Dysfunctional attitudes, mild depression, views of self, self-consciousness, and social perceptions

Abstract

In this research we propose that certain individuals display a cognitive vulnerability to depression, centering around their dysfunctional attitudes for evaluating self-worth. In Study 1, participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS), and the Self-Consciousness Questionnaire. Participants also indicated which adjectives, in a set of depressed and nondepressed content adjectives, were self-descriptive. Depressed individuals, relative to nondepressed, endorsed fewer nondepressed and more depressed content adjectives, and also reported higher levels of public self-consciousness, social anxiety, and private self-consciousness. As predicted by the self-worth model, vulnerable individuals (those scoring high on the DAS) evidenced increased levels of public self-consciousness and social anxiety, even when nondepressed. In contrast, and again as predicted by the self-worth model, an increase in private self-consciousness and an overall decrease in positive self-schema content were found to be concomitants of depression (and thus not evident in vulnerable individuals when nondepressed). In Study 2, participants completed the BDI, the DAS, the Assertion Inventory, the Social Support Questionnaire, and a Social Skills Rating form. As expected, increasing levels of depression were associated with increased perceptions of assertion problems, poorer social skills, and diminished available social support and satisfaction. In further accord with the self-worth model, vulnerable individuals, even when nondepressed, reported assertion and social skills difficulties, and provided lower perceived satisfaction ratings for social relationships. Taken together, these findings were then discussed in terms of a self-worth contingency model of depression.