Cognitive and marital factors in depression

The current investigation examines three groups of wives: (1) a group of nondepressed, nondiscordant community wives; (2) a group of nondepressed, discordant clinic wives; and (3) a group of depressed, discordant clinic wives. Groups were formed on the basis of structured interview responses and responses to a self-report inventory of depressive symptomatology. To be classified as depressed, wives were required to meet DSM III criteria for depression according to interview data and to exceed a Beck Depression Inventory score of 14. Both clinic groups showed equal levels of marital discord. Both nondepressed groups showed equally few cognitive errors. Accordingly, comparisons of these three groups allow us to test current interpersonal and cognitive theories of depression. The level of closeness in the marriage differentiated the depressed, discordant from the nondepressed, discordant wives despite their equal levels of overall marital discord. The level of depressive symptomatology was greater for the nondepressed clinic wives than it was for the community wives despite their equal levels of cognitive errors. Both closeness in the marriage and cognitive errors accounted for the unique variance in level of depression. Implications for current interpersonal and cognitive accounts of depression are discussed.Support for this research came in part from NIMH Grant 38390-02. Portions of this paper were presented at the 25th Annual Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy.     

Cognitive vulnerability to depression during middle childhood: Stability and associations with maternal affective styles and parental depression

Theories of cognitive vulnerability to depression (CVD) imply that CVD is early-emerging and trait-like; however, little longitudinal work has tested this premise in middle childhood, or examined theoretically relevant predictors of child CVD. We examined test–retest correlations of self-referent encoding task performance and self-reported attributional styles and their associations with parental characteristics in 205 seven-year-olds. At baseline, child CVD was assessed, structured clinical interviews were conducted with parents, and ratings of observed maternal affective styles were made. Children’s CVD was re-assessed approximately one and two years later. Both measures of children’s CVD were prospectively and concurrently associated with children’s depressive symptoms and showed modest stability. Multilevel modeling indicated that maternal criticism and paternal depression were related to children’s CVD. Findings indicate that even early-emerging CVD is a valid marker of children’s depression risk.     

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.     

Cognitive,affective and social mechanisms in depression risk: Cognition,hostility, and coping style

Although some research has assessed cognitive variables in individuals at risk for depression, few studies have specifically assessed the role of automatic thinking, and virtually no studies have assessed anger and coping in this group. The current study compared measures of these variables in a high-risk group that was defined on the basis of a previous episode of depression, and a control group comprised of low-risk/never depressed individuals. Even though neither group evidenced depressive symptoms at the time of assessment, group comparisons and regression analyses indicated that high-risk individuals reported more negative automatic thoughts than did low-risk participants and that social support seeking, self-blame, and avoidance emerged as coping predictors of risk as did higher levels of anger and hostility. These data thus suggest patterns of interpersonal, behavioural, and cognitive variables that may characterise depression risk.     

Cognitive and affective development in adolescence

Questions about the nature of normative and atypical development in adolescence have taken on special significance in the last few years, as scientists have begun to recast old portraits of adolescent behavior in the light of new knowledge about brain development. Adolescence is often a period of especially heightened vulnerability as a consequence of potential disjunctions between developing brain, behavioral and cognitive systems that mature along different timetables and under the control of both common and independent biological processes. Taken together, these developments reinforce the emerging understanding of adolescence as a critical or sensitive period for a reorganization of regulatory systems, a reorganization that is fraught with both risks and opportunities.     

Cognitive factors associated with depression and anxiety in adolescents: A two-year longitudinal study

Background/Objective: To examine the roles of anxiety sensitivity and attentional bias in the development of anxiety and depression symptoms among adolescents. Method: 214 grade 7 to grade 10 Hong Kong Chinese students completed a package of psychometric inventories to measure levels of anxiety sensitivity, selective attentional processing, and anxiety and depressive symptoms in 2016 and then again in 2017. Results: Girls, when compared with boys, exhibited more anxiety symptoms and anxiety sensitivity in 2016. They also reported a significant increase in mean depression level from 2016 to 2017. Regression analyses revealed that the physical-concerns dimension of anxiety sensitivity, positive attentional bias, and to a lesser extent negative attentional bias were related to the development of both anxiety and depression symptoms one year later. Fear of mental incapacity could predict depression one year later but not anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: Intervention through anxiety sensitivity training to reduce somatic concerns and attentional bias modification to increase habitual attention to positive stimuli and to disengage from negative stimuli can reduce anxiety and depression symptoms among high school students.     

Cognitive and affective matching effects in persuasion: an amplification perspective

Past research suggests that cognitive and affective attitudes are more open to change toward cognitive and affective (i.e., matched) persuasive attacks, respectively. The present research investigates how attitude certainty influences this openness. Although an extensive literature suggests that certainty generally reduces an attitude's openness to change, the authors explore the possibility that certainty might increase an attitude's openness to change in the context of affective or cognitive appeals. Based on the recently proposed amplification hypothesis, the authors posit that high (vs. low) attitude certainty will boost the resistance of attitudes to mismatched attacks (e.g., affective attitudes attacked by cognitive messages) but boost the openness of attitudes to matched attacks (e.g., affective attitudes attacked by affective messages). Two experiments provide support for this hypothesis. Implications for increasing the openness of attitudes to both matched and mismatched attacks are discussed.     

Cognitive and affective consequences of repressive coping

This investigation examined whether repressors, individuals who seem especially reactive to emotional stimuli, would attempt to control their emotional reactions to unpleasant events, and whether such attempts would impair repressors’ recall for those stimuli. Participants viewed either an unpleasant or an emotionally neutral film and then reported their mood following the film and their recall memory for details in the film. Repressors reported a more pleasant mood than nonrepressors after the unpleasant film. Repressors did not, however, differ from non-repressors in their memory for details in the film. The results suggest that while repressors are efficient regulators of emotion, the cognitive effects of the repressive coping style are less clear. This research was supported by a University of Plymouth QR grant to the first author.     

Cognitive biases and depression

Compared symptomatically depressed, clinically remitted, and normal controls using cognitive measures designed to be traitlike and statelike in cross-sectional and longitudinal designs, respectively. Remitted depressives and normal subjects did not differ in their attributional biases, endorsement of dysfunctional attitudes, or interpretation of schema-relevant ambiguous events, but both groups differed from symptomatic depressives. Depressive episodes thus affect cognition, but cognitions measured by self-reports are more statelike than traitlike.     

Cognitive and affective predictors of boredom proneness

Boredom proneness has been linked to various forms of cognitive and affective dysregulation including poor self-control and mind-wandering (MW), as well as depression and aggression. As such, understanding boredom and the associated cognitive and affective components of the experience, represents an important first step in combatting the consequences of boredom for psychological well-being. We surveyed 1928 undergraduate students on measures of boredom proneness, self-control, MW, depression and aggression to investigate how these constructs were related. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that self-control operated as a strong negative predictor of boredom proneness. Finally, when controlling for age and self-control, we observed large decreases in the magnitudes of the relationships between boredom proneness and our other measures of interest. Together, these results imply a strong relationship between boredom proneness and cognitive and affective dysregulation, and show that individual levels of self-control can account for the lion’s share of variance in the relationships between boredom, cognition, and affect.     

Cognitive and affective consequences of repressive coping

This investigation examined whether repressors, individuals who seem especially reactive to emotional stimuli, would attempt to control their emotional reactions to unpleasant events, and whether such attempts would impair repressors’ recall for those stimuli. Participants viewed either an unpleasant or an emotionally neutral film and then reported their mood following the film and their recall memory for details in the film. Repressors reported a more pleasant mood than nonrepressors after the unpleasant film. Repressors did not, however, differ from non-repressors in their memory for details in the film. The results suggest that while repressors are efficient regulators of emotion, the cognitive effects of the repressive coping style are less clear. This research was supported by a University of Plymouth QR grant to the first author.     

Cognitive inhibition in depression

Cognitive inhibition is a key mechanism in the regulation of emotion. There is emerging evidence that depression is characterized by deficits in the inhibition of mood-congruent material. These deficits could result in prolonged processing of negative, goal-irrelevant aspects of presented information thereby hindering recovery from negative mood and leading to the sustained negative affect that characterizes depressive episodes. Indeed, it has been suggested that deficits in cognitive inhibition lie at the heart of memory and attention biases in depression, and set the stage for ruminative responses to negative events and negative mood states. A ruminative response style results in a heightened vulnerability to experience episodes of major depression. Recent research has demonstrated that deficient inhibition of negative material is associated with heightened rumination. In this article, we review the depression literature with a focus on studies that investigate cognitive inhibition in depressed participants and in participants who report a history of major depressive episodes. In addition, we summarize neurobiological findings that indicate a strong relation between depression and deficits in inhibition and we take a closer look at the relation of inhibition, rumination and mood regulation.     

Attentional control in depression: A translational affective neuroscience approach

Translational research refers to the application of basic science to address clinical problems and acquire knowledge that can be used to guide and refine clinical practice. This special issue of Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience seeks to explore and integrate some of the most promising findings offered by recent cognitive and affective neuroscience studies in hopes of filling the gap between basic and applied research, thereby heightening our understanding of vulnerability for depression. The studies presented in this special issue focus specifically on attentional processes. We solicited contributions from leading researchers involved in basic cognitive and neuroscience research investigating processes underlying depression-related disturbances in emotion processing. In this introductory article, we present an integrative overview to demonstrate how these specific contributions might be valuable for translational research.     

Cognitive and affective predictors of academic achievement in schoolchildren

The ability of the theory of planned behaviour to predict objectively measured outcomes was tested in school‐age children. Study 1 (N=71) showed that the theory of planned behaviour accounted for significant proportions of the variance in intention and that the intentions predicted scores in a science test; study 2 (N=175) replicated these effects across a broader range of subjects. In addition, study 2 explored the mechanism by which intention was translated into action and demonstrated that intention stability moderated the intention‐academic achievement relationship. Moreover, controlling for a range of cognitive and affective variables, intention and positive affect were independent predictors of intention stability. These findings suggest that although positive affect did not influence intention directly, it did influence intention stability, the mechanism by which intentions are translated into action. Future educational interventions should therefore influence both cognitive and affective factors to promote sustained motivation.     

Cognitive and affective patterns of alcoholics: Implications for group therapy

Alcoholics bring unique problems with them into treatment. This paper reviews the research on their cognitive and affective patterns of behavior. These include a low expectation of success in interpersonal relationships, the use of denial, insensitivity to mood states, and faulty attribution patterns. These difficulties hamper the expressive dimensions of their relationships with others and manifest themselves in the group therapy setting. Recommendations for facilitating group cohesion and developing an agenda are presented. Also discussed are the interactional means by which the work of the group is done. The supportive interchange is noted as a method by which group members gain access to the deeper layers of each other. The remedial interchange is the interactional means by which group members challenge each other and resolve conflicts.     

Cognitive and affective bases of opinion survey responses

Two experiments investigated the determinants of agreement with propositions that advocated social privileges for either people in general or specific social groups. Liking for the group to which a group-specific proposition referred had a contrast effect on agreement with a related general proposition that was considered immediately after it, but had a positive influence on agreement with a general proposition that did not occur until several items later. The latter effect was eliminated by instructing Ss to base their judgments on the consequences of the policies described in the propositions. Instructions to base judgments on affective reactions to the propositions produced contrast effects of group-specific propositions on judgments of general ones regardless of whether these items were separated or together in the questionnaire.     

Cognitive dysfunction in depression: neurocircuitry and new therapeutic strategies

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a disabling medical condition associated with significant morbidity, mortality and public health costs. However, neurocircuitry abnormalities underlying depression remain incompletely understood and consequently current treatment options are unfortunately limited in efficacy. Recent research has begun to focus specifically on cognitive aspects of depression and potential neurobiological correlates. Two fundamental types of cognitive dysfunction observed in MDD are cognitive biases, which include distorted information processing or attentional allocation toward negative stimuli, and cognitive deficits, which include impairments in attention, short-term memory and executive functioning. In this article, we present a selective review of current research findings in these domains and examine neuroimaging research that is beginning to characterize the neurocircuitry underlying these biases and deficits. We propose that deficient cognitive functioning, attention biases and the sustained negative affect characteristic of MDD can be understood as arising in part from dysfunctional prefrontal-subcortical circuitry and related disturbances in the cognitive control of emotion. Finally, we highlight potential new pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapeutic strategies for MDD based on an evolving mechanistic understanding of the disorder.     

Cognitive deficits in major depression

Major depression is a mood disorder that is often accompanied by the impairment of cognitive functions. Although suggestive, the large range of existing neuropsychological, neuropsychiatric, and, lately, neuroimaging investigations have not yet given a consistent picture of the psychological and biological disturbances involved in this psychiatric disorder. The present study of the cognitive functions in depression was part of an extensive investigation, including neuropsychological testing, psychiatric examination, and neuroimaging. A representative sample of 40 severely depressed hospitalized patients and a group of 49 closely matched control subjects were tested with an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Results, corrected for various confounding factors, confirmed the current notion that depressed patients suffer from wide-spread cognitive impairments. The group analysis did not allow any hypothesis on a possible pattern to the dysfunctions, but heterogeneity in the test performances calls for further analysis of the data in patient subgroups in relation to neuroimaging results.