, at least for a psychiatric patient sample, is related to symptoms of depression. The possible basis for this relation and the treatment implications are discussed. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race, economic class, and perceived outcomes of work and unemployment.

Tested 2 hypotheses derived from locus-of-control and expectancy theory: (a) black and/or unemployed men will perceive weaker relationships between working and positive and negative outcomes than white and/or working class men, and (b) black and/or unemployed men will perceive stronger relationships connecting not working with the same set of outcomes. Instrumentality ratings were gathered from 200 black and white working-class and unemployed men as part of a larger interview. Significant multivariate race, economic class, and interaction effects occurred for both types of ratings, but the direction of effects was not as predicted. Black Ss saw stronger relationships between working and various outcomes than whites, and positive-compared to whites' negative-instrumentalities of unemployment. The economic-class main effects were opposite in direction for blacks and whites, and the largest differences occurred between the black and white working class. Results are discussed in terms of experiential differences and shifts in levels of adaptation. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotion Context Insensitivity in Major Depressive Disorder.

The present study tested 3 competing views of how depression alters emotional reactivity: positive attenuation (reduced positive), negative potentiation (increased negative), and emotion context insensitivity (ECI; reduced positive and negative). Normative and idiographic stimuli that elicited happy, sad, and neutral states were presented to currently depressed, formerly depressed, and healthy control individuals while experiential, behavioral, and autonomic responses were measured. Currently depressed individuals reported less sadness reactivity and less happiness experience across all conditions than did the other participants, and they exhibited a more dysphoric response to idiographic than to normative stimuli. Overall, data provide partial support for the positive attenuation and ECI views. Depression may produce mood-state-dependent changes in emotional reactivity that are most pronounced in emotion experience reports. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional response to long-term unemployment. A study in Lillesand

In recent years we are observing an increasing number of authors. The surgical results, in the elective cases, are improved drammatically, and now, in many Centers, the mortality rate is less than 5%. We haven't observed the same improvements for the emergency cases. In this setting the mortality rate is still around 50% or more. What we are facing, however, is the changing of the clinical picture of this patients. In the most part of cases, the patient dies in the Intensive Care Unit, after a long and complex post-operative course, and not more in the Operating Room. Still, this could be considered a good result, expression of a better surgical experience. The way to obtain higher survival, at the moment, is linked to a better understanding of the physiologic derangements in the Intensive Care Unit. The authors discuss the organizative and technical changes the permitted to achieve this results.     

Pursuit and adjustment of goals during unemployment: The role of age.

This longitudinal study investigated the predictive value of 2 self-regulatory processes (goal pursuit and goal adjustment) on mental health and reemployment success over a period of 8 months. A total of 87 unemployed job seekers participated in this study. There is some evidence that age moderated the relationship between goal pursuit and goal adjustment with mental health and reemployment success. Contrary to expectations, goal pursuit was positively related to mental health for relatively older individuals. The authors found no effects of goal adjustment on mental health. However, as expected, goal adjustment had a negative relationship with reemployment success for relatively younger individuals. The authors found no moderator effects of age on the relationship between goal pursuit and reemployment success. Thus, the study revealed different relationships between self-regulatory processes and mental health as well as reemployment success for younger and older individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)