Depressives' future-event schemas and the social inference process.

Abstract

Two studies examined depressed and nondepressed perceivers' characterizations and thoughtful inferences about the behaviors of another person. In Study 1, depressed and nondepressed participants under a cognitive load or no load were asked to make either dispositional (ability) or situational (task ease) inferences about a target's videotaped performance. When cognitive resources were limited, depressed compared with nondepressed individuals made more pessimistic characterizations. No depression-related differences were found when sufficient cognitive resources were available for inferential correction. Study 2 provided evidence that the depressed-nondepressed differences in characterizations could be accounted for by schema-based future-event expectancies (S. M. Andersen, L. A. Spielman, & J. A. Bargh, 1992). Results are examined in light of previous failures to find consistent differences as a function of level of depression in inferences about others.