Do confidants of depressed women provide less social support than confidants of nondepressed women?

Article Abstract:

One of the risk factors for depression appears to be the lack of someone in whom to confide. Causality has not specifically been investigated, but it appears that having a confiding relationship may be protective against depression. The present study tested the hypothesis that the confidants of depressed women provide less social support than confidants of nondepressed women. In addition, with regard to the depressed individuals themselves, it was predicted that depressed subjects would exhibit more negative affect than nondepressed subjects, depressed subjects' speech would have more negative and less positive content than the speech of nondepressed subjects, and depressed subjects would report having less social support than nondepressed subjects. A total of 15 depressed women were studied and compared with 10 nondepressed female psychiatric patients and 20 nonpsychiatric controls. For the prior six-month period, subjects were assessed with regard to demographics, psychiatric symptomatology, interpersonal support, availability of a confidant, social performance, and other social and psychological variables. A telephone conversation between each subject and a confidant was analyzed as well. Depressed subjects reported having less social support than nondepressed subjects, and depressed subjects demonstrated ''depressotypic'' speech. Interestingly, the confidants of depressed subjects exhibited similar depressotypic speech patterns and spoke with greater amounts of negative speech content than the confidants of nondepressed subjects. This may serve to perpetuate depressotypic speech in depressed subjects, despite the view by depressed subjects that confidants who do this are more supportive. Confidants of depressives did not, however, show greater negative affect than confidants of nondepressed subjects. It is suggested that the interactions between depressed persons and their confidants may actually perpetuate depressotypic cognitions. Therefore, involving significant others in treatment may be helpful. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Women, Social networks

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Schematic and situational determinants of depressed and nondepressed students' interpretation of feedback

Article Abstract:

A model of a depressive schemata has been postulated to describe the negative perceptions of individuals suffering from depression. This model proposes that depressed individuals are subject to unrealistic negative beliefs and assumptions concerning the world, the future, and themselves. This depressive schemata functions such that the depressed person is unaware of actual situational information and, therefore, is not influenced by feedback. Thus, negative and distorted perceptions persist within these individuals. This model has yet to be fully tested, and the accuracy of the perceptions of those who are depressed has not been fully explored. It has been suggested that the self-assessment of a depressed person's performance in a given situation may actually be more accurate than proposed by this negative cognitive model. To further examine this possibility, 60 college students diagnosed with depression, and 60 control students, were assessed for social competence. Data were derived from observations of the subjects in group discussion, a self-reported questionnaire, and the impressions of an objective observer. The depressed students' interpretations of their performance were more negative when compared with the control group's interpretations. However, analysis of the data indicated that the depressed students actually did have deficits in social skills when compared with the nondepressed students, and these social deficits were independent of the model based on negative schemata. Therefore, actual deficits in performance in social situations can independently contribute to the negative cognition of depressed patients. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)

Evaluation, Cognition, Emotions, Emotions and cognition

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A priming methodology for studying self-representation in major depressive disorder

Article Abstract:

A modified Stroop color-naming task, used to assess the states of mind of 102 depressed and nondepressed people, reveals that negative opinions about oneself occurred due to the influence of cognitive systems in the depressed. Depressed people displayed the longest color-naming latencies when exposed to negatively primed material, while positive priming had no significant effect on the latencies of the normal group of people.

Analysis

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