Depression and social problem solving.

Twenty depressed patients with major depressive disorder, 20 nondepressed matched control subjects, and 17 patients with anxiety disorders were compared in different measures of social problem solving. Problem solving was assessed with the Means-Ends Problem-Solving Test (Study 1), the solution of personal problems, and a problem-solving questionnaire (Study 2). Results showed that, as predicted, depressed subjects suffered from a deficit in problem solving in all three measures. The majority of these deficits were also displayed by the clinical control group rather than being specific to a diagnosis of depression. However, depressed subjects produced less effective solutions than did normal and clinical control subjects. The results suggest that depressed and anxious patients may have difficulties at different stages of the problem-solving process.     

Reasoning in depression: Impairment on a concept discrimination learning task

Abstract

This study compared depressed and nondepressed undergraduates identified by the Beck Depression Inventory on concept discrimination learning problems. In two experiments, both groups generally performed at ceiling when solving simpler 1- and 2-dimensional problems, but the depressed subjects showed significant impairment on 4-dimensional problems. The first experiment investigated the role of storage in task performance. The second experiment was designed to focus attention at critical stages, and also manipulated storage demands. The depressed subjects in each experiment solved fewer problems correctly and made significantly more errors when listing hypotheses; there was little evidence that the experimental manipulations differentially facilitated their performance. The findings are considered in relation to current models of cognitive function in depression.     

Interpersonal betrayal and cooperation: effects on self-evaluation in depression

Despite numerous studies demonstrating that depressed people are generally self-critical, little is known about interpersonal stressors that may activate or increase this negative self-evaluation. In this study, the effect of interpersonal betrayal and cooperative social interaction on self-evaluation processes in depressed and nondepressed women was assessed. Depressed subjects who experienced interpersonal betrayal were more critical of their performance on a subsequent task than were nondepressed subjects or depressed subjects who had experienced a cooperative interaction. Depressed subjects in the betrayal condition also behaved more aggressively toward their betraying partner than did nondepressed betrayed subjects. Depressed subjects were more critical of their own personality characteristics than were nondepressed subjects, regardless of condition. Results suggest that some negative cognitive schema among depressed persons may be altered by interpersonal factors, although it is not clear whether such effects are secondary to increases in self-criticism after conflict or to decreases in self-critical tendencies after positive interaction. Given the variability in results with different measures of self-evaluation, researchers are urged to use multiple, diverse measures of self-evaluation in future efforts to study variability in self-appraisal.     

Enhancing memory and imagination improves problem solving among individuals with depression

Recent work has revealed links between memory, imagination, and problem solving, and suggests that increasing access to detailed memories can lead to improved imagination and problem-solving performance. Depression is often associated with overgeneral memory and imagination, along with problem-solving deficits. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that an interview designed to elicit detailed recollections would enhance imagination and problem solving among both depressed and nondepressed participants. In a within-subjects design, participants completed a control interview or an episodic specificity induction prior to completing memory, imagination, and problem-solving tasks. Results revealed that compared to the control interview, the episodic specificity induction fostered increased detail generation in memory and imagination and more relevant steps on the problem-solving task among depressed and nondepressed participants. This study builds on previous work by demonstrating that a brief interview can enhance problem solving among individuals with depression and supports the notion that episodic memory plays a key role in problem solving. It should be noted, however, that the results of the interview are relatively short-lived.     

Should information be redundantly distributed among group members? Effective use of group memory in collaborative problem solving

This study examined the relation between the redundancy in task assignment and group performance. It was predicted that assigning items to group members too redundantly would undermine group problem‐solving performance. To test this prediction, dyads and triads engaged in a problem‐solving task. A logic puzzle solvable with seven clues was employed as the task. Participants were asked to memorize the clues before engaging in group problem solving. In the shared condition, all seven clues were assigned to each group member. In the unshared condition, a portion of the seven clues was assigned to each member. Unshared triads whose members were assigned the smallest number of clues were most likely to return the correct solution. This result suggests that less redundant item assignment led to successful problem solving via information pooling among group members. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Depressive self-presentation: beyond self-handicapping

An experiment was conducted to examine the notion that depressives' responses would reflect a protective self-presentation style (Hill, Weary, & Williams, 1986), the underlying goal of which would be the avoidance of future performance demands and potential losses in self-esteem. In this study, depressed and nondepressed Ss were asked to perform a relatively simple visual-motor task. Half of the depressed and half of the nondepressed Ss were told that if they were successful at the task, they would be asked to perform a 2nd, similar task. The remaining Ss were given no such expectation of future performance. We predicted and found that depressed compared with nondepressed Ss strategically failed at the task when presented with the possibility of future performance and further losses in esteem. Moreover, this strategic failure was associated with some costs; depressed-future performance expectancy Ss experienced more discomfort or negative affect as a result of their performance. The relationship between this depressive self-presentation and self-handicapping strategies is discussed.     

Social context and perceived task difficulty as mediators of depressive self-evaluation

This study examined two separate, but potentially interactive, influences on depressive self-evaluation: social context and perceptions of task difficulty. First, it was hypothesized that, if negative self-evaluations of depressed individuals are motivated by a desire to elicit attention and sympathy from others, depressed subjects should evaluate themselves more negatively than nondepressed subjects in a public setting, but not when they make self-evaluative judgments in private. Second, it was hypothesized that negative self-evaluation results from a bias to perceive tasks as being intrinsically easy, i.e., if a task is easy, a given score would be evaluated more poorly than if the task were difficult. It was found that the self-evaluations of depressed subjects were influenced by the social context, but not always in a negative direction. Depressed subjects did not differ from nondepressed subjects when performance evaluations were made in private. In a public condition, depressed subjects evaluated themselves more negatively than nondepressed subjects following an easy task, but evaluated themselves more positively following a difficult task. Depressed subjects did not evidence a bias to perceive tasks as being intrinsically easy. Depressed subjects did rate the tasks to be more difficult for themselves than they thought they would be for others and this expectancy was predictive of negative self-evaluation. These results were discussed in terms of alternative self-presentation motives and theories of social cognition. Self-evaluation often involves social comparison and researchers need to attend to the potentially complex interactions among social and cognitive processes.I would like to thank Deborah Davis and Paul Westerholm for their help in data collection, Ruth Maki for her statistical expertise, and the anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. Portions of this paper were presented at the Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, 1989.     

Construct accessibility and depression: an examination of cognitive and affective factors

Two studies in which the parameters of construct accessibility in depression were examined are reported. In Experiment 1, depressed and nondepressed subjects were required to name the colors of tachistiscopically presented depressed-content, neutral-content, and manic-content words. Because of the predicted accessibility and interference effects of the depressed-content words, the depressed subjects were expected to demonstrate longer response latencies to these words than to the non-depressed-content words. This response pattern was found for the depressed subjects; the nondepressed subjects did not demonstrate differential response latencies. In Experiment 2, a mood-induction paradigm was used to investigate whether the interference effects obtained in Experiment 1 were due to temporary mood differences between the depressed and nondepressed subjects, or were a function of more stable depression-associated patterns of information processing. Although predicted group differences were obtained on a mood adjective checklist, no effects were found for task performance. These results suggest that transient mood is not a sufficient explanation for the results obtained in Experiment 1. The implications of the present findings for the understanding of both construct accessibility and depression are discussed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

Contingency judgments by depressed college students: sadder but not always wiser

We examined depressed and nondepressed college students' perceptions of control over outcomes in a task similar to the one introduced by Alloy and Abramson (1979, Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, when subjects completed a contingency learning task with no one else present, nondepressed subjects perceived themselves to have more control over frequently occurring response-independent outcomes than did depressed subjects, which replicated Alloy and Abramson's finding. When subjects completed the task in the presence of an observer, depressed students perceived themselves to have more control than did nondepressed students. In Experiment 2, the observer effects found in Experiment 1 were replicated, and we extended those results by showing that when response-independent outcomes occurred relatively infrequently, depressed and nondepressed subjects who completed the task in the presence of an observer did not reliably differ in their estimates of personal control. In Experiment 3, which included minor procedural variations from the other experiments, the pattern of results found in Experiments 1 and 2 was replicated under conditions in which observers were present while subjects received frequently occurring outcomes. Together, the results of the three experiments demonstrate that the consistently accurate personal control estimates of depressed subjects that have been found across a variety of situations break down when subjects complete a contingency learning task in the presence of an observer, and outcomes occur independently of response at a high frequency.     

Modeling collective choice: decision‐making on complex intellective tasks

Three studies examined group problem‐solving on complex intellective tasks. In Study 1, a decision model proposed by Laughlin and Hollingshead ( 1995 ) provided the best fit to actual group choices. This study also compared three‐person group versus individual performance with time constrained and number of problems unconstrained, with individuals solving non‐significantly more problems and groups obtaining significantly superior trials‐to‐solution scores. In Study 2, one member of each group was given additional information on how to perform the task and member extroversion was measured. Neither factor significantly impacted the decision‐making process. In Study 3, task expertise was assessed prior to the group interaction. Results indicate that group members were twice as likely to adopt an option proposed by an expert compared to other group members. Together these studies demonstrate that group problem solving is governed jointly by qualities of the task and qualities of the group members. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Depression and interpersonal attraction: the role of perceived similarity

We hypothesized that depressed individuals are generally viewed as dissimilar and that this perceived dissimilarity contributes to negative reactions to the depressed. In addition, we hypothesized that if perceived similarity affects liking of depressed individuals, then nondepressed subjects should prefer nondepressed targets, but depressed subjects should not share this preference. To test these hypotheses, depressed and nondepressed subjects received information about two targets, both either depressed or nondepressed, one attitudinally dissimilar and one attitudinally similar. They were then asked to fill out an attraction measure and an interest in meeting measure for each target. The results clearly supported the primary hypotheses, demonstrating that nondepressed subjects preferred nondepressed targets and perceived them as more similar than depressed targets, and that this preference for nondepressed targets is not shared by depressed subjects. Tests of supplementary hypotheses also confirmed that depressed subjects perceive their best friends as being more depressed and more dissimilar than do nondepressed subjects. The implications of these findings for the social world of the depressed were discussed.     

Biases in Visual Attention in Depressed and Nondepressed Individuals

Abstract

The present study utilised a cognitive paradigm to examine attentional biases in mildly depressed persons. Twelve depressed and 12 nondepressed subjects completed an attentional task similar to that employed by MacLeod, Mathews, and Tata (1986). A tachistiscope was used to present subjects with a series of word pairs, each with one word printed above the other. Three types of word pairs were presented: manic-neutral, depressed-neutral, and manic-depressed. Selective attention to one member of a word pair was assessed using ac perception task. Based on cognitive models of depression, it was hypothesised that the depressed subjects would attend more to depressed-content words than to manic- or neutral-content words, whereas the nondepressed subjects would not exhibit any attentional biases. In contrast to these predictions, analyses indicated that whereas the depressed subjects attended equally to depressed-, manic-, and neutral-content words, the nondepressed subjects attended more to manic-content than they did to neutral- or depressed-content words. These results add support to the documentation of evenhandedness in the cognitive functioning of depressed subjects, and of self-sewing biases in nondepressed subjects. The present findings are discussed in terms of a zoom lens model of attention, in which depressed persons attempt to exhaustively process their sensory world, but with a loss of attentional resolution. In contrast, nondepressed individuals attempt to process a more limited portion of their sensory world, but with an increase in attentional power. Finally, directions for future research in this area are offered.     

Peer Nominations for Leadership and Likability in Problem-Solving Groups as a Function of Gender and Task

Abstract

The relation of situational variables and gender to leadership selection and likability ratings was examined. Six mixed-gender groups of American students were given either an impersonal or personal task. There were measurements of frequency of speaking, leadership nominations, and likability ratings by group members. No significant differences in task performance associated with gender were found, but, consistent with traditional sex roles, in impersonal groups male students spoke more and were selected as leaders and most important contributors more frequently than were female students. The reverse was found for personal groups, in which women spoke more, were chosen as leaders more often, and received higher contribution rankings. Likability ratings were not as strongly determined by context: Female students were selected more frequently as most likable in both groups.     

Performance and Perceptions of Brainstormers in an Organizational Setting

Employees of a corporation who had undergone considerable training for effective teamwork were asked to brainstorm about a job-relevant issue in groups of four or alone. One half of the groups brainstormed alone first, and the other half brainstormed as a group before brainstorming alone. Participants were also asked to rate their performance and indicate whether they would perform better in groups or alone on a brainstorming task. Consistent with past laboratory research, groups generated only about half as many ideas as a similar number of individuals (nominal group), and group brainstorming led to more favorable perceptions of individual performance. Participants also believed that they would brainstorm more effectively in a group than alone. These results indicate that productivity losses in brainstorming groups are not restricted to laboratory groups. Such losses occur even in groups who work together on a daily basis, have considerable training in group dynamics, and are dealing with a job-relevant issue. The sequence of alone to group brainstorming did not influence overall productivity. The relation of this research to that of facilitated and electronic brainstorming is discussed.     

Efficiency and automaticity of self-schema processing in clinical depressives

In this study, female clinical depressives and nondepressed control subjects made a series of self-referent personality judgments concerning depressed and nondepressed content personal adjectives. Employing rating times (RTs) for the personality decisions as a dependent measure, it was found that both clinical depressives and nondepressed psychiatric controls processed self-schema congruent content more efficiently (with quicker RTs), than incongruent content. To further test for the automaticity of self-schema processing, half the depressed and nondepressed adjectives were rated while subjects held six digits in memory (a concurrent memory load). Here it was found that the independent variable of memory load (zero vs. six digits) did not interact significantly with the remaining independent variables of groups (clinical depressives, psychiatric nondepressives, normal nondepressives), decision type (yes, no), and adjective content (depressed, nondepressed). The lack of any interactions involving the memory load factor provides initial evidence for self-schema processing as an automatic process, rather than as a process that demands attentional capacity.This research was supported, in part, by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship to Michael R. MacDonald.     

Depressed and nondepressed content self-reference in mild depressives

The present research investigated the extent to which mild depressives and normals differed in their self-referent processing of personal information. In Experiment 1, these subjects made two types of ratings on depressed (e.g., bleak, dismal) and nondepressed (e.g., loyal, organized) content personal adjectives. Half of the adjectives in each content category were rated for a semantic attribute (Does this word have a specific meaning or relate to a specific situation?), whereas half were rated for degree of self-reference (Does this word describe you?). These ratings were followed immediately by an incidental recall task, in which subjects recalled as many of the adjectives as possible. Consistent with predictions generated from a content-specific self-schema model, normals displayed superior recall for self-referenced nondepressed content adjectives, when compared to recall for self-referenced depressed content adjectives and recall for semantic ratings (both depressed and nondepressed content). In contrast, mild depressives exhibited enhanced self-referent recall for both types of content, when compared to their recall for semantic adjectives. This finding suggested that mild depressives utilize a self-schema which incorporates both depressed and nondepressed content. Experiment 2 explored this suggestion further by substituting an other-referent rating task (Does this word describe Pierre Trudeau?) for the semantic judgment used in Experiment 1. Again, consistent with a content-specific self-schema model, normals displayed superior recall only for self-referenced nondepressed adjectives. Mild depressives, however, showed enhanced self-referent recall, relative to other-referent recall, only for depressed content adjectives. For nondepressed content, mild depressives did not distinguish between the self- and other-referent conditions. This finding hinted that the nondepressed component of the mild depressives self-schema may operate at a somewhat reduced effectiveness, but only when required to differentiate between self and others.     

Stress reactivity and coping in seasonal and nonseasonal depression

Stress, stress reactivity, and coping skill use were examined in individuals with seasonal depression, nonseasonal depression, and nondepressed controls. Although participants in the two depressed groups reported using more avoidance coping strategies than controls, only participants in the seasonal depressed group reported using more season-specific coping (i.e., light-related strategies) than participants in the nonseasonal depressed and control groups. Individuals in the seasonal depressed group also reporting using acceptance coping strategies less frequently than individuals in the control group. Only participants in the nonseasonal depressed group, however, exhibited greater psychophysiological arousal in reaction to a laboratory stressor (i.e., unsolvable anagram task) when compared to participants in the seasonal and nondepressed control groups. Participants in both depressed groups reported greater impact of negative life events during the past 6 months than did controls. Similarities and differences in the two types of depression may have implications for the conceptualization and treatment of seasonal depression.     

Processing of ambiguous and unambiguous feedback by depressed and nondepressed college students: schematic biases and their implications for depressive realism

Explored schematic processing as a mechanism for predicting (a) when depressed Ss would be negative relative to nondepressed Ss and (b) when depressed and nondepressed Ss would show biased or unbiased (i.e., "realistic") processing. Depressed and nondepressed Ss performed multiple trials of a task under conditions in which the two groups held either equivalent or different schemas regarding this task. Ss received either an unambiguous or objectively normed ambiguous feedback cue on each trial. In full support of schematic processing, depressed Ss showed negative encoding relative to nondepressed Ss only when their schemas were more negative, and both depressed and nondepressed Ss showed positively biased, negatively biased, and unbiased encoding depending on the relative feedback cue-to-schema match. Depressed and nondepressed Ss' response latencies to unambiguous feedback also supported the occurrence of schematic processing. We discuss the methodological, treatment, and "realism" implications of these findings and suggest a more precise formulation of Beck's schema theory of depression.