Janice M. Thompson

Silencing The Self Depressive Symptomatology and Close Relationships

Silencing the self theory (Jack, 1991) holds that womens depression is closely related to experiences in close relationships, especially if women conform with societal norms for feminine relationship roles. In conforming, Jack believes that women develop relationship schema that heighten vulnerability to loss of self-esteem and depressive symptomatology. An exploratory study addressed relationships among self-report measures of silencing the self, dyadic adjustment, demographic variables, and depressive symptomatology in a community sample of 155 cohabiting women and men, including 37 heterosexual couples from which both partners provided data. Although relationship adjustment was no more closely associated with depressive symptomatology for women than for men, silencing the self was. Demographic variables (number of children, employment status, and income) accounted for a significant proportion of variance in depressive symptomatology for men but not for women. Womens self-reported silencing was related to both their own and their partners relationship adjustment.

Gender Role Characteristics and Depressive Symptomatology among Adolescents

The influence of three gender role related variables-instrumentality, silencing-the-self and ruminating-on depressive symptomatology among 73 adolescents with a mean age of 14.5 years was examined for this study. Girls reported more symptomatology and ruminating than did boys. Girls had higher scores on one facet of silencing-the-self externalized self-perception, than did boys. Positive correlations were found between symptomatology and both ruminating and silencing-the-self; both for boys and for girls. Instrumentality was correlated negatively with silencing-the-self for both sexes and with symptomatology for boys. In a hierarchical regression analysis, instrumentality, silencing-the-self and ruminating accounted for 59% of the variance in depressive symptomatology. Being male or female did not account for an additional increment in the variance in symptomatology after instrumentality silencing-the-self and ruminating had been entered into the regression. It is argued that the gender difference in depressive symptomatology among adolescents may be related to gender role typing. Specifically, low instrumentality and undesirable or exaggerated feminine traits were associated with increased symptomatology.

Mediators of the Link Between Childhood Sexual Abuse and Adult Depressive Symptoms

A history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is strongly associated with adult depression. The goal of the present study was to explore potential mediators of the CSA-depression link. The potential mediators were variables known to be associated with depression: interpersonal problems, gender role orientation, sociotropy, and self-silencing. The participants were 109 women and 83 men recruited from the community, approximately one third of whom had a history of CSA. The results indicated that gender role orientation, sociotropy, and self-silencing were not associated with a history of CSA. However, both men and women with a history of CSA reported more inter-personal problems than did individuals without this history. Whereas women reported being distant and controlling, men reported lacking assertiveness and taking too much responsibility in their relationships. These interpersonal variables partially mediated the link between CSA and depressive symptoms. Thus, in part, CSA survivors may be at risk for depression because they experience interpersonal problems.

Sex Differences in Self-Silencing

The construct of self-silencing was proposed to account for womens greater vulnerability to developing depression. This study of 1,117 students (795 women and 322 men) explored possible explanations for the empirical finding that men self-silence to the same or greater extent than women. Analysis showed that men reported more self-silencing than women. A factor analysis confirmed the subscale structure of the Silencing the Self Scale for women and men, with relatively few departures from the originally proposed subscales. Depression and self-silencing scores were correlated positively for both men and women. The results of two multiple regressions, performed separately for men and women, showed that depressive symptomatology accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in self-silencing but that social desirability did not account for a significant increment in the variance accounted for in silencing the self. The scores on the Care as Self-sacrifice and the Divided Self subscales were intercorrelated for women, but not for men, indicating that there may be a sex difference in perception of self-silencing behavior.

Self-silencing mediates the link between marital conflict and depression

The Silencing the Self model of depression (Jack, 1991) proposes that women are at risk for depression when they suppress their true thoughts and feelings to avoid conflict. Using a community sample of 115 couples, the present study investigated whether self-silencing mediates the relationship between marital conflict and depressive symptoms. Results indicated that both men and women who perceived their marriages as conflicted tended to hide their anger while pretending to go along with their partners opinions or wishes which, along with a tendency to judge oneself by external standards, also mediated the relationship between marital conflict and depressive symptoms. The silencing model appears to describe the development of both mens and womens depression in conflicted marriages and may be refined by focusing on how individuals cope with anger in intimate relationships.

Does Self-Silencing Link Perceptions of Care from Parents and Partners with Depressive Symptoms?

Silencing the self is a theory of womens depression that proposes that depression results from women being inauthentic in key relationships. In this study, we linked this theory to a substantial empirical literature indicating that adult depression is associated both with perceptions that parents were rejecting during childhood, and with perceptions that the current romantic partner is critical. We hypothesized that rejecting childhood relations with parents and/or a romantic relationship with a critical partner might contribute to self-silencing, which, in turn, might lead to heightened vulnerability to depression. This hypothesis was tested in a community sample of 99 women and 47 men who reported being in committed romantic relationships. The results indicated that, among women, only current romantic relationships were associated with self-silencing. Silencing also mediated the association between perceived spousal criticism and depressive symptoms. Women who perceived their partner as critical and intolerant were more likely to present a compliant fagade while feeling angry, which was associated with higher levels of depression. Among men, self-silencing was associated both with perceptions of the father as cold and rejecting, and with perceptions of the romantic partner as critical and intolerant. Furthermore, self-silencing mediated the associations between depressive symptoms and perceptions of the father and of the current romantic partner. Thus, our study supports the hypothesis that self-silencing is associated with the current interpersonal context in particular.

Between Scientism and Relativism: Phenomenology, Hermeneutics and the New Realism in Psychology

Because of the contextual, agentically controlled, uncertain and morally constituted nature of psychological phenomena, psychological inquiry is vulnerable to charges of scientism and relativism. These characteristics of the subject-matter of psychology and the challenges they pose for psychological inquiry are elaborated. Three approaches to conceptualizing psychological studies that might avoid these difficulties are discussed and examined critically: phenomenology, hermeneutics and neorealism. In light of these considerations, psychological inquiry might best be understood as a pluralistic set of necessarily interpretative scholarly studies, warranted by epistemic, moral and existential/experiential considerations, in addition to relevant empirical demonstrations.