D.Litt. et Phil. (Psychology) / Despite extensive theorizing and research into the nature and etiology of depression there still remains certain prominent and unresolved gaps in our knowledge. In spite of the broad acceptance of cognitive and cognitive behavioral factors and more specific cognitive styles and schemes in the context of the etiology and the manifestation of depression, it appears that finality has not been reached about the specific nature and content of these cognitive styles or schemes. For the purpose of this study, the construct goal-achievement expectation was formulated as being an intermediate cognitive variable or predisposing scheme which does not only signify an important function for the individual's behavior~ but which can also play an antecedent and determining role in the development of depression. In order to investigate the antecedent role of the goal achievement expectation construct, the goal-achievement expectation construct was assessed by means of a questionnaire on the basis of six operationally determined cognitive needs as conceptualized by Rotter (1954)...

Many international studies have been conducted on paediatric bipolar disorder, but few research studies have been conducted on parenting a child diagnosed with bipolar disorder, both on an international and national level. The researcher utilised Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory as the theoretical framework in exploring and describing this research field. The study has been conducted by means of a systematic review and all of the articles included in the review examined some aspect of parenting and paediatric bipolar disorder. The articles were systematically assessed, and six themes emerged which include: paediatric bipolar on the rise; the effects of paediatric bipolar disorder, post-paediatric bipolar disorder; managing paediatric bipolar disorder is a family responsibility; foundations for effective parenting; and supporting parents of a paediatric bipolar patient.

Depression is one of the most prevalent and least understood emotional problems which afflicts individuals in North American society Along with feelings of alienation and anomie, it leads the list of the modern individual's emotional complaints. It has been recognized as a problem since antiquity and descriptions of the symptoms of depression have been remarkably similar over time. Despite the general agreement in descriptions of the disorder, modern researcher, like their ancient counterparts, have consistently complained about their slow progress in understanding and treating the problem. Depression has been described as paradoxical, elusive and perplexing. (Beck, 1967) One of the most striking and perplexing aspects of depression in North America is the well established fact that women experience and are treated for depression in far greater numbers than men (Weissmand and Klerman, 1977) Many social workers in the field are well aware of the higher incidence of depression among women as they are frequently confronted by female clients who report that they feel sad, hopeless, and unable to cope with their lives. These complaints may range from mild but pervasive feelings of apathy, fatigue, boredom and gloom (frequently called the housewife's complaint) to intense and overwhelming feelings of despair which too often lead the woman to a desparate suicide attempt. Both the prevalence and the seriousness of depression in women is a cause for concern among mental health practitioners. Yet, except for research exploring forms of depression which only effect women (i.e. post partum depression) , there has been little systematic research into the causes and treatment of depression, specifically in women. However, there have been indications of greater interest in this area within the past ten years. Renewed interest has, in part, been sparked by the advent of modern feminism and feminist critiques of the mental health system' s understanding of female psychology and its treatment of troubled women. Feminists have focussed their attention on analyzing women's role in modern society and on explicating the effects which the feminine role has on the emotional difficulties which many women experience. Feminists have challenged many commonly accepted assumptions about the nature of femininity and have attacked the mental health community's acceptance of this traditional view of women. They have criticized treatment programs which are based on what they consider to be a distorted view of women and have proposed alternate ways of helping emotionally troubled women. The feminist challenge to the mental health system has special relevancy for the field of depression, the most common of all of women's psychiatric complaints. The challenge has raised many important issues for mental health practitioners. It has focussed attention the the links between women and depression and has raised questions about the ways in which practitioners analyze and treat depressed women. This paper is an attempt to examine the links between depression and women, and to look at the issues involved, in understanding and treating the problem. The first section examines the problem from the clinician and clinical researchers point of view. It looks at depression as a psychiatric problem. How prevalent is it? How is it defined? What causes it? How can it be treated? The issues which are dealt with in this section are: a) findings in the research on prevalence of depression, with particular emphasis on findings of female preponderance; b) the definition of clinical depression, the assumptions on which the definition rests and the problems involved in defining depression; and c) an examination of the 4 dominant explanatory and therapeutic schemes related to depression (organic, psychoanalytic, cognitive, and behaviorist theories). The emphasis in section C is on critically analyzing the major underlying assumptions which each theory makes in constructing and treating the depressed woman, The research evidence on which each theory rest is examined. Feminist and other critiques of the major theories of treatment approaches are presented. Section II looks at the feminist view of depression and women. Issues which are examined in this section are: a) feminist analysis and critique of the mental health community's treatment of emotionally troubled women; b) the feminist analysis of women's role in society and the relationship between women's role and depression; c) feminist approaches to working with depressed women. The focus in this section is on explicating the underlying assumptions of the feminist approach. Relevant research findings are presented as well as critiques of the feminist position. The final section summarizes those aspects of theory and practice which the author sees as significant to social workers who are working with depressed women. This section Includes a discussion of some of the conclusions which the author has reached about working with depressed women in this society, and suggestions for what the author hopes is a more integrated approach to the problem. In order to facilitate the analysis of the major issues and approaches to working with depressed women, a case example is presented in Section I and used throughout this paper. The case study is based on Sylvia Plath’s novel The Bell Jar which chronicles the life of Ester Greenwood, a 20 year old college student who becomes seriously depressed as she attempts to define her own identity as a woman and artist in 20th century North American society. This semiautobiographical novel can be taken as a document of Plath's understanding and explication of what it means to be a depressed woman. As it was written by a woman, who both endured and ultimately succumbed to that experience, it seems an appropriate choice for a case example and one which provides some insight into the desparate struggle which depressed women so often endure. The problem of depression and women is complex, and there is considerable disagreement among theoreticians, researchers and practitioners about how it can best understood and treated. the lack of clarity in the field and the conflicting approaches to the problem have implications for the women who seek help from the mental health community. As social workers, we are intimately involved in the problem of depression and women. As a profession we often, stand at the interface between the woman within her social world and the psychiatric treatment world. Frequently, it is we social workers who help a woman embark on her career as a mental patient. It is often our job to make an initial assessment of the woman 's mental state, and to extract relevant details of her life for presentation to the treatment community. In some settings, we may be engaged in the treatment process itself. We are often involved in the social ramifications of depression for the woman and her family. We may be asked to provide practical or emotional support for her, and on some occasions we are responsible for placing her children in foster care. In view of our extensive professional involvement with depressed women, It is important for us to be sensitive to the many issues in the field, and as a profession, to approach this problem with as broad and comprehensive an understanding of it as possible. It is hoped that this paper will be helpful in adding some clarity to this complex and difficult problem. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

The present study investigated the interpersonal schemata of self-criticism and interpersonal dependency as cognitive vulnerability factors to depression. The study's primary hypothesis was that dependency and self-criticism schemata remain stable at remission and that they are independent of mood. Stability in these two factors was related both to their self-report at remission and to their endurance as components influencing the information processing of patients during remission. Twenty clinically depressed individuals, 20 remitted depressives, and 20 normal controls were compared on memory tasks, a modified Stroop task, the Depressive Experience Questionnaire (DEQ) and the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (IDI). The above instruments converged to measure dependency and self-criticism. Current and remitted depressives reported significantly higher levels of self-criticism and interpersonal dependency than the normal control group, when measured by the DEQ and the IDI. Performance on the three memory tasks was more ambiguous. For the free recall task, remitted depressives recalled more self-critical traits than other traits; however, the control group also recalled more self-critical traits than dependent ones, and the current depressives did not show the predicted bias. Performance on the recognition and impression formation tasks did not support' the study's main hypothesis. For the Stroop interference scores, currently depressed individuals demonstrated a trend to have more interference on the mood-congruent cards than the normal control group. Overall, the three components of the study -- questionnaires, memory tasks and Stroop task -- elicited three different patterns of results. The DEQ and the IDI indicated the presence of self-criticism and dependency in both current and remitted depressives, and thus supported the schemata's stability and independence from mood. Performance on the memory tasks offered weak support to the proposition that remitted depressives process information according to a self-critical schema, although no evidence was obtained for the dependent schema. Results of performance on the Stroop task suggested the presence of a mood congruent attentional bias in currently depressed individuals; however, no evidence was found for a self-critical or dependent attentional bias in either groups of depressives. Two explanations are offered to interpret the conflicting findings. First, a negative mood induction may be necessary to prime the interpersonal schemata. Second, tasks that are more self-focused, such as the questionnaires, than other-focused, such as the memory and Stroop tasks, may be needed to activate the schemata. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Previous research has found little support for cognitive vulnerability factors in depression. I argue that this lack of support is due to the use of tasks that tap into effortful processes, as seen in previous research. I propose that support for cognitive vulnerability factors would be found by using tasks which tap into automatic processes. Depressive automatic processes were assessed by three tasks: dichotic listening, probe detection, and implicit memory tasks. For the dichotic listening task, subjects shadowed brief neutral passages while depression- and positive-content words were played in the unattended channel. Concurrently, subjects were required to detect the word "press" presented intermittently on a computer screen. Detection latencies were recorded. For the probe detection task, pairs of words were briefly presented on a computer screen, one appearing in the upper half of the screen, and one appearing in the bottom half. Three types of word pairs were used: neutral-neutral, depression-neutral, and positive-neutral. Subjects were asked to read the top word aloud. They were also required to detect the presence of a "+", which sometimes appeared in either location of the words. Detection latencies were recorded. For the implicit memory task, half of the subjects were presented with a list of words and were required to rate each word on how much they liked each word. Four types of words were used: depression-related, happiness-related, types of flowers, and types of diseases. These subjects were then asked to generate eight exemplars for each word type. The other half of the subjects were simply asked to generate eight exemplars for the word types. Depressive effortful processes were defined as self-report of cognitions. This was assessed by three self-report questionnaires: Dysfunctional Attitude Scale, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, and the Hopelessness Scale. Three groups of subjects were used: currently depressed patients (n=20), remitted depressed individuals (n=20), and nondepressed individuals (n=20). The currently depressed group consisted of 13 women and 7 men, the remitted depressed group consisted of 16 women and 4 men, whereas the nondepressed group consisted of 13 women and 7 men. Their ages ranged from 23 to 65 years, with an overall average of 39.9 (SD = 11.28) years. Subjects were tested individually on each of the tasks. Three months after testing, they were asked to complete the Beck Depression Inventory. Four main hypotheses were examined: (a) currently depressed individuals would show a bias for depression-related stimuli on the automatic tasks; (b) remitted depressed individuals' pattern of performance on the automatic tasks would resemble that of the currently depressed patients; (c) remitted depressed individuals' pattern of performance on the effortful tasks would resemble that of the nondepressed individuals; and (d) measures of depressive automatic processes would be predictive of follow-up depressive symptoms. Analyses of variance and regression analyses were used. The first hypothesis was not supported. The second hypothesis was only supported for the dichotic listening task. The third hypothesis was supported, whereas the fourth hypothesis was not supported. Implications of the results to schema theory, vulnerability methodology, and clinical assessment procedures were dlscussed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The present study evaluated selected aspects of recent behavioural, cognitive, and psychophysiological theories of depression. Of major concern was Lewinsohn's suggestion that a deficit in social-skill may be a critical determinant of depressive behaviour. An analysis of the concept of social skill suggests that it may involve two component processes: 1) the ability to emit situationally appropriate behaviours that others can identify and respond to discriminatively, and 2) the ability to identify and respond discriminatively to the situationally-appropriate behaviour of others. It follows from Lewinsohn's position that depressed subjects should exhibit deficits in either or both of these processes. In order to evaluate this hypothesis, three groups of subjects <— depressed, nondepressed psychiatric controls, and normal controls — participated in a two-part experiment. In the first part, which was designed to elicit various forms of facial expressive behaviour, subjects were exposed to a differential classical conditioning procedure, in which one CS was followed by presentation of a "pleasant" pictorial UCS, another CS was followed by an aversive auditory UCS, and a third CS was presented with no consequating event. Videotapes were made of subjects' facial expressions during CS presentation and continuous recordings of subjects' skin conductance and heart rate were taken. In the second part of the experiment, subjects observed the videotapes from the first session of 3 other subjects, one from each group of subjects. In this session, subjects'were required to guess, on the basis of changes in the facial expressions of the subjects observed, which of the 3 types of conditioning trial the observed subject was undergoing. During this session, subjects also estimated their anticipated performance immediately prior to undergoing each of the three sets of judgements. Results of the judgemental task indicated that depressed subjects were the most difficult of all subjects to accurately judge and that this deficit did not seem to be due to response predispositions on the part of depressed subjects. This finding was interpreted as being consistent with Lewinsohn's social-skill hypothesis, but inconsistent with Ferster's notion that the depressive is a poor observer of the environment. The three groups' estimations of their anticipated performance did not differ systematically, thus failing to support Beck's specualtion that the depressive is characterized by a generalized set of negative expectations regarding the outcome of future events. More importantly, changes in subjects' verbal ratings of their anticipated performance were highly correlated with the discrepancy between anticipated and actual performance on previous trials for all groups. This finding was inconsistent with predictions from Seligman's "learned-helplessness" model of depression. Finally, psychophysiological data indicated that depressives were electrodermally hyperresponsive in comparison with other subjects, and also exhibited an elevated tonic heart-rate. These findings were interpreted as being inconsistent with speculation that the depressive is refractory to stimulation. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Submitted in the partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Applied Master of Arts (MA) Clinical Psychology in the Department of Psychology Faculty of Arts at the University of Zululand, 1996. / In recent years, the rate of unemployment in South Africa has been steadily increasing. In 1990, it was 28 %. This percentage excluded the TBVC states and employment in subsistence agriculture which is characterised by a cyclical form of employment. In 1993 and 1994, a number of industries closed and retrenchment took place in some companies as a rationalisation strategy. This resulted in retrenchment of more than 50 000 workers excluding more than 21 000 retrenched before January 1993. The level of unemployment among Blacks is six times higher than that of whites which is 6.4 % according to the South African Living Standard and Development (Democracy in Action, 1996). In general, more women are unemployed than men. Unemployment has been linked to a number of negative psychological consequences and physical health effects including loss of self-esteem, severe depression, loss of social status, alcohol abuse, suicide, minor psychiatric morbidity and the probability of being identified as a psychiatric patient or a client. In this study the researcher focuses on unemployment and its psychological correlates: depression and low self-esteem. The aims of the study were to determine the existence of any statistically significant relationships between unemployment, depression and low self-esteem and to determine whether depression and low self-esteem are significantly related to such personal variables as age, gender, duration of unemployment and marital status. The researcher administered the questionnaires to unemployed respondents seeking employment in Unemployment Insurance Fund Offices in Johannesburg and employed respondents working at Ngwelezane Hospital, Empangeni and Portnet, Richards Bay. The study failed to find a statistically significant relationship between unemployment and either depression or low self-esteem. Both unemployed and employed respondents had similar depression and self-esteem scores. About 20.5 % and 10.3 % of unemployed and employed respondents respectively were not depressed. About 78.2 % and 89.5 % of unemployed and employed respondents respectively were mild to moderately depressed. Only 1.3 % on the unemployed respondents were severely depressed. About 41.1 % and 33.3 % of unemployed and employed respondents respectively had low self-esteem. About 58.9 % and 64.1 % of unemployed and employed respondents respectively had mild to moderate self-esteem. Only 1.3 % of the employed respondents had high self-esteem. Personal variables such as age, gender, duration of unemployment and marital status were not found to be statistically significantly related to depression and self-esteem scores obtained by the unemployed respondents. Both unemployed and employed respondents gave their experiences of being unemployed in terms of thoughts, feelings and acts. Their experiences are not different from those highlighted by other researchers with the exception of thoughts of prostitution. Their experiences ranged from loss of trust, hopelessness, helplessness, boredom, financial hardships, dependency, frustration, stigma, poverty, loss of confidence, loss of friends, unhappiness, inability to meet children's needs and to pay for their school tuition, thoughts of house breaking and stealing, to optimism and hopefulness. The researcher made the following recommendations: • Further longitudinal studies on psychological effects of unemployment that include all racial groups should be conducted. • Self-help groups that are coordinated by such mental health professionals as psychologists and social workers should be designed in the communities in order to cater for the needs of the unemployed groups. • Counselling and psychotherapy should be provided in the form of crisis intervention and brief short-tern psychotherapy to help individuals and families with debilitating symptoms associated with unemployment. • Vocational guidance material should include material on job-seeking skills. / Human Sciences Research Council

Despite depression having become such a common phenomenon in our modern-day life, there is still much that the social work profession needs to learn about it, in order to facilitate a process that will enable clients to deal not only with the immediate effects of depression but also with the changes it might bring about with regard to their families. The majority of the research conducted thus far appears to have focused on depression in women, with precious little attention to the experience of depression by male sufferers. By way of this study, the researcher aims to address these problems. It is interesting to note that we still do not really know precisely what meaning men’s family roles, such as that of fatherhood, actually hold for them. As anyone who has studied depression will know only too well, people’s perceptions of the world and of themselves change with the onset of depression. It is therefore quite possible that perceptions regarding family roles may similarly be subject to change. This study attempts to find answers to questions such as these with a view to improved future research and therapy. Constructivism forms part of a broad post-modernist approach to the social sciences. In particular, it emphasizes the importance of personal construct creation as well as the development of such construct through social processes. With its use of narrative and metaphorical techniques, it offers a unique glimpse into the construct system of the interviewee. In an effort to explore the meanings and experiences of men who are struggling with depression, three case study narratives obtained from selected persons are offered. By way of a co-construction of these stories, certain conclusions are arrived at, leading to specific recommendations for future practice and research. / Dissertation (MSD (Research))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

This study examined the relationship between sex, sex role and expression of depression. The Beck Depression Inventory, The Bem Sex Role Inventory, and the Inventory of Depressive Behaviors were administered to 589 college students. Sex differences in the expression of depression were similar to the findings of previous studies. Sex role differences in the expression of depression were found. Masculine sex role was related to expressive coping strategies along with instrumental strategies. Feminine sex role was related to behavioral and cognitive coping along with more expressive behaviors. The variance in expression of depression accounted for by sex was only partially accounted for by sex role. Undifferentiated individuals were significantly more depressed than Masculine, Feminine or Androgynous individuals, but there were no differences between the latter three groups. Thus, either masculinity or femininity appears to be associated with lower levels of depression.

No description available.