Self-schema in major depression: Replication and extension of a priming methodology

Abstract

The present study was designed in an effort to replicate earlier research utilizing a priming methodology to examine cognitive organization in depression. Unipolar depressed patients (N =18), normal subjects (N =14), and normal subjects who were exposed to a self-focus manipulation (N =14) were asked to color-name personal adjectives which had previously been rated for the degree of self-description. Each experimental trial consisted of the presentation of a prime word followed by a target word printed in color, and the subject's task was to name the color of the target and then recall the prime. Color-naming was significantly influenced by the nature of the prime/target relatedness, such that longer latencies were obtained when the prime and target were both rated as personally meaningful, than when only the target was rated as meaningful and the prime was not. This effect was obtained for adjectives rated as highly self-descriptive with both depressed patients and normal subjects who were in a heightened state of self-awareness. Subjects who were not made self-aware showed a much weaker relatedness effect in this condition. With respect to adjectives which subjects rated as extremely nondescriptive, both depressed and normal subjects showed a relatedness effect while self-aware normals did not. Although admittedly tentative in nature, this latter finding would suggest that the scope of information represented in an individual's self-structure contains elements of both positive and negative identity.