Self-criticism in adulthood and recalled childhood experience.

Investigated in a sample of 75 medical students the hypothesis that higher levels of self-criticism, a major vulnerability factor for depression, are related to retrospective reports of less satisfactory parenting, even when the potentially confounding factors of mood state and social desirability response set are controlled. At each of 2 measurement times, there were significant cross-sectional correlations between parental ratings and both depression and self-criticism, but the associations with self-criticism were no longer significant when depression was controlled. However, even after controlling for the effects of mood state and social desirability, persons with high levels of self-criticism at both measurement points (high trait self-criticism Ss) reported significantly worse relationships with their mothers than did the remaining Ss. They were also more likely to report below average relationships with both parents jointly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression and the response of others: A re-evaluation.

Used a methodology similar to that employed by J. C. Coyne (see record 1976-22455-001) to determine whether depressed patients induce negative mood in others and elicit social rejection. 45 female undergraduates conversed for 20 min by telephone with either 15 depressed psychiatric women, 15 nondepressed psychiatric women, or 15 nondepressed women. Depression was assessed by the Self-Rating Depression Scale, and Ss were rated on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia. It was hypothesized that Ss who spoke with depressed Ss would report more negative mood (as assessed by the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List) and less willingness to interact further with their telephone partner than would Ss who spoke with nondepressed Ss. Results show that Ss were able to detect greater sadness and more problems in depressed Ss, although they themselves were not more depressed or more rejecting if they spoke with a depressed S. Present findings did not confirm those of Coyne. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood effects on attitude judgments: Independent effects of mood before and after message elaboration.

Investigated the independent effects of induced mood on the encoding of persuasive messages and on the assessment of attitude judgments. In Exp 1, positive or negative mood was induced either before the encoding of a counterattitudinal message or before the assessment of attitude judgments. When mood was induced before message presentation, Ss in a bad mood were more persuaded by strong than by weak arguments, whereas Ss in a good mood were equally persuaded by strong and by weak arguments. When Ss encoded the message in a neutral mood, however, the advantage of strong over weak arguments was more pronounced when Ss were in a good rather than in a bad mood at the time of attitude assessment. In Exp 2, Ss exposed to a counterattitudinal message composed of either strong or weak arguments formed either a global evaluation or a detailed representation of the message. Positive, negative, or neutral mood was then induced. Ss in a good mood were most likely and Ss in a negative mood least likely to base their reported attitudes on global evaluations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mood as a moderator of acceptance of interpersonal feedback.

Two studies demonstrated that feedback is likely to be accepted when its affective tone matches an individual's mood state. In Study 1, Ss in an induced positive mood were more likely to change self-ratings in the direction of positive feedback, whereas Ss in an induced negative mood were more likely to change self-ratings in the direction of negative feedback. In Study 2, after a neutral mood induction, nondepressed Ss were more likely to change self-ratings in the direction of positive feedback, whereas depressed Ss were more likely to change self-ratings in the direction of negative feedback. After a positive mood induction, both nondepressed and depressed Ss were more likely to change self-ratings in the direction of positive feedback. These results suggest that motivations for self-enhancement or self-consistency do not generally underlie acceptance of feedback. Instead, a model of accessibility of information in memory is proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unemployment and depressive affect: A motivational and attributional analysis.

Hypothesized on the basis of expectancy/valence theory that the negative affect that follows failure to obtain employment will be stronger among those individuals who are more strongly motivated to seek employment than among those who are less motivated. This hypothesis was tested by administering a questionnaire to 212 unemployed youth (mean age 19.76 yrs). Consistent with the hypothesis, results show that Ss who indicated in their ratings that they were highly motivated to get a job also provided higher ratings of depressive affect. Those Ss with higher levels of depressive affect were less likely to blame themselves for their unemployment and more likely to blame external difficulties, such as the current economic situation. They also provided higher ratings of the valence or perceived attractiveness of work itself. Their retrospective ratings concerning how confident they were of getting a job on leaving school and how much they needed and tried for a job also tended to be higher than those of the less depressed Ss. Results are discussed in relation to the expectancy/valence approach, A. T. Beck's (1967, 1976, 1979) theory of depression, helplessness theory of depression, and recent discussions of cognitive–affect linkages that employ attribution concepts. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Influence of mood on health-relevant cognitions.

Three experiments assessed the effects of mood on symptom appraisal, health behavior self-efficacy, outcome expectations, and perceptions of vulnerability. Ss in Experiments 1 and 2 were acutely ill, whereas Ss in Experiment 3 were healthy. In each experiment, happy, sad, and neutral moods were induced. In Experiment 1, Ss who experienced sadness reported more aches and pains and greater discomfort than happy Ss. Sad Ss were less confident that they could carry out illness-alleviating behaviors. Experiments 2 and 3 demonstrated that mood's influence of vulnerability perceptions is moderated by health status. Although mood had little impact on perceptions of vulnerability among ill Ss, probability estimates of future negative health-relevant events among healthy Ss were mood sensitive. Seeing oneself as invulnerable to future negative events was accentuated among happy Ss and attenuated among sad Ss. Mood may be an important determinant of care seeking, adherence, and recovery from illness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's judgments of their own and their peers' academic competence.

A standardized open-ended interview was used to study how 96 4–8 yr old children judged their own and their classmates' abilities. Ss were asked to explain how they knew who in their class was best and who was worst at various tasks and who was the best and who was the worst thinker. Ss also rated themselves and their classmates on how smart each was and explained their ratings. Content analyses of responses revealed that younger Ss, particularly males, were more likely than older Ss to refer to sociability in their ability judgments; they were less likely to base their judgments on social comparisons or on the difficulty level of the task. Ss at all age levels frequently explained ability judgments in terms of effort or work habits, although work habits tended to be referred to less by preschool-age Ss than by older Ss. Ss' ratings of their own ability declined with grade; ratings for peers were lower than self-ratings and did not change as a function of grade level. Self-ability ratings of Ss in kindergarten through the 3rd grade and their ratings of classmates were significantly correlated to teacher ratings of relative academic standing. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multimethod comparison of popular and unpopular children.

Differences between 101 popular and unpopular 3rd and 4th graders were assessed by teacher reports, classroom observations, the Peabody Individual Achievement Test, the Children's Depression Inventory, ratings on role-play situations, interviews that elicited information on Ss' knowledge of social skills, and responses to hypothetical situations. Unpopular Ss were perceived as being more depressed and deviant by teachers than were popular Ss. Classroom observations indicated that unpopular Ss spent significantly less time on-task than popular Ss and engaged in significantly more negative interactions. There was a trend for popular Ss to perform at a higher academic level than unpopular Ss, and the latter Ss were more depressed than Ss in the former group. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventing relapse to cigarette smoking by behavioral skill training.

Two relapse prevention conditions (skills training vs discussion control) were crossed with 2 levels of aversive smoking (6- vs 30-sec inhalations). 135 smokers were recruited, and 123 of them completed treatment. Ss completed an assessment battery that included the Profile of Mood States and the State–Trait Anxiety Inventory. Differences in abstinence rates and in number of cigarettes smoked favoring the skills training condition were found at 6 and 52 wks from study start. Analyses indicated that at 52 wks, lighter smokers (20 cigarettes/day or fewer at pretreatment) were more likely to be favorably affected by the skills training condition than heavier smokers. Ss assigned to the skills training condition were more likely to report use of coping skills, but they did not differ from the discussion condition in perceived costs and benefits of change or of smoking, or in mood dysphoria or physical complaints. Abstinent Ss reported less mood disturbance than nonabstinent Ss at Weeks 3, 6, and 26 and fewer physical complaints at Week 52. The relation of these findings to a model of maintenance of therapeutic change is discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of induced mood on diagnostic interviewing: Evidence for a mood and memory effect.

Examined the extent to which experimentally induced mood influenced the report of lifetime symptoms of major depression and dysthymia as assessed by a computerized version of the National Institute of Mental Health Diagnostic Interview Schedule. 83 female undergraduates received a "happy" or "sad" mood induction. Ss in the sad condition reported significantly more lifetime symptoms of major depression and dysthymia than did Ss in the happy condition. Although more Ss in the sad condition received diagnoses of major depression, dysthymic disorder, or depression not otherwise specified than did Ss in the happy condition, this difference was not significant. In addition, no difference was found in the report of lifetime symptoms of a manic episode, providing evidence for the specificity of the mood induction. Implications of these results for structured diagnostic interviews and suggestions for future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of mood states, costs, and benefits on helping.

263 college students participated in a factorial experiment designed to test the hypotheses that mood states interact with costs and with benefits in determining helping. Positive and negative mood states were induced by varying the difficulty of a bogus aptitude test; neutral-mood (control) Ss did not take the test. Benefits for helping were manipulated by asking Ss to collect donations for a worthwhile charity (the American Cancer Society) or to a less worthwhile charity (Little League baseball). In the high-costs-for-helping condition, Ss were asked to collect donations by going door to door, whereas in the low-cost condition, Ss were asked to sit at donations desks. Pretests indicated that the manipulations effectively induced the intended mood states, costs, and benefits. The results generally support the hypotheses. Positive-mood Ss volunteered more than neutral-mood Ss, and whether negative-mood Ss volunteered more or less than neutral-mood Ss depended on the costs and benefits. It is suggested that the seemingly conflicting results of previous investigations of negative mood and helping can be explained by interactions of mood states with costs and with benefits. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of depressed mood on eating among obese and nonobese dieting and nondieting persons.

Induced a depressed or nondepressed mood in obese and nonobese dieters and nondieters (18 male and 38 female undergraduates). Ss were administered a battery of measures, including the Beck Depression Inventory and Depression Adjective Check List. As predicted, dieters ate more when depressed than when nondepressed, and nondieters ate less when depressed than when nondepressed. That is, both groups reversed their typical eating patterns when depressed. Also as predicted, among depressed Ss, dieters ate more than nondieters; among nondepressed Ss dieters ate less that nondieters. This pattern of results was found for both obese and nonobese Ss. Dieting habits were highlighted as a more salient variable than obesity in predicting eating responses to depressed mood. Findings are discussed with respect to the psychosomatic theory of obesity, the stimulus-binding theory of obesity, previous investigations of clinical depression, and the theory of restrained eating. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Constraints on the effects of mood on memory.

In Study 1, pleasant and unpleasant personality trait words and abstract nouns were encoded in neutral mood and recalled in either induced depressed or induced happy mood, using 32 female and 32 male undergraduates assigned in equal numbers to 1 of the 4 conditions. Females recalled more pleasant than unpleasant words when in a happy mood and more unpleasant than pleasant words when in a depressed mood. Males failed to show this effect. Both sexes responded equally well to the induction procedures. There were no sex differences in pleasantness ratings of the words to be recalled. A prediction that differential effects of mood on recall would be greater for trait words than abstract nouns was not confirmed. In Study 2, everyday usage ratings by 36 Ss from Study 1 were obtained for the trait words from Study 1. Females gave higher usage ratings than males and, within the females, usage predicted the extent to which a word was preferentially recalled in a congruent mood state. Findings are discussed in relation to the associative network model of mood and memory, sex differences in depression, and cognitive vulnerability to depression. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Presleep mood and dream recall.

Studied evening mood rating sheets and dream diaries for 5 days during a 2-wk period, obtained from 67 college women. Dream recall at home was more likely to occur on mornings preceded by presleep mood ratings that were relatively negative; this was particularly true for infrequent dream recallers. Results fail to support repression hypotheses of dream recall that derive from Freud's "afterexpulsion" concept. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that presleep mood affects the salience, and thus the recallability, of the dream experience. Negative presleep mood was associated with more unpleasant dreams (characterized by threat, helplessness, and vulnerability), especially for Ss reporting lower overall self-confidence. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expressed emotion, social skill, and response to negative affect in schizophrenia.

Examined social skills and social perception of 48 schizophrenia/schizoaffective disorder patients (aged 18–55 yrs) in response to negative affect as a function of family expressed emotion (EE). Ss participated in a role-play test, a social perception test, and a problem-solving discussion with a family member and were assessed on several measures of symptomatology. EE of family members was evaluated with the Camberwell Family Interview. On the role-play test, Ss with less critical relatives became more assertive in response to increased negative affect from a confederate portraying either a family member or friend, but Ss with highly critical relatives did not. Ss with highly critical relatives were also less assertive when confronted with negative affect from a confederate portraying a family member rather than a friend. The behaviors of both relatives and Ss during a family problem-solving interaction were related to the EE dimensions of criticism, emotional overinvolvement, and warmth. Patient gender was also related to family problem solving but was independent of EE. S's ratings of affect on a videotaped social perception task were not related to family EE, and there were few differences in psychopathology between Ss with high and low EE relatives.… (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of client preference and expectancy upon the initial interview.

Used a 2 * 3 design with 10 Ss per cell to show how initial counseling interview process and outcome are affected by (a) assigning clients to either more preferred or less preferred counselors; (b) giving clients either positive, nonexistent, or negative expectancy inductions regarding their counselor assignments; and (c) congruence and incongruence between clients' expectations and experiences. Process and outcome were assessed using client and counselor self-report measures and audiotape segment ratings. More preferred assignment conditions received more favorable tape ratings than did less preferred assignment conditions. Positive or no-expectancy conditions revealed a more favorable counseling outcome than did negative expectancy conditions. Most Ss showed increased preferences for counselors seen despite congruence or incongruence between their expectations and experiences. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive-behavioral intervention increases abstinence rates for depressive-history smokers.

Describes the test of the hypothesis that a cognitive-behavioral mood management intervention would be effective for smokers with a history of major depressive disorder (MDD). The method was randomized trial; the assessments occurred at Weeks 0, 8, 12, 26, and 52. Ss were 149 smokers (aged 18–65 yrs); 31% had a history of MDD. All received 2 mg of nicotine gum. Mood management was provided in 10 group sessions over 8 wks. Standard treatment was provided in 5 group sessions over 8 wks. Outcome was continuous abstinence. History-positive Ss were more likely to be abstinent when treated with mood management. Treatment condition differences were not significant for history-negative Ss. For history-positive Ss, less anger at baseline predicted abstinence. For history-negative Ss, more years smoked and higher baseline carbon monoxide predicted abstinence. Cognitive-behavioral therapy did not affect mood after quitting. Abstinence predictors differed as a function of baseline diagnosis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sexual fantasies of child molesters.

Investigated the mood accompanying sexual fantasies, and the way in which the other person in the fantasy was perceived, by 21 child molesters, 19 rapists, and 19 non-sexual offenders. Child molesters did not differ from other Ss in their perceptions of adults in their fantasies, and the adult fantasy was perceived more positively than the child fantasy. Child molesters were more likely to fantasize about children when in a negative emotional state than when in a positive mood, and these fantasies were likely to produce a negative mood state. Child molesters may fantasize about a child as an inappropriate way of coping with dysphoric moods, thus enhancing that dysphoria and leading to further inappropriate fantasies. Results suggest that sexual fantasy monitoring should become an important component in the treatment of child molesters. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relapse crises and coping among dieters.

We examined situational antecedents of dieting relapse crises and dieters' attempts to cope with temptations to overeat. We analyzed postreatment interviews with 57 obese Ss with Type II diabetes, comparing situations in which Ss lapsed with those in which they overcame temptation to overeat. Cluster analysis yielded 3 categories of relapse crises: mealtime, low-arousal, and emotional upset situations. The cluster differed in outcome: Upset situations almost always resulted in overeating; situational factors, especially food-related cues, increased relapse risk; but performance of coping was the strongest correlate of outcome. Cognitive and behavioral coping responses were each equally associated with positive outcomes. When Ss reported combining both types of coping, they were less likely to report overeating. The dynamics of relapse crises among dieters resemble those that govern relapse crises in addictive behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)