Lester Krames

The continuity of depression in clinical and nonclinical samples

Historically, depression researchers have examined continuity in terms of whether the symptoms and characteristics of mild, moderate, and severe depression differ in degree along a continuum (i.e., a quantitative difference) or in kind (i.e., qualitative difference). The authors propose a differentiated framework that distinguishes 4 direct tests of continuity (i.e., phenomenological, typological, etiological, and psychometric continuity). They use this framework to suggest that most evidence is consistent with the continuity hypothesis. Moreover, they maintain that the findings of future research can be incorporated into a 2-factor model of depression that allows for both continuities and discontinuities.

Analogue versus clinical depression : a critical reappraisal

Much of the existing psychological literature on depression is based on research with college students. An important question is whether depression in college students represents an appropriate analogue of depression in clinical patients. The purpose of the present article is to review past evidence on this issue from a critical perspective. Past arguments are examined, and little support is found for the position that depression research with college students is not warranted. Moreover, the results of studies with student and clinical samples are compared, and the findings are generally similar across populations. Next, a number of methodological issues are identified that may actually favor the use of depressed college students, and some methodological recommendations for future research are outlined. Finally, an appeal is made for research that directly examines the analogue-clinical issue and the nature of college student depression.

Sex differences in the clinical expression of depression

Recent epidemiological studies have established that the lifetime prevalence rate of depression is greater in women than in men. It was the purpose of the present study to investigate the possibility that the true prevalence of male depression is underestimated because males have learned through social rejection that it is inappropriate for them to openly express depressive feelings. Consistent with this notion that men only express depressive symptoms consonant with their traditional male sex role, a discriminant function analysis performed on the self-reported symptomatology of depressed patients revealed that men were more likely to report sex role appropriate symptoms such as work-related problems and somatic concerns. Since other self-presentational concerns may contribute to the sex difference in depression, it is suggested that future research directly examine the ways in which men experience and express symptoms of depression.

REEXAMINING THE BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY: THE LONG AND SHORT OF IT

The psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory and its short form were compared for a psychiatric sample of clinically depressed adults. Factor analyses indicated that the short form retained the essential integrity of cognitive components of the standard inventory but further attenuated already weak somatic components. As a result, the wisdom of shortening the scale is questioned and a call is made for improving the existing scale. A preliminary attempt at improvement, involving the modification of items inconsistent with other diagnostic systems, proved reasonably successful. Further suggestions for enhancing the psychometric properties of the scale are discussed.

Responses of female rats to the individual body odors of male rats

Sixteen receptive females were first observed during a 10-min habituation period that consisted of presenting them with two empty cardboard tubes housing the odors from the same male. After the habituation period one tube was removed and replaced with a tube housing the odors from a novel male. During the second 10-min testing period, the females spent a significantly greater amount of time with the novel males’ odor, after both 5 min (p <.02) and 10 min (p >.01) of testing. The females’ response to the novel males’ odor indicated that female rats can use olfactory cues to discriminate between individual male rats.

Distraction and depressive cognitions

Recent advances in the treatment of depression have focused on the cognition of patients, not as a symptom of depression but as a probable cause. Research supporting such developments focuses on descriptions of the content of depressed cognitions. The present study using standard cognitive techniques examined depressive cognitions as processes trying to determine the effects of the operation of these cognitions on mental functioning. Subjects were tested on a recall task that required them to pay attention to two tasks at once under several levels of difficulty. Being exposed to a distracting shortterm memory task affected recall in a manner similar to that proposed for depressive schemata. The data suggest a model of how depressive schemata might actually operate in a parallel fashion.

Sniffy, the virtual rat: Simulated operant conditioning

We report on the use of our Sniffy program to teach operant conditioning to 900 introductory psychology students. The simulation is designed primarily to teach the principles of shaping and partial reinforcement in an operant chamber. Advanced features are provided for exploring modeling issues and the learning parameters of the model. Students observe the rat’s pretraining behaviors, shape barpressing, and explore the effects of partial reinforcement schedules on a cumulative record. Any of 30 actions can be trained to occur in specific locations in the Skinner box. This paper summarizes details about the software, interface, and instructional objectives.

The role of masculinity and femininity in depression and social satisfaction in elderly females

Several recent meta-analyses indicate a relation between masculinity and psychological adjustment, but there is little correlation between femininity and adjustment. The present study examined the generalizability of this finding in a sample of elderly women. Thirty women ranging in age from 68 to 97 years were administered a battery of questionnaires including the Personal Attributes Questionaire, the Geriatric Depression Scale, the Hopelessness Scale, and three subscales from the Self-Evaluation of Life Function Scale. Consistent with previous meta-analytic results, correlational analyses revealed significant negative relations between masculinity and the cognitive measures of depression (i.e., hopelessness and self-esteem), and no correlation between femininity and these same cognitive measures. Femininity, however, was correlated with social satisfaction and symptoms of aging. Masculinity was unrelated to these social and physical indices of depression. The implications of these findings for the androgyny and masculinity models of mental health are discussed with particular reference to the role that femininity may play in potentiating or exacerbating depression.

Sex roles and depression: A preliminary investigation of the direction of causality ☆

Abstract The present study examined the direction of the relation between sex role self-concept and depression. A total of 23 males and 32 females were given the Personal Attributes Questionnaire and the Beck Depression Inventory at two times separated by a 3-month interval. Results of a cross-lagged panel correlational analysis found no evidence for sex role orientation as a cause of depression. Instead, the data suggested that emotional well being precedes self-perceived instrumentality, but the influence of third variables could not be overlooked. The implications of these data are discussed with particular reference to the need for more complex theoretical formulations of the relation between self-perceived instrumentality and adjustment.

The stability of depressive symptoms in college students: An empirical demonstration of regression to the mean.

In a recent paper, Vredenburg, Flett, and Krames (1993) hypothesized that the apparent instability of depressive symptom scores in college students may be due, in part, to the phenomenon known as statistical regression to the mean. This statistical principle was demonstrated in the current study. A sample of 183 university students completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) at two timepoints separated by a 3-month interval. Consistent with past results, analyses revealed substantial changes in symptom scores over time with decrements being evident among many subjects with elevated symptom scores at Time 1. Examination of the amount of change over time in BDI scores indicated a pattern of findings that approximated the regression to the mean phenomenon. Statistical tests confirmed that regression to the mean accounted for a significant amount of the change in symptom scores over time. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the nature of depressive symptoms in students and the inappropriateness of assigning subjects to depressed or nondepressed groups on the basis of elevated scores on a self-report measure.