Stephanie S. Rude

Connectedness and Neediness: Factors of the DEQ and SAS dependency scales

Separate and combined factor analyses of the dependency scales of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) and the Sociotropy/Autonomy Scale (SAS) each yielded a factor characterized by valuing of relationships and sensitivity to the effects of ones actions on others (Connectedness), and a factor characterized by anxious concerns regarding possible rejection (Neediness). Connectedness was associated with gender but not with depression. Neediness was associated with depression but not with gender. Results are discussed in relation to claims that psychological models reflect cultural biases favoring individualism and that these models and their associated measures tend to undervalue relational, interdependent orientations.

Negative processing biases predict subsequent depressive symptoms

This study investigated the possible relationship between negative processing biases and subsequent depression. The Scrambled Sentences Test (SST), a measure of processing bias, was administered to a large sample of undergraduates. Participants also completed self-report measures of thought suppression tendencies, current level of depression, and lifetime worst-depression symptoms. High scores on the SST, reflecting a negative processing bias, predicted depression symptoms measured 4 to 6 weeks later, even after controlling for concurrent and past depression. The SST was administered both with and without cognitive load to all participants. The SST with load predicted subsequent depression for both men and women. The SST without load predicted depression for women only. The SST difference score, a measure of the change in scores between the no-load and load conditions, was a significant predictor of subsequent depression for men but not women. Among men, the combination of high thought suppression with either high SST-load scores or high SST difference scores proved to be a particularly strong indicator of vulnerability to subsequent depression.

Overgeneral Autobiographical Memory as Depression Vulnerability

Overgeneral autobiographical memory, the tendency to recall categories of events when asked to provide specific instances from ones life, has been shown to be characteristic of depressed, suicidal, and traumatized individuals. In the current study, overgeneral memory interacted with the occurrence of stressful life events to predict subsequent depression symptoms in a nonclinical sample of college students. Controlling for initial depression symptoms, students who showed both high overgeneral memory and high frequencies of stressful life events had more depression symptoms 4–6 weeks later. Overgeneral memory was correlated with an index of specificity culled from autobiographical essays but, contrary to expectation, was uncorrelated with self-report measures of thought suppression, dissociation, avoidance, or intrusion.

Beneath the veil of thought suppression: Attentional bias and depression risk

Although cognitive theory predicts that depression-prone individuals possess negative information-processing biases, the reliable detection of this type of cognitive vulnerability has proved difficult. The present study tested the idea that depression-relevant, cognitive biases are often elusive because at-risk individuals actively try to suppress depressive thinking. The study employed a novel measure of information processing that involves the identification of words imbedded in a letter grid. A cognitive load - designed to disrupt thought suppression - caused a negative attentional shift among individuals at risk for depression (because of a previous episode), leading them to identify negative words at a rate equivalent to currently dysphoric participants. The hypothesised role of mental control was further supported by the fact that the load-related, attentional shift was strongly associated with chronic thought suppression.

Negative Cognitive Biases Predict Subsequent Depression

We administered the Scrambled Sentences Test (SST; R. M. Wenzlaff, 1993), a measure of cognitive processing bias, to a large sample of college students at Time 1. Participants completed a portion of the SST under cognitive load (holding a six-digit number in memory) and a portion without load. At Time 2, 18–28 months later, we conducted diagnostic interviews with a subset of the original participants. As expected, SST scores (proportion of negative solutions) in the cognitive load condition predicted diagnoses of major depression during an 18–28 month follow-up period, even after controlling for self-reported Time 1 depression symptoms and worst lifetime symptoms. No significant prediction of depression was obtained using SST scores from the no-load portion of the task.

Do interpersonal and achievement vulnerabilities interact with congruent events to predict depression? Comparison of DEQ, SAS, DAS, and combined scales

Interpersonal but not achievement scales of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS), and Sociotropy/Autonomy Scale (SAS) were substantially correlated. Factor analysis of items from all instruments yielded two stable factors: Dependencyfand Performance Evaluationf.All interpersonal scales except that of the DAS showed interactions with frequency of interpersonal but not achievement life events in predicting depression symptoms. Strongest support for the predicted interaction was obtained using Dependencyf.The Achievement vulnerability scales yielded no significant interactions with life event frequencies.

Response to treatments for depression: The role of initial status on targeted cognitive and behavioral skills

Abstract Cognitive and behavioral treatments of depression target specific deficits for remediation. Depressives who show the targeted deficits are typically expected to benefit most from therapy. This article reviews therapy outcome studies in which measures of cognitive or behavioral deficits were employed as predictors of response to related therapy. Contrary to expectation, there was no relationship between deficit score and outcome in many studies and, in several, a finding opposite to prediction obtained: Ss with more functional scores on the cognitive or behavioral measures did better in therapy than those with less functional scores. It is unclear whether the advantage seen in these studies is a response to a particular type of treatment or whether it represents general prognosis. Methodological and conceptual implications of these results are discussed.

Depression-related Impairments in Prospective Memory

Time-based prospective memory, the ability to carry out a future intention at a specified time, was found to be impaired in a community sample of clinically depressed adults, relative to a nondepressed sample. Nondepressed participants monitored the time more frequently and, in the final block of the task, accelerated time-monitoring as the target time for the prospective memory response approached. These results are consistent with previous findings of depression-related impairments in retrospective memory tasks that require controlled, self-initiated processing.

Paying attention to distress: What's wrong with rumination?

We explored the notion—derived from conceptualisations of mindfulness—that what makes attention to distress harmful is negative judgement about it. In Study 1 we examined factors of Nolen-Hoeksemas Ruminative Response Scale (RRS). A “Brooding” scale included items describing negative judgements of experience, and a “Reflection” scale, comprised items describing analysis of thoughts and feelings without obvious judgement. Correlations of Reflection with depression and thought suppression were lower than those for Brooding, but still significant, perhaps because all items implied some judgement. In Study 2, items were reworded to de-emphasise evaluative judgements (RRS-nonjudging) and compared to the original RRS. Although the factor structures of the original and RRS-nonjudging versions were essentially identical, the RRS-nonjudging Reflection scale was uncorrelated with depression and thought suppression, and was more highly correlated with emotional processing than was the original Reflection scale.

Detecting Depressive Schemata in Vulnerable Individuals: Questionnaires Versus Laboratory Tasks

Never-depressed and formerly depressed adults completed questionnaire and laboratory measures of depressive thinking following either self- or external-focus instructions. Formerly depressed participants were divided at the median based on the number of prior depressions experienced (FD ≤ 3 or FD ≥ 4). As predicted, differences in negative thinking as a function of depressive history were revealed by two of the laboratory tasks, but not by the questionnaires. These differences emerged only in the comparison of never-depressed individuals with the subgroup of formerly depressed participants who had experienced four or more prior depressions. The focus instructions appeared not to be effective based on manipulation checks, and were not associated with significant effects on any of the dependent variables. Although these results do not address how self-focus might affect the measurement of depressive thinking, they do support the sensitivity of the laboratory tasks. Further, the findings suggest that thinking biases are most readily observed in individuals with relatively extensive histories of depression.