Depressive Personality Styles Research Articles

Impact of personality style changes on CBT and PDT treatment responses in major depression

This study examines the influence of depressive personality styles on treatment responses in patients with major depression receiving cognitive behavioural therapy and psychodynamic therapy. We assessed changes in personality styles, including dependency, self-criticism, sociotropy, and autonomy, and their association with treatment response. Both treatment modalities led to significant reductions in self-criticism and sociotropy scores. Depressive symptom severity decreased overall, with a more pronounced reduction observed in the cognitive behavioural therapy group. Notably, reduced self-criticism and sociotropy were associated with better treatment outcomes in the cognitive behavioural therapy group. Our findings highlight the role of personality styles in influencing treatment outcomes for major depression. The study suggests an association between changes in personality styles and the reduction of symptoms. Our results support the idea that unique pathways of change are activated depending on the therapeutic intervention. These insights are critical in tailoring treatments to individual needs, addressing the central question of ‘what works for whom’.

Depressive personality traits and temperament and character personality traits in a clinical sample: Results from regression and network analyses

Personality and psychopathology are highly relevant and easily relatable constructs. The current study investigated the relationships between dependency and self-criticism, sociotropy and autonomy depressive personality traits, and Cloninger's temperament and character personality traits postulated as vulnerability factors for depression, in relation to depressive and general psychopathology symptoms in a clinical sample of 100 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder.The results showed that self-directedness, a character trait of the temperament and character model, was positively associated with dependency, self-criticism, sociotropy, and autonomy. Applying more in-depth analyses with regression models revealed associations between self-directedness and depressive personality styles dependency and sociotropy, and general psychopathology symptoms was a significant clinical indicator in these relationships. Going beyond the regression models, network analysis showed that self-directedness is associated with self-criticism, sociotropy, autonomy, and general psychopathology symptoms. The relationship between self-directedness and sociotropy, self-criticism and autonomy suggests that these depressive personality traits may be attributable to aspects of self-determination, maturity, responsibility, discipline, and self-acceptance. General psychopathology research informed by literature incorporating personality traits has far-reaching implications for understanding individual differences as well as increasing efforts to contribute to the amelioration of disabling psychological disorders like major depressive disorders.

Are positive psychology exercises helpful for people with depressive personality styles?

Two exercises involving gratitude and uplifting music were tested for their ability to improve well-being in self-critical and needy individuals. In this study, 772 adults completed measures of depressive symptoms, physical symptoms, happiness, and self-esteem and then practiced the gratitude, music, or control exercise (recalling early childhood memories) for 1 week. Follow-up measures were administered after the intervention period, and 1, 3, and 6 months later. Participants in both the gratitude and the music condition reported greater increases in happiness over time than participants in the control condition. Self-critics were particularly responsive to the gratitude intervention, whereas needy individuals found the exercises ineffective and even detrimental to their self-esteem. These results highlight the importance of identifying individual differences in response to positive psychology exercises.

Self‐criticism is a key predictor of eating disorder dimensions among inpatient adolescent females

Although the unipolar depression-eating disorder comorbidity is adequately documented, examination of the role of depressive personality styles in eating disorders is relatively scarce. Associations between depressive symptoms, depressive risk and resilience (i.e., dependency, self-criticism, and sense of efficacy), and eating disorder symptoms (as measured by the Eating Disorder Inventory-2) were examinedin inpatient adolescent females (N = 81). Self-criticism emerged as independent, robust, and strong predictor of eating disorder symptoms. Patients self-criticism should be targeted in psychotherapy and might serve as an obstacle for successful inpatient treatment. The role of self-derogation in eating disorders should be examined further.

Depressive Personality Styles and Social Anxiety in Young Adults

We examined the role of three depression-related cognitive personality styles in young adults’ social anxiety: evaluation concerns, positive achievement striving, and dependency. Sixty-nine undergraduates were administered measures of the aforementioned personality variables, depressive symptoms, and social anxiety. Controlling for participants’ depressive symptoms, we found that evaluation concerns, particularly self-criticism, predicted elevated levels of social anxiety. Dependency also predicted elevated social anxiety, but this effect was small and marginally significant (p = .05). Finally, positive achievement striving predicted low levels of social anxiety but only in the presence of evaluation concerns. Findings are consistent with earlier theoretical conceptualizations of social anxiety as reflecting low self-worth.

Depressive personality styles and bipolar spectrum disorders: prospective tests of the event congruency hypothesis

Research on unipolar depression has found that life events that are congruent with an individual's personality style increase vulnerability to depression (event congruency hypothesis). We tested whether the interaction of personality style and congruent life events predicted prospective increases in depressive and hypomanic symptoms among bipolar spectrum individuals over a 4-month follow-up. We followed 106 bipolar II or cyclothymic individuals prospectively for 4 months. Participants completed three measures of personality style at time 1 and a life event scale and semi-structured life events and diagnostic interviews at follow-up. Life events were coded as congruent or non-congruent with the personality styles. A personality style characterized by self-criticism and performance evaluation interacted with congruent negative and positive events, respectively, to predict increases in depressive and hypomanic symptoms, respectively, over the 4 months. In contrast, an attachment-oriented personality style buffered against depression following congruent negative events. Consistent with the event congruency hypothesis, a personality style focused on performance, high self-standards, and self-criticism may increase vulnerability to both depressive and hypomanic symptoms when bipolar individuals confront life events congruent with this style. In contrast, a personality style concerned with attachment to others may buffer against depression when bipolar individuals face congruent negative events.

Depressive personality dimensions and alexithymia in eating disorders

An association has been reported between high levels of alexithymia and depression in patients with eating disorders. This study has examined alexithymic features and depressive experiences in patients with DSM-IV eating disorder (restricting anorexia, n = 105; purging anorexia, n = 49; bulimia, n = 98) and matched controls ( n = 279). The subjects were assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20); the Beck Depression Inventory; and the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire, which defines two types of depressive personality style (dependent and self-critical). The patients had high levels of alexithymic features and depressive symptoms. Comparisons of alexithymic features between patients and controls after adjustment for depression showed a significant difference between bulimic patients and controls for the TAS Difficulty Identifying Feelings factor, and between restricting anorexic patients and controls for the TAS Difficulty Describing Feelings factor. With regard to depressive personality styles, only scores on the self-critical dimension were significantly higher in bulimic patients than in restricting anorexic patients and controls. In the entire group of eating disorders, dependency was associated with the TAS Difficulty Identifying Feelings factor only in anorexic patients. Self-criticism, on the other hand, was associated with the TAS Difficulty Identifying Feelings factor in all subtypes of eating disorders, although the relationship was significantly stronger in restricting anorexic than in bulimic patients. The results of this study suggest that people with restricting anorexia and bulimia show specific clinical profiles associating alexithymic features and depressive dimensions.

Depressive personality styles, dysphoria, and social comparisons in everyday life.

"Sociotropic" people are supposedly vulnerable to dysphoria after negative interpersonal events, whereas "autonomous" people are supposedly vulnerable to achievement-related failures. The present study examined whether these personality styles are borne out in social comparison processes. For 3 weeks, 27 sociotropic and 35 autonomous undergraduates completed records of their social comparisons. Depressive personality style moderated comparison frequency and the affective consequences of comparisons, especially for dysphoric individuals: Dysphoric respondents were especially likely to make comparisons in domains that were congruent with their personalities, and comparisons in congruent domains were associated with greater mood change than comparisons in other domains, perhaps especially for dysphoric respondents. These results have implications for the literatures on social comparison and on depressive personality styles.

Depressive personality styles, dysphoria, and social comparisons in everyday life.

Depressive personality styles, dysphoria, and social comparisons in everyday life.

Depressive Styles and the Regulation of Negative Affect: A Daily Experience Study

An experience-sampling methodology was used toexplore the relation between depressive personalitystyles and daily mood regulation. Ninety-five womencompleted the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (Blatt et al., 1976), and recorded their affectand use of specific mood-regulation strategies twicedaily over a 2-week period. We hypothesized that active,distracting strategies would be more effective in alleviating negative affect than wouldpassive, emotion-focused strategies, and thatself-criticism and dependency would be associated withpoor mood management. Results indicated that engaging ina pleasant, rewarding activity was successful inreducing negative affect, whereas venting prolongednegative affect. Self-criticism was related to poor moodmanagement, as it was associated with venting and failing to spend time with others.Dependency was associated with venting,consumption-based self-indulgence, and being less likelyto spend time alone when regulating negativeaffect.

Controlling shared resources: Effects of dependency, self-criticism, and threats to self-worth

How we exert control over shared resources is critical to understanding how we get along with others. Few studies have attempted to investigate how dependent and self-critical individuals actively influence the quality of their interpersonal environments. We examined the influence of two depressive personality styles, dependency and self-criticism, on how individuals exert and relinquish control over shared resources following events that threaten status, such as being outperformed by another, as well as events that may bolster status but also threaten interpersonal relatedness, such as outperforming a friend. Forty pairs of female college friends participated in a 2 × 2 between-factor laboratory experiment. Participants were allowed to believe firstly that they outperformed a close friend or were outperformed by a close friend and secondly that friends generally agreed or disagreed with them. Results showed that events, like being outperformed by a friend or outperforming a close friend influenced both mood and feelings of superiority. Results also showed that when interpersonal relatedness was threatened, dependent women maintained interpersonal relatedness by adopting the responses of less competent friends, by relinquishing control over shared resources, and by minimizing disagreement. In contrast, self-critical women promoted status by actively controlling a shared resource, even at the expense of a close friend, regardless of the status or behaviour of that friend.

Interpersonal responses to threats to status and interpersonal relatedness: Effects of dependency and self‐criticism

Previous research investigating the interpersonal environments of dependent and self-critical individuals has focused primarily on attachment issues, such as relationship satisfaction. In the present study, we examined how dependent and self-critical individuals respond to experimentally manipulated events that threaten or bolster self-worth and status. Forty pairs of female college students were allowed to believe, first, that they outperformed a close friend or were outperformed by a close friend on 14 trials of a behaviour detection task and, second, that friends generally agreed or disagreed with them on a second 14 trials, in which participants informed friends who had the better response. Dependent women were more concerned with maintaining interpersonal relatedness, whereas self-critical women were more concerned with preserving self-worth and status. Dependent women adopted the responses of friends they outperformed, praised friends even when friends disagreed, and minimized disagreement with disagreeing friends. In contrast, self-critical individuals contested threats to status and self-worth, withheld praise from friends who challenged them, and did not minimize disagreement with disagreeing friends. Results support the utility of an interactional framework in which depressive personality styles, such as dependency and self-criticism, and situational events interact to regulate interpersonal behaviour.

Depressive personality styles: Implications for adult attachment

The depressive personality styles described by Blatt (dependency and self-criticism) and Beck (sociotropy and autonomy) are thought to be associated with distinctive approaches to close relationships. Two studies were conducted to examine the interpersonal correlates of Blatt and Beck's constructs using the conceptual framework of attachment theory. In Study 1, male and female undergraduates completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), the Personal Style Inventory (PSI), Collins and Read's ( Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 644–663, 1990) measure of adult attachment style, and measures of satisfaction, trust, and self-disclosure in romantic relationships. In Study 2, male and female undergraduates completed the DEQ, the PSI, and a measure of the two dimensions underlying Bartholomew and Horowitz' ( Journal of Personlity and Social Psychology, 61, 226–244, 1991) four-category attachment system. Dependency and Sociotropy were associated with an anxious attachment style. Self-Criticism and Autonomy were associated with a fearful avoidant attachment style, although Autonomy implied higher levels of avoidance. Similarities and differences between Blatt and Beck's constructs were discussed, and processes mediating vulnerability to dysphoria were identified.

Depressive Personality Styles and the Five-Factor Model of Personality

The depressive personality constructs described by Blatt (1990; Dependency and Self-Criticism) and Beck (1983; Sociotropy and Autonomy) were examined in relation to the five-factor model of personality. Male (N = 91) and female (N = 81) undergraduates completed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (Blatt, D'Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976), the Personal Style Inventory (Robins et al., 1993), and the NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI; Costa & McCrae, 1985). Friends of the subjects completed a peer-report version of the NEO-PI. Dependency and Sociotropy were positively correlated with Neuroticism and with Agreeableness in both men and women. In women, Self-Criticism and Autonomy were positively correlated with Neuroticism and negatively correlated with Agreeableness. In men, Self-Criticism was positively correlated with Neuroticism, but Autonomy was negatively correlated with Agreeableness and Openness. Similarities and differences between Blatt and Beck's constructs were discussed. Research addressing vulnerability to depression may be able to profit from work on the five-factor model of personality.