Interpersonal perceptions and consequences of depressive-significant other relationships: A naturalistic study of college roommates.

Investigated social perceptions and consequences of depression and anxiety in roommate relationships. Mildly depressed, anxious but nondepressed, and nondepressed-nonanxious students (targets) and normal, same-sex roommates (79 roommate pairs) (1) rated the interpersonal impact on themselves of typical associations with their roommates and (2) judged their own interpersonal impact. Only depressed men received negative evaluations and emotional reactions from their roommates. However, depressed women reported more negative reactions to their normal roommates than vice versa. Finally, depressed targets perceived their interpersonal impact negatively, whereas their normal roommates perceived their own interpersonal impact as overly positive. These findings suggest that negative relationships between depressives and nondepressed others may be attributable, at least in part, to both participants' misperceptions of their social behavior and its consequences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A prospective test of an integrative interpersonal theory of depression: A naturalistic study of college roommates.

This study tested an integrated interpersonal theory of depression, which combines J. C. Coyne's (1976) interpersonal theory of depression with work on the interplay between self-enhancement and self-consistency theory. Students' (targets') and their same-gender roommates' appraisals of each other, depression and anxiety levels, reassurance seeking, and negative feedback seeking were assessed at Time 1 (T1), and again at Time 2 (T2), 3 wks later. Consistent with the theoretical integration (1) depressed targets reported engaging in more negative feedback seeking than nondepressed targets, and tended to report seeking more reassurance than nondepressed targets at T1; (2) for male (but not female) targets, the combination of negative feedback seeking, high reassurance seeking, and depression at T1 predicted T1 to T2 increases in rejection by roommates; and (3) rejection effects applied to depressive symptoms, but not anxious symptoms or anhedonic mood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When depression breeds contempt: Reassurance seeking, self-esteem, and rejection of depressed college students by their roommates.

To test J. C. Coyne's (1976) theory of depression, students' levels of depressive symptoms, reassurance seeking, and self-esteem were assessed at Time 1, and their same-gender roommates' apprasials of them were assessed 5 wks later. Mildly depressed students engaged in the type of reassurance seeking described by Coyne. Among men, but not women, mildly depressed Ss were rejected if they strongly sought reassurance and had low self-esteem but not if they did not seek reassurance or had high self-esteem. Although induction of depressed symptoms in roommates did occur, this contagion effect did not account for the depression-rejection relationship. The prediction that unsupportive, intolerant, or unempathic others would be particularly likely to respond with rejection to reassurance-seeking depressed Ss with low self-esteem received partial support. Implications for future work on the interpersonal aspects of depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contagious depression: Existence, specificity to depressed symptoms, and the role of reassurance seeking.

This study prospectively examined the phenomenon of contagious depression in 96 pairs of college roommates during 2 assessment sessions separated by 3 wks. Depression, anxiety, negative and positive affect, negative life stress, and reassurance seeking were assessed. Consistent with prediction, roommates of depressed target students became more depressed themselves over the course of the 3-wk study. The effect persisted when baseline levels of roommate depression and roommate negative life events were controlled. Furthermore, these findings were specific to depressed symptoms. Finally, as predicted, reassurance seeking served as a vulnerability factor for the contagion effect: High- but not low-reassurance-seeking roommates of depressed target students became more depressed themselves. However, the moderating effects of reassurance seeking were not specific to depressed symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Induction of depressive affect after prolonged exposure to a mildly depressed individual.

Administered the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to 44 undergraduate roommate pairs during the 1st, 5th, and 11th wks of a 13-wk quarter. 22 pairs contained mildly or moderately depressed Ss; the other 22 pairs contained only nondepressed Ss (NSs). These mildly or moderately depressed Ss included 8 unremitted depressives and 14 transient-remitted depressives. Analyses indicated that after 5 wks and 11 wks of living together, the roommates of unremitted depressives had significantly higher BDI scores than NSs. Moreover, their BDI scores at 5 and 11 wks were significantly higher than they were at the 1st wk. Results also show that at 5 and 11 wks the BDI scores of the roommates of transient-remitted persons were significantly higher than scores of NSs. Possible causes for this induction of depressive affect include direct induction stemming from day-to-day contact, a modeling process, or increased dysphoria associated with an unhappy roommate relationship. (9 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social comparison and depression: Company's effect on misery.

Two studies examined the social comparison processes of 50 depressed and 48 nondepressed college students selected on the basis of their scores on the Beck Depression Inventory. In the 1st study, Ss' preferences for information from others were assessed after they had received a manipulation intended to improve or worsen their mood states. The responses of the depressed Ss provide evidence of downward comparison: They indicate a preference for information from people who were experiencing negative affect, but only when they themselves were also experiencing relatively negative affect, not when their moods had been temporarily improved. In the 2nd study, Ss' moods were assessed before and after they had received information indicating another person was currently experiencing highly negative affect. This information had little effect on the nondepressed Ss; however, the mood states of the depressed Ss improved after they read the information. Results suggest that realizing that others are doing worse may help depressed persons to feel somewhat better. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The price of soliciting and receiving negative feedback: Self-verification theory as a vulnerability to depression theory.

The hypothesis that people who seek and receive negative feedback are vulnerable to increases in depressed symptoms was tested among 100 undergraduates and their roommates. Students and roommates completed questionnaires on their views of each other and on their own levels of negative feedback seeking, depressed and anxious symptoms, negative and positive affect, and self-esteem. Three weeks later, students and roommates completed the same questionnaires. Results were, in general, consistent with prediction. Students who reported an interest in their roommates' negative feedback and who lived with a roommate who viewed them negatively were at heightened risk for increases in depressed symptoms. These results could not be explained in terms of the variables' relations to trait self-esteem. The symptom specificity of the effect was moderately supported. Implications for work on interpersonal vulnerability to depression are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Depression, self-focused attention, and expectancies for positive and negative future life events for self and others.

In two studies, we examined depressed and nondepressed persons' judgments of the probability of future positive and negative life events occurring to themselves and to others. Study 1 demonstrated that depressed subjects were generally less optimistic than their nondepressed counterparts: Although nondepressed subjects rated positive events as more likely to happen to themselves than negative events, depressed subjects did not. In addition, relative to nondepressed subjects, depressed subjects rated positive events as less likely to occur to themselves and more likely to occur to others and negative events as more likely to occur to both self and others. Study 2 investigated the role that differential levels of self-focused attention might play in mediating these differences. On the basis of prior findings that depressed persons generally engage in higher levels of self-focus than nondepressed persons do and the notion that self-focus activates one's self-schema, we hypothesized that inducing depressed subjects to focus externally would attenuate their pessimistic tendencies. Data from Study 2 supported the hypothesis that high levels of self-focus partially mediate depressive pessimism: Whereas self-focused depressed subjects were more pessimistic than nondepressed subjects, externally focused depressed subjects were not. The role of attentional focus in maintaining these and other depressive pessimistic tendencies was discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal consequences of depression: Responses to men and women enacting a depressed role.

To investigate interpersonal consequences of depressed behavior, telephone interactions were conducted between same- and opposite-sex pairs of 62 male and 64 female undergraduates. In each pair, one person enacted a depressed or nondepressed role. The content of the 2 roles differed only in the presence or absence of characteristically depressive affect and attitudes. Ratings of interest in further contact, personal rejection, and perceived impairment of role functioning all revealed a similar pattern: Depressed persons were more strongly rejected than nondepressed persons, especially by persons of the opposite sex. Interactions with depressed persons elicited significantly more depression in the listener than did interactions with nondepressed persons. Moreover, significantly more feminine traits were attributed to depressed than nondepressed persons. The responses of others to depressed individuals are discussed with respect to their implications for conceptualizing and treating depression. The results also have implications for the understanding of sex differences in the epidemiology of depression. (24 ref) (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)     

Depression and the response of others: Reevaluating the reevaluation.

Reviews an attempted replication of J. C. Coyne's (see record 1976-22455-001) study on depression and the response of others by D. A. King and K. Heller (see record 1985-06798-001) who found that depressed individuals were not rejected, nor did they induce negative moods. The present article reevaluates King and Heller's characterization of the literature and reveals that rejection of depressed persons is consistent across studies and methodologies. On the other hand, mood inductions are less reliable, tend to be diffuse rather than specific, and probably do not mediate rejection. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

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)     

Schema congruence and depression: Loss of objectivity in self- and other-inferences.

Depressed and nondepressed students judged the plausibility of positive and negative inferences ostensibly made either by themselves or by others. Negative self-inferences were judged by depressed students as more plausible, and positive other-inferences as less plausible. The results were in accord with Beck's (1967) theory of schema-based distortion in depression, which proposes that persons vulnerable to the development of depression are prone to make erroneous negative inferences and to then regard those inferences as plausible and correct. The results also suggested that depressed persons responded differentially depending on whether they were instructed to consider the inferences as their own or another's, whereas nondepressed persons did not. (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)     

Depression and marital interaction: Concordance between intent and perception of communication.

This study was designed to examine the perceptions and recall of interpersonal communications in marital dyads with a clinically depressed spouse. Nine depressed and 10 nondepressed psychiatric outpatients and 10 nondepressed nonpsychiatric controls interacted with their spouses, both partners simultaneously coding as positive, neutral, or negative both the intended impact of their own communications and the perceived impact of their spouses' messages. Using videotapes of the interactions, observers also coded each message. Analyses suggested that compared with nondepressed subjects, depressed patients have a negative perception of their environment. Although the depressed patients intended and perceived a lower percentage of positive messages and a higher percentage of negative messages, their recall of their coding was accurate. In addition, although they coded and estimated lower concordance than did subjects in the two nondepressed groups, they tended to overestimate their concordance, as did all of the other participants. The observers' coding did not discriminate between groups but was more negative than the participants' self- or the spouse-ratings. Implications of these results both for theories of depression and for approaches to treatment are discussed. (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)     

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)     

Decision style in depression: The contribution of perceived risks versus benefits.

The present study investigated the contribution of cognitive and social factors to the decision style of depressed persons. During two sessions (Times 1 and 2), depressed and nondepressed college students were asked to imagine themselves making decisions about common life situations that afforded potential benefits but that also entailed potential risks. The decision scenarios varied in content. For each situation, subjects evaluated several potential risks and benefits and indicated what decisions they would make. In both sessions and for all types of decision scenarios, the depressed assigned greater weight to risks than did the nondepressed. Furthermore, for decisions about initiating social contact and establishing intimacy, the depressed expressed a greater reluctance to take the target action than did the nondepressed, and their perceptions of risks appeared to influence their estimated decisions more strongly. The Time 2 study also revealed that most of these differences applied equally when individuals were thinking about themselves or another person. However, risk perceptions were found to contribute more to the decision style of the depressed, relative to the nondepressed, only when their thoughts were focused on themselves and not when their thoughts were focused on another person. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interpersonal betrayal and cooperation: Effects on self-evaluation in depression.

Assessed the effect of interpersonal betrayal and cooperative social interaction on self-evaluation processes among 54 female undergraduates scored as depressed or nondepressed on the Self-Rating Depression Scale. Depressed Ss who experienced interpersonal betrayal in a prisoner's dilemma game were more critical of their performance on a subsequent task than were nondepressed Ss or depressed Ss who had experienced a cooperative interaction. Depressed Ss in the betrayal condition also behaved more aggressively toward their betraying partner than did nondepressed betrayed Ss. Depressed Ss were more critical of their own personality characteristics than were nondepressed Ss, regardless of condition. Results suggest that some negative cognitive schema among depressed persons may be altered by interpersonal factors, although it is not clear whether such effects are secondary to increases in self-criticism after conflict or to decreases in self-critical tendencies after positive interaction. Researchers are urged to use multiple, diverse measures of self-evaluation in future efforts to study variability in self-appraisal. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)