Comparing the self with others in depressed and nondepressed college students: Reply to McCauley.

Examines 2 confusions demonstrated in the comments of C. McCauley (see record 1985-28048-001) about the present authors' earlier study (see record 1984-12223-001) of social comparison processes and the false consensus. It is suggested that the contradiction in the findings of the present authors is only apparent and that the differences between depressed and nondepressed Ss on nondepression-relevant and depression-irrelevant items are nonsignificant. It is concluded that there are several interesting ways to analyze differences between ratings of self and ratings of others, each of which has a different meaning. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Analysis of activity preference in depressed and nondepressed college students.

It has been hypothesized that depressive behavior is maintained by the activities and interpersonal interactions of depressed individuals and their environment. The present study sought to determine whether depressed and nondepressed college students could be differentiated on the basis of their reported activities over a 6-day period. Ss were 20 female undergraduates with highest scores on the Depression Adjective Checklists, and 20 controls. Results of a multivariate stepwise discriminant analysis revealed that a perfect discrimination could be formed between depressed and control Ss. It is concluded that depression in a college population is correlated with small changes in many activities rather than with the large reductions in overt behavior reported for clinically depressed individuals. Results suggest the possibility of an operant component in maintaining depressive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of self-esteem manipulation on arousal and reactions to sad models in depressed and nondepressed college students.

24 depressed and 24 nondepressed college students were given spurious feedback, either positive or negative, about the results of personality tests. They then watched a film of an intensive encounter group. Psychophysiological reactions to both feedback and observation of sad film models were recorded. Depressed Ss showed greater arousal than nondepressed Ss only after negative feedback. Depressed Ss reacted emotionally to the sad models after negative feedback; nondepressed Ss, after positive feedback. Arousal results indicate that depressed Ss were particularly reactive to a "loss" of self-esteem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Classifying college students as depressed or nondepressed using the Beck Depression Inventory: An empirical analysis.

In Study 1, the classification of 150 college students as nondepressed or mildly or moderately depressed was compared using Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores obtained on 2 occasions, either on the same day or 1 wk later. Whereas the overall test–retest reliability coefficients were acceptable, particularly when both administrations occurred on the same day, the consistency of classification of Ss into the mild and moderate levels of depression was poor. In an attempt to determine the factors contributing to the poor classification consistency, a 2nd study with 207 Ss compared the effect of exposure to the BDI on subsequent BDI responses. Ss who completed the BDI on 2 occasions showed significantly lower BDI scores compared to Ss exposed to an alternate depression inventory (the Self-Rating Depression Scale [SRDS]) or no prior questionnaire. In addition, a large percentage of Ss classified as moderately depressed following the initial BDI administration failed to be classified within the moderate categories on retesting the same day. Ss tested using the SRDS maintained the same depression classification when retested on the BDI. Item analyses failed to reveal significantly different amounts of change among individual BDI items. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Processing of ambiguous and unambiguous feedback by depressed and nondepressed college students: Schematic biases and their implications for depressive realism.

Explored schematic processing as a mechanism for predicting (a) when depressed Ss would be negative relative to nondepressed Ss and (b) when depressed and nondepressed Ss would show biased or unbiased (i.e., "realistic") processing. Depressed and nondepressed Ss performed multiple trials of a task under conditions in which the 2 groups held either equivalent or different schemas regarding this task. Ss received either an unambiguous or objectively normed ambiguous feedback cue on each trial. In full support of schematic processing, depressed Ss showed negative encoding relative to nondepressed Ss only when their schemas were more negative, and both depressed and nondepressed Ss showed positively biased, negatively biased, and unbiased encoding depending on the relative feedback cue-to-schema match. Depressed and nondepressed Ss' response latencies to unambiguous feedback also supported the occurrence of schematic processing. We discuss the methodological, treatment, and "realism" implications of these findings and suggest a more precise formulation of Beck's schema theory of depression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Helplessness in children of depressed and nondepressed mothers.

Helpless behaviors in 5- to 7-year-old children of depressed and nondepressed mothers were assessed through direct observation, interviews, and teacher ratings. The affective tone the mothers set in a joint puzzle task and their tendency to encourage mastery or become intrusive when their children became frustrated at the task were also assessed. Although depressed mothers set a more negative affective tone than nondepressed mothers during solvable puzzles, there were few significant differences between the 2 groups of mothers and children. Still, mothers who were more negative and hostile and less able to encourage mastery in their children had children who exhibited more helpless behaviors in the puzzle task, who were less likely to endorse active problem-solving approaches to frustrating situations, and whose teachers rated the children as less competent and more prone to helpless behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Negative and positive cognition in depressed and nondepressed chronic-pain patients.

Examined negative and positive automatic thoughts and attributional style in 60 men (aged 21–64 yrs) who were depressed chronic-low-back-pain (CLBP) patients, nondepressed CLBP patients, or healthy controls. Ss completed measures that included the Attribution Style Questionnaire and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (S. D. Hollon and P. C. Kendall; see record 1981-20180-001). Depressed Ss exhibited significantly more negative automatic thoughts than nondepressed Ss and controls. Nondepressed Ss reported significantly more positive automatic thoughts than did depressed Ss and controls. No significant differences were found for attributional style. Different cognitive-behavioral interventions might be considered for depressed and nondepressed CLBP Ss. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Judgment of contingency: Cognitive biases in depressed and nondepressed subjects.

In this research I investigated whether the use of relevant affective outcomes influences depressed and nondepressed subjects' judgment of contingency. Similar to previous studies (Alloy & Abramson, 1979, Experiments 1 and 2), Experiments 1 and 2 confirmed that when the outcome is affectively neutral (i.e., the onset of a light) depressed subjects make accurate judgments of contingency, whereas nondepressed subjects show (in noncontingent situations) a significant illusion of control. In Experiments 3 and 4 (a contingency situation and a noncontingency situation, respectively) different types of sentences (negative self-referent, negative other-referent, positive self-referent, positive other-referent) were used as outcomes. Although depressed subjects were more reluctant to show biased judgments than were the nondepressed subjects, in noncontingency situations depressed subjects made overestimated judgments of contingency when the outcomes were negative self-referent sentences. Results are discussed with regard to current cognitive theories of depression, particularly the learned helplessness model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating the continuity of symptomatology between depressed and nondepressed individuals.

Debate is contentious concerning whether depression should be viewed as a distinct category or as a continuum including overlapping normal and clinical phenomena. A nonparametric item response model was used to evaluate whether the probability of expressing individual symptoms differed between nondepressed and clinically depressed adults experiencing similar levels of overall severity. Even though depressed and nondepressed individuals were equated in terms of overall severity, differences on specific symptoms emerged. Depressed mood, anhedonia, and suicidality were more likely to be expressed in depressed than in nondepressed individuals, whereas hypochondriasis and middle insomnia were more likely to be expressed in nondepressed individuals at similar levels of severity. Such differences are inconsistent with the view of depression as a simple continuum. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior-state matching and synchrony in mother-infant interactions of nondepressed versus depressed dyads.

Behavior-state matching and synchrony in interactions were assessed in 48 depressed and nondepressed mother–infant dyads when the infants were 3 months old. Attentive/affective behavior states were coded for the infants and mothers on a negative to positive scale. The depressed mothers and their infants matched negative behavior states more often and positive behavior states less often than did the nondepressed dyads. The total percentage of time spent in matching behavior states was less for the depressed than for the nondepressed dyads. Cross-spectral analyses of the mothers' and the infants' behavior-state time series suggested only a trend for greater coherence or synchrony in the interactions of the nondepressed dyads. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguishing depressed from nondepressed individuals using energy and psychosocial variables.

This study was conducted to determine whether energy level can be used to distinguish depressed from nondepressed individuals and to assess the relative importance of energy level and psychosocial variables in making this distinction. Fifty-seven participants experiencing a current episode of major depression and a matched sample of nondepressed participants completed a self-report questionnaire containing measures of energy level and psychosocial variables. Discriminant analysis revealed that energy level correctly classified 93% as depressed or nondepressed, whereas psychosocial variables correctly classified 87%. Combining the energy and psychosocial variables did not increase the accuracy of classification over that achieved by using only the energy measures. The measure of exhaustion provided the greatest relative contribution to the overall discriminant function. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Self-reinforcement and recall: Differential deficits in depressed and nondepressed psychiatric inpatients.

16 depressed and 12 nondepressed psychiatric inpatients and 19 nondepressed hospital employees (18–60 yrs old) were administered the Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, and a verbal recognition task. Ss' administration and recall of self-reinforcements and self-punishments were assessed. As predicted, depressed Ss administered fewer self-reinforcements and a greater number of self-punishments than hospital employees; however, they did not differ on either of these measures from nondepressed patients. In terms of recall, depressed patients recalled giving themselves fewer reinforcements and a greater number of punishments than was actually the case. Whereas a low rate of self-reinforcement may be characteristic of global psychopathology, deficits in the recall of self-reinforcement and self-punishment were specific to depression. Results are discussed with reference to both cognitive and self-reinforcement conceptualizations of depression. (30 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of failure on the self-esteem of depressed and nondepressed subjects.

Hypothesized that depressed Ss would show greater negative change in self-esteem in response to failure than nondepressed Ss, and investigated the relationship between lability and stability in mood and susceptibility of self-esteem to failure. 24 depressed and 24 nondepressed Ss completed daily mood ratings for 1 wk. and were categorized into stabile and labile groups. Each S was given a puzzle-solving task on which a 25, 50, or 75% failure condition was possible. Before and after the task, each S completed a self-esteem measure. Differences between depressed and nondepressed, stabile and labile groups did not reach statistical significance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Intuitions about situational correction in self and others.

People's attributional phenomenology is likely to be characterized by effortful situational correction. Drawing on this phenomenology and on people's desire to view themselves more favorably than others, the authors hypothesized that people expect others to engage in less situational correction than themselves and to make more extreme dispositional attributions for constrained actors' behavior. In 2 studies, people expected their peers to make more extreme dispositional inferences than they did themselves for a situationally constrained actor's behavior. People's expectation that they engage in more situational correction than their peers was diminished among Japanese participants, who have less desire to view themselves as superior to their peers (Study 3), and among participants who were led to view dispositional attributions more favorably than situational attributions (Study 4). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schematic and situational determinants of depressed and nondepressed students' interpretation of feedback.

We examined whether depressed persons' social skill deficits contribute to their negative cognitions and whether this contribution is independent of their negative schemata. Depressed (n?=?60) and nondepressed (n?=?60) Ss engaged in group discussions. We assessed Ss' social competence schemata with a questionnaire and Ss' actual level of social competence in the discussion through objective ratings made by codiscussants and outside observers. We found that independently of their negative schemata, depressed Ss' social skill deficits explained a significant portion of the variance in their more negative interpretation of feedback (relative to nondepressed Ss'). This suggests that real deficits in depressed persons' performance compound the effects of their negative schemata and further contribute to their negative cognitions. We also further explored findings by B. M. Dykman et al (see record 1989-18948-001) and P.M. Lewinsohn et al (see record 1980-12088-001). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selection of depressed and nondepressed subjects on the basis of self-report data.

Investigated whether an increase in accurate classifications could be obtained by using 2 simultaneously administered self-report measures or by several successive administrations of 1 self-report measure. 568 Ss (mean age 39.5 yrs) participated in the study. This hypothesis was supported, but the obtained increase was only moderate. A 2-stage procedure for selecting depressed Ss is recommended. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interactions of depressed college students with their roommates: Not necessarily negative.

Coyne's (1976b) interactional theory of the social environment's role in maintaining depression suggests that depressed people create negative affect in others. This leads to a pattern of interactions between depressed individuals and others that is aversive to both parties and becomes a vicious circle. We examined interactions of 15 depressed and 15 nondepressed college students with their roommates. On questionnaires, roommates did indicate more rejection, dislike, and avoidance of the depressed students than of the nondepressed students, consistent with Coyne's theory, and depressed-student–roommate interactions were more personally involved (higher percentage of self-disclosure) and less positive than nondepressed-student–roommate interactions. The moods of both depressed students and their roommates were worse than those of controls before the interaction but, contrary to expectation, improved over the course of the interaction, whereas the moods of nondepressed students and their roommates did not change significantly. Implications of these results for Coyne's theory are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating self and others in electronic and face-to-face groups.

After completing a decision task electronically or face to face, 105 students rated their own and other group members' contribution to the task completion and their degree of liking for group members. Actual contributions were the number of task relevant remarks each person contributed. Results indicated that self-ratings of contribution were more inflated and less accurate in electronic communication than in face-to-face communication. Liking accounted for significant variance in ratings of others' contributions in face-to-face groups, whereas actual contribution accounted for significant variance in ratings of others in electronic groups. Results suggest that rating biases stemming from liking are evident in ratings of others in face-to-face groups but not in electronic. Implications for online performance evaluations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)