Specific cognitive-personality vulnerability styles in depression and the five-factor model of personality

Abstract

This study located the specific cognitive-personality vulnerability measures proposed by S. J. Blatt (1974; Levels of object representation in anaclitic and introjective depression. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 29, 107–157), i.e. dependency and self-criticism, and by A. T. Beck (1983; Cognitive therapy of depression: New perspectives. In P. J. Clayton and J. E. Barrett (Eds.), Treatment of depression: Old controversies and new approaches, pp. 265–290. New York: Raven), i.e. sociotropy and autonomy, within a comprehensive measure of personality, the NEO-PI-R developed by P. T. Costa Jr. & R. R. McCrae (1992, The NEO Personality Inventory manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources). University students (102 men, 131 women) completed the NEO-PI-R, the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, the Revised Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale, and CES-D depression. Results indicated that: (1) the 30 NEO-PI-R facets illuminate the similarities and differences between dependency, sociotropy, self-criticism, and autonomy; (2) the different forms of interpersonal content reflected by the specific vulnerability constructs descriptively distinguish them from the neuroticism domain and its facets; and (3) the main effects of dependency, sociotropy, self-criticism, and autonomy in predicting depression are explained by shared variance with neuroticism.