Depression, self-focused attention, and the negative memory bias.

On the basis of self-regulatory perseveration theory, we hypothesized that the negative memory bias commonly found among depressed people is mediated by excess levels of self-focused attention and thus can be reduced by preventing depressed people from focusing on themselves. In Experiment 1, nondepressed and subclinically depressed college students were induced to either focus on themselves or externally and then to recall 10 events that had happened to themselves during the previous 2 weeks. Consistent with our hypotheses, events recalled by depressed Ss were more negative than events recalled by nondepressed Ss under conditions of self-focus but not under conditions of external focus. We conducted Experiment 2 to determine whether this effect was specific to self-referent events or generalizable to events that happened to other people. Experiment 2's findings replicated the previous findings for self-referent events but showed a different pattern for recall of events that happened to others, suggesting that self-focus reduces the negative memory bias among depressed individuals by deactivating their self-schemas. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and the explanation of events that happen to self, close others, and strangers.

Depressive and nondepressive college students attributed causality for positive and negative events that happened to either themselves, a close other, or a typical student. Depressives made less optimistic attributions than nondepressives when explaining events that happened to themselves. However, depressives and nondepressives generally made similar attributions about others; both groups were optimistic when explaining events that happened to their best friend or romantic partner and less optimistic when explaining events that happened to the typical student. The results indicate that depressives do not treat close others as extensions of the self, at least in terms of their attributional patterns. Furthermore, depressives were aware of the extent to which their attributions benefitted or harmed the desired identity of the actor. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and pessimism for the future: Biased use of statistically relevant information in predictions for self versus others.

The cognitive theories of depression emphasize the role of pessimism about the future in the etiology and maintenance of depression. The present research was designed for two reasons: (a) to provide a clear demonstration that depressed individuals' predictions of the likelihood of future outcomes are more pessimistic than those of nondepressed individuals given identical information with which to make forecasts and identical conditions for forecasting, and (b) to test two additional hypotheses regarding possible mechanisms underlying depressives' relative pessimism in forecasting: a social-comparison and a differential attributional-style hypothesis. We used a modification of the cue-use paradigm developed by Ajzen (1977, Experiment 1) and examined depressed and nondepressed people's predictions of the likelihood of future positive and negative outcomes for themselves and for others. The results provided strong support for pessimism on the part of depressed individuals relative to nondepressed individuals in forecasts for both self and others. In addition, whereas nondepressives exhibited a self-enhancing bias in which they overestimated their probability of success and underestimated their probability of failure relative to that of similar others, depressives did not succumb to either positive or negative social comparison biases in prediction. Finally, in line with the attributional-style hypothesis, depressed–nondepressed differences in subjects' cue-use patterns were obtained, especially in forecasts for self. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Overconfident prediction of future actions and outcomes by self and others.

In a follow-up study to D. Dunning et al (see record 1990-22524-001), which had investigated the phenomenon of overconfidence in social prediction, two samples of first-year undergraduates were invited to make predictions about their own future responses (and, in the case of Sample 2, also those of their roommates) over the months ahead. These predictions were accompanied by confidence estimates and were evaluated in the light of actual responses reported later by the subjects in question. The primary finding was that self-predictions, like social predictions, proved to be consistently overconfident. As in Dunning et al, moreover, overconfidence could be traced to two sources. First, expressions of particularly high confidence rarely proved to be warranted; as confidence increased, the gap between accuracy and confidence widened. Second, predictions that went against relevant base rates yielded very low accuracy in the face of relatively unattenuated confidence levels. The implications of these results are discussed, and one potentially important underlying mechanism—the failure to make adequate inferential allowance for the uncertanties of situational construal—is proposed for further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Memory for positive versus negative life events: Theories for the differences between happy and unhappy persons.

Three studies examined the following hypotheses for the relation of subjective well-being (SWB) with memory for positive versus negative life events: (1) differences in retrieval mood, (2) the incidence of positive and negative events, (3) the interpretation of events, and (4) frequency of rehearsal. In Studies 1 (n?=?420) and 2 (n?=?94), the partial correlation of retrieval mood with recall, controlling for SWB, was trivial, suggesting that mood had little or no effect on recall. Endorsement frequencies of positive minus negative concrete events and interpretive events on checklists in Studies 2 and 3 each correlated with SWB (ps?     

Alcohol and aggression: A meta-analysis on the moderating effects of inhibitory cues, triggering events, and self-focused attention.

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 49 studies to investigate 2 explanations of how alcohol increases aggression by decreasing sensitivity to cues that inhibit it. Both the level of anxiety and inhibition conflict moderated the difference between the aggressive behavior of sober and intoxicated participants, but neither level adequately accounted for variation in effect sizes. Additional analyses of 3 social psychological moderating variables—provocation, frustration, and self-focused attention—showed that the aggressiveness of intoxicated participants relative to sober ones increased as a function of frustration but decreased as a function of provocation and self-focused attention. The authors also examined the moderating effects of dose. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The cost of good fortune: When positive life events produce negative health consequences.

Previous research regarding the effects of positive life events on physical health has been inconclusive. We tested the hypothesis that positive life events have a detrimental effect on health only among people with negative self-views. This prediction derives from an identity disruption model of stress, which holds that an accumulation of life events that are inconsistent with the self-concept leads to physical illness. To test the hypothesis, we conducted 2 prospective studies in which positive life events and self-esteem were used to predict the development of illness over time. In accordance with predictions, both studies showed that desirable life changes were associated with increases in illness only among Ss with low self-esteem; among Ss with high self-esteem, positive life events were linked to better health. Implications for understanding the manner in which life events affect health are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unrealistic optimism about future life events.

In Study 1, over 200 college students estimated how much their own chance of experiencing 42 events differed from the chances of their classmates. Overall, Ss rated their own chances to be significantly above average for positive events and below average for negative events. Cognitive and motivational considerations led to predictions that degree of desirability, perceived probability, personal experience, perceived controllability, and stereotype salience would influence the amount of optimistic bias evoked by different events. All predictions were supported, although the pattern of effects differed for positive and negative events. Study 2 with 120 female undergraduates from Study 1 tested the idea that people are unrealistically optimistic because they focus on factors that improve their own chances of achieving desirable outcomes and fail to realize that others may have just as many factors in their favor. Ss listed the factors that they thought influenced their own chances of experiencing 8 future events. When such lists were read by a 2nd group of Ss, the amount of unrealistic optimism shown by this 2nd group for the same 8 events decreased significantly, although it was not eliminated. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Blaming others for threatening events.

Despite inconsistent findings, studies of how people adapt to threatening events continue to focus on the impact of self-blame. We review 25 published studies that have reported, usually as an incidental finding, the adaptational impact of blaming others for threatening events. Blaming others for one's misfortune is associated with impairments in emotional well-being and physical health. Five potential explanations for this relation are examined. Three are derived from a psychoanalytic perspective that views blaming others as a developmental diathesis. The other two—learned helplessness and excuse theory—come from the social psychology literature. We demonstrate that none of these theories explain the observed pattern of findings and that the evidence to date poses some genuine challenges to psychodynamic and social psychological theories of adaptation to life crises. We then present a model that differentiates situational factors and personal characteristics influencing the occasion for blaming others from intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that make such blaming maladaptive. A conceptual and empirical shift in focus from self-blame to other-blame may yield heuristic benefits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anxiety, depression, and the anticipation of future positive and negative experiences.

An experiment is reported that attempts to distinguish between anxious and depressive future thinking in terms of anticipation of future positive and future negative experiences. Anxious, mixed (anxious-depressed), and control participants were given an adapted verbal fluency paradigm to examine the ease with which they could think of future positive and negative personal experiences. Anxious participants differed from controls only in anticipating more future negative experiences; mixed participants showed both greater anticipation of negative experiences and reduced anticipation of positive experiences. Self-report measures of hopelessness and worry followed a similar pattern to future positive and future negative anticipation, respectively. The results are discussed in terms of the distinction between positive affect and negative affect (D. Watson, L. A. Clark, & G. Carey, 1988). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perfectionism and negative mood: The mediating roles of validation from others versus self.

This study examined a model in which the need for reassurance from others and the capacity for self-reinforcement mediated the relationships between two dimensions of perfectionism (evaluative concerns [EC] perfectionism and personal standards [PS] perfectionism) and anxiety and depression. Results from structural equation modeling of data from 295 college students from a large midwestern university indicated that the need for reassurance from others and the capacity for self-reinforcement fully mediated the relationship between EC perfectionism and anxiety as well as partially mediated the relationships between PS perfectionism and anxiety and depression. Moreover, 41% of the variance in anxiety and 50% of the variance in depression was explained by EC perfectionism, PS perfectionism, the need for reassurance from others, and/or the capacity for self-reinforcement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of performance expectancy and self-focused attention on social interaction.

Investigated the impact of performance expectancies and self-focused attention on social performance in mixed-sex dyads of 48 undergraduate men with self-reported moderate social anxiety on a modified Social Avoidance and Distress Scale. Ss were divided into 2 groups on the basis of their high or low performance expectancies. Ss were asked to respond to several self-report questionnaires before and after making a telephone call lasting 4–5 min to a female confederate for the purpose of getting acquainted. Results show that half of the Ss in each expectancy group performed in the presence of a self-focusing stimulus (video-camera). When anxiety level was controlled for, focus of attention alone had a very limited effect on performance. Expectancy had a significant influence on social performance, but only if Ss were self-focused. Thus confident Ss were rated by judges as more socially skilled than were doubtful Ss, but only when the camera was present. The interaction between these variables parallels previous research by C. S. Carver et al (see record 1980-32489-001) and Carver and M. F. Scheier (see record 1980-25774-001) and supports the self-regulation model of Carver and Scheier (1983). (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived past, present, and future control and adjustment to stressful life events.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 100(4) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2011-05716-005). There is an error on page 758. In the sentence “Present control predicted later event-specific distress in Sample 1( β = .17, p     

Depression, working models of others, and relationship functioning.

Two studies examined depressives' working models of others and the relative contribution of these models and depression to relationship functioning. Respondents reported on their childhood relationships, adult attachment style, and relationship functioning. Study 1 compared 163 mildly depressed and nondepressed college women (aged 17–48 yrs), and Study 2 compared 25 married women recovering from clinical depression with 23 nondepressed married women (mean age 40 yrs for both groups). Mildly depressed college women evidenced greater preoccupation and fearful avoidance in romantic relationships than did nondepressed women; recovering depressed women evidenced greater fearful avoidance. In both studies, relationship functioning was predicted more strongly by adult attachment style than by depression status. Among college women, positive experiences with mother also were linked to better relationship functioning; however, attachment style and depression status mediated this effect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and the response of others.

Tested the hypotheses that (a) normal Ss respond differentially to the behavior of depressed patients, (b) this differential response is due to the fact that the target individuals are depressed, and not that they are patients, and (c) this pattern can be related to the symptomatology of depression. Each of 45 normal female undergraduates conversed on the telephone with either a depressed patient ( n = 15), a nondepressed patient ( n = 15), or a normal control ( n = 15). It was found that following the phone conversation, Ss who had spoken to depressed patients were themselves significantly more depressed, anxious, hostile, and rejecting. Measures of activity, approval responses, hope statements, and genuineness did not distinguish between S groups or between target groups, but important differences were found in the Ss' perception of the patients. It was proposed that environmental response may play an important role in the maintenance of depressed behavior. Furthermore, special skills may be required of the depressed person to cope with the environment his behavior creates. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Temperament and attention: Orienting toward and away from positive and negative signals.

Two studies used a target detection task to examine temperament-related attentional biases toward and away from significant stimuli. Pretarget cues were used to orient attention to locations carrying a positive incentive value (where points could be gained) or a negative value (where points could be lost). Under both involuntary and voluntary conditions, extraverts were slow to shift attention away from positive locations, whereas introverts were slow to shift from negative locations. These biases were enhanced on trials following negative feedback and tended to be strongest in Ss high in Neuroticism. The findings support models proposing that Extraversion reflects the combined activity of positive (strongest in extraverts) and negative (strongest in introverts) incentive motivational processes. They further suggest that incentive processes regulate the ability to shift attention away from, rather than toward, significant stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender, self, and others: Perceptions of the campus environment.

Although the influence of gender roles in education has been noted by counseling psychologists, the debate over sex equity in higher education remains controversial. Research on this topic has yielded inconclusive results. In this study of 635 upper level undergraduates with varying academic majors, results indicated that greater sex bias and discrimination were reported by women, whereas greater indifference and lack of recognition were perceived by men. Students' experiences with sexual harassment and perceptions of the degree to which women were represented in the curriculum did not differ by sex. Self-esteem for both sexes and level of feminist identity development for women were associated with perceptions of the educational environment. Suggestions for prevention, intervention, and further research are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attributions for negative life events and depression: The role of perceived control.

Although perceptions of control occupied a central role in the development of learned helplessness theory, recent helplessness research has not considered controllability judgments when relating attributions to depression. Supporting the importance of this construct, the research discussed in this article found evidence that judgments of control interact with other attributions in predicting depression. Specifically, in a prospective study of stress and well-being in adolescence, internal, stable, and global attributions for negative events attributed to uncontrollable causes were found to be positively related to increases in depression (as predicted by the reformulated helplessness theory), but internal and global attributions for negative events attributed to controllable causes were found to be inversely related to increases in depression. The discussion considers the implications of the findings for understanding the nature of the relation between attributions for naturally occurring life events and depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empathy and the self: Cognitive and emotional influences on the evaluation of negative affect in others.

Used E. T. Higgins's (see record 1987-34444-001) self-discrepancy model to examine the relation of the self to empathy. In Study 1, Ss read about a target displaying either dejection or agitation because of a self-discrepancy. Ss who possessed the self-discrepancy associated with the target's distress showed greater empathic concern, made more situational attributions, and rated the target's reaction as more appropriate. In Study 2, Ss matched the target on affective and cognitive components of the self. Similarity between observer and target on emotional vulnerability was associated with both affective and cognitive empathic effects. Although similarity on attribute accessibility was associated with cognitive empathic effects, it was associated with affective effects only when the attribute produced a self-discrepancy for an observer. Then only feelings of personal distress showed differences. Results establish a link between the self and empathy and show that a number of effects grouped under empathy respond differently to different similarities between observers and targets. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)