Anthony H. Ahrens

Cultural expectations of thinness in women: An update

An investigation of current American societys depiction of the ideal female body was performed. Body measurements of Playboy magazine centerfolds and Miss America contestants for 1979–1988 indicated body weight 13–19% below expected weight for women in that age group. Miss America contestants showed a significant decrease in expected weight between 1979 and 1988. Comparisons were made with an earlier study which had demonstrated that body measurements of both groups had decreased during the period 1959–1978. Diet-for-weight-loss and exercise articles in six womens magazines were tabulated for 1959–1988. A significant increase in both diet articles and exercise articles occurred during this period. These findings suggest that the overvaluation of thinness continues and thinness is now sought through both dieting and exercise.

Are emotions frightening? An extension of the fear of fear construct ☆

Proposed in this paper is an expansion of the concept of fear of fear to include fear of other emotions (anger, depression, and positive emotions). In Study 1, initial evidence of the reliability and validity of a questionnaire designed to measure this construct, the Affective Control Scale, is provided. In Study 2, an analogue experiment of susceptibility to panic disorder was conducted. The ability of fear of anger, depression, and positive emotions to predict fear of laboratory-induced bodily sensations in a population with no history of panic attacks was demonstrated.

Relations of eating behavior and symptoms of depression and anxiety to the dimensions of perfectionism among undergraduate women

Two studies examined the associations of overall perfectionism and dimensions of perfectionism to pathology in college women. In both studies, depressive symptoms were related to increased concern about mistakes, doubts about actions, and parental expectations. However, those higher in depressive symptoms tended to set lower personal standards, significantly so in Study 2. In both studies, eating disturbance was related to concern over mistakes and doubts about actions, but not to parental expectations or personal standards. In Study 2, perfectionism dimensions related differentially to anxiety symptoms. Concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, and, marginally, low personal standards, related to anxiety symptoms, but parental expectations and parental criticism did not. When depressive symptoms were controlled, neither overall perfectionism nor any of the perfectionism subscales predicted anxiety symptoms. However, perfectionism was still related to depressive symptoms after controlling for anxiety symptoms. Perfectionism may thus be more specific to depressive than to anxiety symptoms.

The specificity of attributional style and expectations to positive and negative affectivity, depression, and anxiety

Ninety-four undergraduate subjects completed measures of trait positive and negative affectivity, anxiety, depression, optimism, hopelessness, and attributional style. After writing about negative events or hearing a tape describing a positive academic experience, they completed measures of state positive and negative affect and of self-efficacy expectancies. Positive affectivity was associated with attributional style for positive, but not negative, events. Negative affectivity was associated with attributional style for negative, but not positive, events. Negative event attributional style was specifically associated with anxiety; expectancies and positive event attributional style with depression. Attributional style predicted state positive affect following completion of negative essays, but not negative affect, nor either affect following the positive tape. Effects of attributional style on affect were partially independent of expectations. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of distinguishing between processes related to positive and negative affect in order to distinguish anxiety from depression.

Stress and attributional style as predictors of self-reported depression in children.

Attributional approaches to depression, such as hopelessness theory (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989), suggest that a stable, global attributional style for negative events combined with failure to achieve a highly valued outcome will lead to depression. The current study assessed the ability of the interaction of attributional style and daily negative events to predict self-reported depression in children. Eighty-four children between the ages of 9 and 12 participated in this longitudinal study. Self-reported depression symptoms were assessed before and after exposure to stressful events. The data analysis consisted of stepwise hierarchical multiple-regression procedures. While attributional style alone did not predict change in self-reported depression symptoms following stressful events, the interaction of attributional style with stress did predict them. Stress predicted depression symptoms as well.

Theories of depression: The role of goals and the self-evaluation process

The most influential psychological theories of depression all maintain that evaluation plays a role in depression. Evaluation of an outcome has two subcomponents: an outcome, either actual or anticipated, and a criterion against which the outcome is measured. The criterion can be either a task-defined goal or the product of a social comparison. Most evaluation-related research has focused on the outcome that is evaluated rather than on the criterion. This paper reviews the studies that have examined the relations of goals and social comparisons to depression, as well as related work on goals and motivation. Some theories have suggested that depressed people set excessively high goals, but few studies have tested this hypothesis, and those have come to different conclusions. Little more has been said about the relations of goals and social comparisons to depression. In addition, the studies on goals and social comparisons have tested only whether the key variables are symptomatic of depression, not whether they contribute to depression. The crucial area of goal setting has been underexamined in depression research. This paper suggests directions that research on the role of evaluation processes in depression should take and outlines some basic requirements for that research.

Dysphoric deficits in interpersonal standards, self-efficacy, and social comparison

This study examined the role of personal standards, self-efficacy expectations, and social comparison in depression. Nondepressed and dysphoric subjects estimated their own interpersonal standards and efficacy, as well as the standards and efficacy of their peers. Contrary to common theory, dysphoric subjects set lower —not higher — goals than did nondepressed subjects. As expected, nondepressed subjects made more favorable social comparisons than did dysphoric subjects. Nondepressed subjects made more positive judgments for themselves than for their peers, whereas dysphoric subjects made similar judgments for self and other. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for the role of goals and social comparison processes in depression. In particular, it is suggested that, in response to a gap between standards and performance expectations, one might raise expectations, lower standards, or maintain both standards and expectations. The latter two are likely to be associated with depression. Not only are evaluations made in absolute terms, but they are also made by social comparison, especially when evaluation concerns ones goals. This study suggests that dysphoric people no longer judge that they are superior to their peers, which might hinder them in mobilizing their efforts.

Inferences about the self, attributions, and overgeneralization as predictors of recovery from dysphoria

Based on a model of recovery from depression drawn from hopelessness theory (Needles & Abramson, 1990), we expected that in the presence of favorable events, cognitive style would predict the development of hope, and thus recovery from dysphoria. Among 91 subjects initially scoring 9 or above on the Beck Depression Inventory, a stable, global attributional style for positive events, in the presence of positive events, tended to predict recovery by a 3-week followup assessment. However, contrary to our prediction, inferring positive characteristics about the self from the occurrence of good events was associated with more subsequent depressive symptoms. An exploratory measure of overgeneralization of negative events predicted more subsequent symptoms.

Metatraits and cognitive assessment: Application to attributional style and depressive symptoms

This research examined whether attributional style is more closely related to depressive symptoms for some people than for others. In Study 1, depressed patients voicing more explanations for negative events showed (nonsignificantly) higher correlations between attributional style and depressive symptoms. In Study 2, subjects reporting a tendency to ruminate about the causes of events showed stronger relations between attributional style and depressive symptoms. Conversely, subjectslow in attributional complexity exhibited stronger relations of depressive symptoms with positive-event attributional style. We speculated that by asking for ratings of only the single most important cause of events attributional style measures might provide a less adequate sample of the causal thinking of attributionally complex subjects. Study 3 partially supported this reasoning; attributional complexity was not significantly correlated with seeing events as having multiple causes, but it was associated with rating second-most-important causes as distinct from first causes on attributional dimensions. Thus, current attributional style measures and theories might be best-suited to subjects who (a) tend to ponder causes of events but (b) arrive at uniform conclusions about the nature of these causes.

Attributional Style in Children of Substance Abusers

This study examined attributional style in children of substance abusers. We hypothesized that children of substance abusers are more likely to develop a depressogenic attributional style. Forty children between the ages of 8 and 14 participated in the study. Twenty children were from families with a history of substance abuse and 20 were from families without such a history. Each child completed self-report measures of depression and attributional style. After controlling for depression and other factors, the results revealed that children of substance abusers had a more depressogenic attributional style than did children without such a family history. Implications of the results for children of substance abusers and for hopelessness theory are discussed.