The present study investigated the relationships between personality style characteristics, daily events and symptoms of dysphoria, and other psychosocial variables among current depressives, past depressives, and nondepressed control subjects. The study was unique in using a time-series design to examine the specific vulnerability hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that individuals with socially dependent (sociotropic) personality features are more likely to experience depressive symptoms when confronted with negative interpersonal events, whereas self-critical/independent (autonomous) individuals are likely to experience dysphoria following school or work stressors. The identification of personality characteristics and events associated with depression is important in elucidating variables that interact over time to precipitate and maintain depression. Subjects were administered the Personal Style Inventory-II to assess sociotropic and autonomous personality characteristics. Over a 45-day period, subjects provided daily reports on dysphoria and six psychosocial variables: dependency, interpersonal stress, social support, school/work stress, social withdrawal, and self-devaluation. Results indicated partial support for the specific vulnerability hypothesis. Compared to nondepressed controls, current depressives obtained higher scores on sociotropy, autonomy, dysphoria, and the psychosocial variables (excluding social support). Subjects with a past history of depression had higher autonomy scores than controls and reported greater school/work stress and self-devaluation. As expected, sociotropy and dysphoria predicted interpersonal stress and dependency; however, they did not predict social support concerns. Autonomy and dysphoria predicted social withdrawal, but did not predict school/work stress and self-devaluative beliefs. Concurrent and lagged / relationships between dysphoria and the psychosocial variables were examined and the use of a time-series design in studying depression is also discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: B, page: 3027. / Major Professor: Jack E. Hokanson. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77199 |
| Contributors | Stader, Sandra Renee., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 158 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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