The self-referent encoding task (SRET) was employed to investigate the content and stability of the depressive self-schema. Two central hypotheses were proposed: the depressive self-schema is characterized by anxiety, as well as, depressive content; and certain aspects of the depressive self-schema remain stable across time and across remitted depressed mood. Study 1 ensured the appropriateness of the stimulus adjectives for the SRET. Forty-five undergraduates rated adjectives on the properties of anxiety, depression, emotional intensity, social desirability, and imagery. These adjectives formed four word conditions: anxiety-content, depression-content, negative-content, and positive-content. Multivariate analysis suggested that these four word conditions were roughly equated for word length, word frequency, and ratings of imagery, and emotional intensity, but were distinguishable with respect to their ratings of anxiety, depression, and social desirability. Study 2 employed the SRET as a potential method of documenting the relationship between anxiety and depression. Twenty-two moderately depressed, 40 mildly depressed, and 26 nondepressed undergraduates rated randomly presented sets of adjectives (described in Study 1) as to their self-descriptiveness. Both the types of self-descriptors and the rating times were recorded for this SRET. This task was followed by an intentional recall task for the adjectives, and the number of recalled words per adjective set was recorded. Multivariate analyses suggested that the nondepressed subjects showed a schematic bias in their processing of the positive-content words. Although the two depressed groups showed a bias in the processing of the depression-content words, this bias was not found in the processing of the anxiety-content words. These results were discussed in terms of the utility of the SRET for the domain of anxiety. Study 3 asked which aspects of depresssive schematic processing remain constant across time and across remitted depressed mood. Subjects from Study 2 were reassessed approximately three months after they had first completed the SRET. Among nondepressed subjects who remained nondepressed and depressed subjects who remained depressed, highly consistent schematic processing was observed across the two testing sessions. Among subjects who were depressed at the first testing session but were no longer depressed at the second testing session, these subjects no longer rated the depression-content adjectives as self-descriptive. However their decision latencies for the four groups of adjectives remained stable across the two testing sessions. Implications of these results were discussed in terms of cognitive structures as causal markers in depression. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

Coyne's interactional formulation of depression (Coyne, 1976) states that the demands for support of the depressed individual are initially met with understanding but that over time, depressed persons engender increasingly negative reactions from others. The rejection of the depressed person is said to be mediated by a depressed mood induction in the other person. Coyne's model is primarily concerned with interactions involving family and friends of the depressed person, but in the past it has consistently been tested in laboratory situations examining interactions between strangers. The present study attempted to examine subjects' reactions to interaction with a depressed person, within the context of simulated relationships between friends or between strangers. It distinguished between compliance and initiation as expressions of rejection, and investigated the controversial issue of whether or not rejection is mediated by a depressed mood induction. An exploratory aspect of the study involved an inquiry into the potential role of interpersonal needs in the response to depressed individuals. The study was twofold: in the first part, the stimulus consisted of a videotaped interaction between two trained actresses portraying a depressed woman and a non-depressed woman in the experimental condition, and two non-depressed women in the control condition. In the second part, the same interactions were described in written scenarios. Subjects were instructed to imagine themselves as the non-depressed person interacting with the target person, as either strangers or best friends. Thus, the study consisted of two parallel 2X2 designs. Subjects completed the Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist, the Wessman-Ricks Depression-Elation Scale, and the Mehrabian-Russell Semantic Differential at pretest and posttest to measure mood induction. Need for nurturance and need for autonomy were measured at pretest with the Interpersonal Adjective Scale, the Jackson Personality Research Form and the Campbell Need Scale. Posttest acceptance-rejection measures included a modified version of the Opinion Scale and the Impact Message Inventory. Results indicated that interactions with depressed individuals elicit a diffuse negative mood, more so in the context of relationships between friends, in the case of the written scenarios method. Depressed targets were also more rejected than non-depressed targets, but contrary to predictions intimacy decreased the degree of rejection. Rejection was not differentiated into the two concepts of compliance and initiation; however, results pointed to two distinct aspects of rejection - a behavioral aspect and a perceptual one. Mood induction appeared to be related only to the perceptual aspect of rejection, and not to the more salient behavioral one. The contribution of interpersonal needs to rejection appears equivocal; if indeed needs play a role in the mediation of rejection, need for nurturance seems to be more involved than need for autonomy. Although no Method effects were predicted, levels of intimacy were apparently not successfully reproduced in the videotaped stimuli. The two methods at times yielded different results, and further research will clarify their respective external validity. In light of the results of the present study, Coyne's model was in part supported but appears to be in need of serious revisions concerning the mediation of rejection and the effect of intimacy on rejection. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

The purpose of this study was to evaluate Tucker's hypothesis of differential hemispheric functioning in depression, the validity of Beck's cognitive theory and Lewinsohn's behavioral theory of depression for clinically depressed subjects, and the relationship between hemispheric functioning and cognitive-behavioral functioning throughout a period of hospitalization for depression. A 3x2x2x3 repeated-measures study was conducted with 48 right-handed subjects in three groups: depressed, normal and psychiatric comparison. Each group contained an equal number of males and females. To test for right hemisphere functioning, subjects were administered a dichotic stimulation test (Musical Chords) in which the left ear (right hemisphere) has previously proven superior in normal right-handers. A dichotic test in which the right ear is normally superior (Word Triads) was administered as a control. A righthemrsphere cognitive test (Flags) was also administered, with a left hemisphere cognitive test (Word Fluency) as a control. A Cognitive Distortion Questionnaire was used to measure depressives' cognitions within Beck's typology, and a short version of the Pleasant Events Schedule was used to measure response-contingent positive reinforcement within Lewinsohn's theoretical framework. Patients were tested at admission to hospital, 10-13 days later, and at discharge, in order to observe changes in hemispheric, cognitive and behavioral functioning, at intervals ranging from severe depression to recovery. On both dichotic tests, depressives failed to obtain normal ear superiorities at admission to hospital, but did so by discharge. Flags scores of depressives were low at each trial, while Word Fluency was unimpaired at any time. These results suggest that two different processes, one acute and one chronic, are operating during depression. An acute interhemispheric process apparently affects both hemispheres, producing a breakdown in normal asymmetries for processing mode. With treatment, this acute process abates, and normal asymmetries once again emerge. A second process apparently involves chronic inhibition of certain right hemisphere cognitive functions. This could represent a neurogenic index of psychiatric vulnerability within depression-prone individuals. Consistent with Beck's cognitive theory, depressives demonstrated a high degree of cognitive distortion at admission to hospital. However, since at discharge depressives no longer demonstrated cognitive distortion, the study provided no evidence that cognitive distortion is a characteristic of depression-prone persons. However, more research is needed to assess the validity of the cognitive distortion measure employed in the study. Consistent with Lewinsohn's behavioral theory, depressives demonstrated a low rate of response-contingent positive reinforcement at admission to hospital and increased reinforcement rate by discharge. However, since reinforcement rate of normals dropped across trials while their mood level did not, these results do not provide clear support for Lewinsohn's theory. No significant relationship was found between changes in hemispheric' functioning and changes in either cognitive distortion or reinforcement rate. No sex differences were found in any of the variables under consideration. The necessity for using multiple measures of hemispheric functioning is discussed, and suggestions for future research are proposed. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis (M.A. in Psychology)--Vanderbilt University, Aug. 2001. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-143).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Marquette University, 2009. / Stephen M. Saunders, Michael Wierzbicki, Lucas Torres, Leah Arndt, Advisors.