Objective To investigate men's experience of depression. Method A non-clinical sample of male teachers and students was recruited from a tertiary education institution to participate in a series of focus groups. Women were recruited from the same context to examine issues common to men. The men's data were analysed using a grounded theory approach to illuminate men's experience of depression. Theoretical sampling of biographical accounts of a small group who had experienced clinical depression (the 'clinical' group) was conducted to explicate the core category. Content analysis was then used to examine the women's data for similarities and contrasts and issues common to men. Standard measures of mood and dispositional optimism (together with sociodemographic and behavioural data) were collected to confirm the non-clinical status of the sample. Results The key results were as follows: (i) The non-clinical sample of men and women in this study reported all the symptoms of depression classified by the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Version IV). (ii) In addition, men reported experiencing social withdrawal, and an escalation and intensification of negative emotion that may be triggered by negative thoughts or external events leading to anger and violence towards the self and others. (iii) The trajectory of emotional distress, conceptualised as the 'big build', links men's experience and expression of depression. (iv) 'Intensified constraint', illuminating the process of the 'big build', helps to explain the 'battle' between individual and social forces that influences hidden depression in men. (v) 'Intensified constraint' may be considered a state (emotional condition) characterising men or a symptom (subjective experience) of depression common to men. (vi) Non-resolution of problems, exacerbated by social conditioning of men to suppress emotion, leads to delayed help-seeking. (vii) The women's data were in concordance with the men's data that suggest that men and women experience depression similarly (with reference to DSM-IV criteria). (viii) The 'big build', as a trajectory of emotional distress and maladaptive strategies to ameliorate depressive symptoms, has salience for women. (ix) Gender differences in depression may be explained by the expression of depressive symptoms, and the time frame in which the symptoms are managed. Discussion This study arose out of the commonly held view that women report depressive symptoms at higher rates than men yet men demonstrate higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse and self-harm, referred to as 'depressive equivalents'. This generally accepted disparity of prevalence rates of depression in community samples makes certain assumptions about the mental health of men and women. Women are assumed to have a certain 'pathology' or vulnerability to depression while men are assumed to be either comparatively healthy or 'silent' to their experience. The perception of depression as a 'feminine' problem by men, exacerbated by social conditioning of men (by men and women) to suppress emotional distress and to hide signs of weakness, may influence men's reporting of depressive symptoms and may help to explain the gender disparity. The non-clinical group of men and women in this study has taken us to a point in their descriptions of depression as an objectified or reified 'it' that is something difficult to articulate but which is psychologically painful, to be avoided, numbed or from which to escape. The biographical accounts of a small group of people who have experienced clinical depression (the 'clinical' group) have explicated the meaning of depression even further. Depression, viewed by this articulate small group as 'beyond description', is elucidated by their use of metaphor. The data from the non-clinical group, informed by the 'clinical' group and the literature surrounding depression in men, is synthesised, analysed and interpreted. The findings inform three propositions - the 'big build', 'intensified constraint', and 'averting negative consequences' - that offer new ways of thinking about depression in men. Conclusion The inextricable link between the experience and expression of depression as described by men, confirmed by women and supported by the literature and clinicians' impressions, may explain the existing gap between the 'meaning', 'manifestation' and 'measurement' of depression in men. Questions that tap in to men's trajectory of emotional distress, incorporating a state or symptom of intensified constraint common to men, could narrow the gender differences in reported depressive symptoms. This has implications for the design of measurement instruments and approaches to depressed men in clinical practice.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of New South Wales, 2003. / Also available online.

In response to calls for much needed research on the relation between gender role conflict and therapy or counselling this study examined the relation between gender role conflict and the types of therapy that men prefer for the treatment of depression, comparing men scoring high and low on the gender role conflict scale. The study also examined whether exposure of men reporting high or low gender role conflict to either emotion-focused or thought-focused therapy through the use of a counselling video influences subsequent preference for type of therapy, and the role of coping as a mediator in the relationship between gender role conflict and therapy preference. Furthermore, the study examined traditional men’s perspectives on therapy focussing in particular on issues inherent in living with the experience of depression: coping with depression, seeking help for depression, and the barriers to seeking help. The central aim of the thesis was to examine how to make psychological services more appealing to men who have experienced depression. Overall the current research revealed insights into men’s experience of depression, their therapy preferences, their coping strategies, the physical and psychosocial barriers that deter them from seeking help, and many practical suggestions for possible interventions to help men cross the barriers and open up. It is concluded that understanding the traditional men, their socialisation and its impact on depression, on the man’s help-seeking behaviour and attitudes, is certainly needed to assist in meeting the needs of men and to influence the transformation of traditional men. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (D.Min.)--Liberty Theological Seminary and Graduate School, 2006.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2003. / Thesis directed by David A. Smith for the Department of Psychology. "November 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 109-114).

Thesis (M.A. (Practical Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references: leaves 158-164

Abstract Postpartum depression (PPD) has been identified as a mental health condition that impacts women, men, and families. PPD has been shown to be prevalent in both women and men following the birth of a child; it has been associated with marital conflict, insecure attachment, and poor infant-child outcomes. While PPD has been studied extensively in women, paternal PPD often goes understudied, undetected, and untreated. The purpose of the present research was to explore the lived experiences of men who have experienced PPD through the lens of self-perception theory using a qualitative phenomenological study. Six men who have experienced PPD shared their lived experiences with PPD, including how they recognized they had a problem and what alerted them to get help. Data were analyzed using coding and the development of themes; the findings for this study showed that men's lived experiences with PPD included feelings of sadness, anger, fear, confusion, and being in denial. The men tended to not seek help for their experiences of PPD, and they were not previously informed about the disorder of paternal PPD. The present study provides a better understanding of PPD for fathers, information for healthcare providers who deal with expectant fathers, and significant others such as mothers of the child, and other family members and coworkers regarding how to respond to paternal PPD. Better understanding of PPD will provide fathers with more of the support they need to successfully make the journey through PPD.

The purpose of the current study was to examine if positive family, social, and/or academic dimensions of SC weaken (i.e., moderate) the direct relationship between physical SC (i.e., a person's evaluation of their physique, adiposity, and weight) and depressive symptoms in a sample of adult men. A convenience sample of 239 college men completed self-report measures including the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale-2 (TSCS-2) and Symptom Checklist-90 Revised. Hierarchical regressions revealed that family and social SC were significant moderators of the relationship between physical SC and depressive symptoms, suggesting how men see themselves in their family and social systems affects the aforementioned relationship. Academic SC, however, was not a significant moderator; it was negatively related to depressive symptoms no matter how men felt about their physical selves. Our findings suggest that feeling positively about one's relationships may protect men with poor physical SC from experiencing symptoms of depression at the rates or intensity of their similarly body dissatisfied peers who do not report positive family or social SC. An additional simultaneous regression assessed the contribution of various dimensions of SC to the prediction of depressive symptoms, physical (7.76%), social (8.02%) and academic (6.62%) self-concept accounted for significant amount of variance in symptoms of depression which family SC (2.61%) did not. College counselors who assist men presenting with poor physical SC or depressive symptoms should assess for the other problem, as they commonly co-occur. In addition, they may consider helping them to improve the quality of their relationships in family and social systems as reasonable interventions for both depression and poor physical SC. Importantly, men who experience their academic SC as deficient should be considered at-risk for depression, although more research is needed to help identify the types of students who report low academic SC. In addition, men with symptoms of depression would likely benefit from accommodations to support their academic functioning.

Forty volunteer patients from a Veteran's Administration Hospital served as subjects for this study. On the basis of Beck Depression Inventory scores, the subjects were divided into depressed (11 and above) and nondepressed (7 and below) groups. Subjects were assigned randomly to either public condition (experimenter present with the subject during experimental procedures) or a private condition (subject performed the procedures alone). Subjects in each condition were asked to perform three tasks which varied in the amount of interpersonal involvement each required ranging from low through medium to high. The low interpersonal involvement task consisted of an anagram-solving procedure. Both the medium and high interpersonal involvement tasks employed modification of the Means-Ends Problem-Solving Procedure (MEPDS) (a measure of interpersonal problem solving ability).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 39-40).