The Children's Attributional Style Interview: Developmental Tests of Cognitive Diathesis-Stress Theories of Depression

This paper presents an initial assessment of the Children's Attributional Style Interview (CASI), a newly designed measure for assessing attributional style in young children (age 5 and up). The CASI was used to conduct prospective tests of the reformulated helplessness (L. Y. Abramson, M. Seligman, & J. Teasdale, 1978) and the integrated hopelessness/self-esteem (G. I. Metalsky, T. E. Joiner, Jr., T. S. Hardin, & L. Y. Abramson, 1993) theories of depression in a sample of 147 5–10-year-old children. For comparison, the same tests were also conducted with the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire-Revised (CASQ-R; N. J. Kaslow & S. Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), a commonly used measure for assessing attributional style in older children (age 8 and up). The CASI evidenced support of the reformulated helplessness theory and partial support of the integrated hopelessness/self-esteem theory. The CASI also demonstrated good internal consistency. Thus, our findings provide initial support for the CASI as a methodologically sound measure of attributional style for children as young as 5 years old. Although preliminary, our findings also suggest possible developmental differences in how attributional style interacts with self-esteem and negative life stress. The CASI should prove to be a useful tool in furthering the understanding of the origins and development of attributional style in childhood, as well as its contribution to the understanding of the development and prevention of depressive symptomatology in children.     

Neighborhood Characteristics and Depression: An Examination of Stress Processes

ABSTRACT— Neighborhoods with poor-quality housing, few resources, and unsafe conditions impose stress, which can lead to depression. The stress imposed by adverse neighborhoods increases depression above and beyond the effects of the individual's own personal stressors, such as poverty and negative events within the family or workplace. Furthermore, adverse neighborhoods appear to intensify the harmful impact of personal stressors and interfere with the formation of bonds between people, again increasing risk for depression. Neighborhoods do not affect all people in the same way. People with different personality characteristics adjust in different ways to challenging neighborhoods. As a field, psychology should pay more attention to the impact of contextual factors such as neighborhoods. Neighborhood-level mental health problems should be addressed at the neighborhood level. Public housing policies that contribute to the concentration of poverty should be avoided and research should be conducted on the most effective ways to mobilize neighborhood residents to meet common goals and improve the context in which they live.     

Stress Generation and Adolescent Depression: Contribution of Interpersonal Stress Responses

This research examined the proposal that ineffective responses to common interpersonal problems disrupt youths’ relationships, which, in turn, contributes to depression during adolescence. Youth (86 girls, 81 boys; M age = 12.41, SD = 1.19) and their primary female caregivers participated in a three-wave longitudinal study. Youth completed a measure assessing interpersonal stress responses; youth and caregivers completed semi-structured interviews assessing youths’ life stress and psychopathology. Consistent with the hypothesized model, ineffective stress responses (low levels of effortful engagement, high levels of involuntary engagement and disengagement) predicted the generation of subsequent interpersonal stress, which partially accounted for the association between stress responses and depression over time. Moreover, results revealed that self-generated interpersonal, but not noninterpersonal stress, predicted depression, and that this explanatory model was specific to the prediction of depression but not anxiety. This research builds on interpersonal stress generation models of depression, and highlights the importance of implementing depression-focused intervention programs that promote effective stress responses and adaptive interpersonal relationships during adolescence.     

Individual and Nomothetic Models of Job Stress: An Examination of Work Hours,Cohesion, and Well-Being1

Many models of job stress are implicitly based on the assumption that there is considerable variability in how individuals perceive and respond to their environments. In this paper, we introduce a nomothetic perspective of job stress. The nomothetic perspective assumes that despite individual differences there will be consistencies in how groups of individuals perceive and respond to similar work environments. To contrast the individual and nomothetic perspectives, we analyzed data from 7,382 respondents from 99 groups. In the analyses, we examined individual-and group-level relationships using both real groups and randomly formed groups. The results revealed that respondents from the same work group agreed about perceptions of the work climate. The results also revealed that both individual and nomothetic perspectives were useful in describing the relationship between cohesion and psychological well-being. The relationship between work hours and psychological well-being, however, was best modeled from a nomothetic perspective.     

Perfectionism,Hopelessness, And Suicide Ideation: Revisions to Diathesis-Stress and Specific Vulnerability Models

The current study examined variables (daily hassles, self-esteem, dispositional optimism, coping modes, and perceived social support) that could potentially moderate associations between dimensions of perfectionism and current feelings of hopelessness and suicide ideation in university students (144 women; 61 men). Our study revealed several significant findings: (1) socially prescribed perfectionism was a significant predictor of suicide ideation, interpersonal hopelessness, and achievement hopelessness for both women and men; (2) self-oriented perfectionism did not have an independent relation with any of the suicide risk outcome variables in either women or men; (3) other-oriented perfectionism was associated negatively with both current hopelessness, particularly interpersonal hopelessness, and suicide ideation in men; (4) the cluster of proposed moderators accounted for additional unique variance in all suicide risk variables in women but in achievement hopelessness only in men; (5) optimism and social hassles were unique predictors but the results varied as a function of gender and outcome; (6) each perfectionism component interacted with specific moderators to enhance or buffer the link between perfectionism and suicide risk. The findings indicate that self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism are possibly adaptive or maladaptive under certain conditions. Implications for the development of comprehensive, multidimensional, integrated models of the perfectionism–suicide risk link and for prevention and treatment in perfectionists at risk of suicide are discussed.

An Interpersonal Analysis of Adult Attachment Style: Circumplex Descriptions, Recalled Developmental Experiences, Self-Representations, and Interpersonal Functioning in Adulthood

Previous research suggests that the structure of adult attachment is dimensional, but the specific dimensions remain unclear. Given its relational nature, studies should examine attachment structure in association with conceptually related interpersonal constructs. The interpersonal model ( Kiesler, 1996 ) provides an integrative framework to examine this structure and associations between dimensions of attachment security (i.e., Anxiety and Avoidance) and: 1) the dimensions of the interpersonal circumplex, 2) the five‐factor model of personality, 3) recollections of mothers and fathers, and 4) current self‐processes and adult social functioning. In two samples of undergraduates, the Anxiety and Avoidance dimensions were associated with a hostile‐submissive interpersonal style. Canonical correlation analyses revealed that dimensions representing combinations of Anxiety and Avoidance, and roughly corresponding to the dimensions from Secure (i.e., low Anxiety and Avoidance) to Fearful (i.e., high Anxiety and Avoidance) attachment and from Preoccupied (i.e., high Anxiety and low Avoidance) to Dismissive (i.e., low Anxiety and high Avoidance) attachment related to the interpersonal constructs. The Secure to Fearful dimension (i.e., overall attachment security) seemed to share relatively more variance with the interpersonal constructs. These dimensions were associated with theoretically consistent characteristics, recollections of early experiences with parents, self‐representations, and social functioning.     

Masculinity, Femininity, and Marital Satisfaction: An Examination of Theoretical Models

ABSTRACT This study sought to investigate the relationship between masculinity, femininity, and marital satisfaction. A number of polynomial multiple regression analyses were performed in an effort to determine the validity of six theoretical models linking sex roles to marital satisfaction. These are the femininity model, masculinity model, sex-typed model, additive androgynous model, interactive androgynous model, and curvilinear model. The sample was composed of 117 couples who completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (Bem, 1974) and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (Spanier, 1976). For men, the results showed that marital satisfaction was related to (a) their self-described levels of femininity and masculinity, (b) the level of self-described femininity of their wives, and (c) the presence of feminine qualities as well as a limited optimal level of masculine qualities which they perceived in their wives. For women, marital satisfaction was associated with (a) the number of self-described feminine qualities and (b) the level of masculinity, as well as an optimal level of femininity, which they perceived in their husbands. Further-more, small actual-ideal discrepancies in levels of masculinity and femininity ascribed to partners constituted reliable predictors of marital satisfaction for both men and women.     

Interpersonal Style and Anxiety

Agoraphobic anxiety has been linked to traditional feminine sex role attitudes and related dyadic interactions. This research correlated measures of panic experience and agoraphobic anxiety with interpersonal style in a college student population. Significant positive correlations were observed between anxiety scores and the following interpersonal styles: submissive/deferent, self-effacing/obedient, mistrusting/cold, submissive, inhibited, and unassured. Results lend support to clinical reports that some individuals may develop agoraphobic symptoms as a result of the interaction of interpersonal style with relationship patterns.     

Towards an Integration of Interpersonal Risk Models of Depression and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy: A Commentary on What Constitutes Interpersonal Therapy

The article by Dobson, Quigley, and Dozois on interpersonal model provides a very useful guide on how to extend cognitive behavioural models of depression to incorporate interpersonal vulnerabilities that influence how depressed people behave towards others. The point is made that interpersonal processes are very likely to influence the onset and course of depression. In this commentary, I extend this analysis further examining the evidence on how interactions within close relationships, particularly couple relationships, interact with individuals' depression. Evidence is also cited on the effectiveness of couple‐based therapy in treating depression.     

Interpersonal Violence,Depression, and Executive Function

This study considers links between the number of types of violence to which women have been exposed, depression, and executive functions (EFs). Substantial research has established EF deficits among depressed individuals as well as individuals exposed to trauma. Studies have also indicated a relationship between trauma exposure and depressive symptoms across a range of traumatic events, such as combat exposure, motor vehicle accidents, natural disasters, and assaults. This study examines this relationship in an ethnically diverse community sample of 93 women exposed to interpersonal violence who completed a battery of EF tasks that assessed processing speed, working memory, response inhibition, and set shifting. Women reported an average of 5.8 types of interpersonal violence events. The number of types of interpersonal violence events was significantly related to depressive symptoms, although not EF performance. Specific EFs, such as working memory and response inhibition, were positively related to depressive symptoms.     

Rorschach Oral Imagery,Attachment Style,and Interpersonal Relatedness

Data on a college sample (n = 198) were used to examine the hypothesized relationship between Rorschach orality and self-reported attachment style. The number of Rorschach Human responses was also examined. High orals were more often classified as insecure than low orals. Within the low-oral group, however, subjects who produced no oral responses were more likely to be classified as insecure than subjects who produced one oral response, 78% versus 35%; p < .005. This implies that there is heterogeneity within the low-oral group. Neither orality nor attachment security was meaningfully related to the number of Human responses provided, but the Human responses provided by insecure (vs. secure) subjects more frequently evidenced themes of struggle. We concluded that (a) there is a subgroup of low orals who are not interpersonally secure but who, instead, are insecure and interpersonally anxious; and (b) unlike the quality of the Human response, the number of Human responses may not reflect preoccupations with themes of dependency, attachment, and interpersonal relatedness.     

大学生宿舍人际关系与抑郁的关系:宿舍冲突应对方式的中介作用和性别的调节作用

本研究使用宿舍人际关系问卷、抑郁自评量表和宿舍冲突应对方式问卷,采取整群随机抽样的方法,从武汉市三所大学抽取了876名大一至大四的本科生进行调查,旨在考察宿舍冲突应对方式在大学生宿舍人际关系与抑郁之间的中介作用以及性别的调节作用。结果表明：（1）宿舍人际关系与抑郁显著负相关;宿舍冲突应对方式中的竞争、回避与抑郁显著正相关,合作与抑郁显著负相关;（2）竞争与合作在大学生宿舍人际关系与抑郁之间中介效应显著;（3）性别调节了宿舍人际关系通过竞争影响抑郁的中介过程的前半段路径。本研究以宿舍人际关系和宿舍冲突应对方式为切入点考察它们对抑郁的影响机制,这为预防和干预大学生抑郁提供了新的视角。     

Toward an Integration of Interpersonal Risk Models of Depression and Cognitive‐Behaviour Therapy

Empirical research has increasingly focused on interpersonal variables associated with the development and maintenance of depression. This article outlines some key interpersonal risk factors for depression, including anxious attachment, sociotropy, excessive reassurance seeking, interpersonal stress generation, reduced social support, social skills deficits, and social avoidance. Recommendations are made for how cognitive‐behavioural therapy may be adapted to address such factors. Specifically, suggestions are offered for how cognitive and behavioural interventions, such as cognitive restructuring, behavioural activation, behavioural experiments, and skills training, may be used with depressed clients to promote positive relationships and reduce maladaptive interpersonal behaviours.     

Integrating Etiological Models of Social Anxiety and Depression in Youth: Evidence for a Cumulative Interpersonal Risk Model

Models of social anxiety and depression in youth have been developed separately, and they contain similar etiological influences. Given the high comorbidity of social anxiety and depression, we examine whether the posited etiological constructs are a correlate of, or a risk factor for, social anxiety and/or depression at the symptom level and the diagnostic level. We find core risk factors of temperament, genetics, and parent psychopathology (i.e., depression and anxiety) are neither necessary nor sufficient for the development of social anxiety and/or depression. Instead, aspects of children’s relationships with parents and/or peers either mediates (i.e., explains) or moderates (i.e., interacts with) these core risks being related to social anxiety and/or depression. We then examine various parent- and peer-related constructs contained in the separate models of social anxiety and depression (i.e., parent–child attachment, parenting, social skill deficits, peer acceptance and rejection, peer victimization, friendships, and loneliness). Throughout our review, we report evidence for a Cumulative Interpersonal Risk model that incorporates both core risk factors and specific interpersonal risk factors. Most studies fail to consider comorbidity, thus little is known about the specificity of these various constructs to depression and/or social anxiety. However, we identify shared, differential, and cumulative risks, correlates, consequences, and protective factors. We then put forth demonstrated pathways for the development of depression, social anxiety, and their comorbidity. Implications for understanding comorbidity are highlighted throughout, as are theoretical and research directions for developing and refining models of social anxiety, depression, and their comorbidity. Prevention and treatment implications are also noted.     

倦怠、应激和抑郁

倦怠是“在以人为服务对象的职业领域中,个体的一种情感耗竭、人格解体和个人成就感降低的症状”。在倦怠研究的文献中,存在着严重的倦怠、应激和抑郁的概念混淆现象。文章对工作倦怠、工作应激和抑郁的联系与区别进行了详细阐述,并指明了未来的研究方向,具有重要的理论意义。     

Social Structure, Self-Conception and Well-Being: An Examination of Four Models with Unemployed People

A cross-sectional questionnaire design ( n = 88) was used to investigate the relationship between social structure, self-conception and well-being. Distinctions were drawn between public and private self-esteem and, within private self-esteem, between self-evaluation and self-affection. Significantly poorer public and private self-esteem scores were observed for unemployed subjects than for an employed control group. The predictions of four accounts of psychological well-being/distress that draw upon these self-concept dimensions were tested. Results supported symbolic interactionist and self-discrepancy theory and, to a lesser extent, self-enhancement theory. No support was found for a self-verification theory approach. Implications of the study for social psychological research on the consequences of unemployment and for accounts of negative affect are outlined.     

Cognitive Development Masks Support for Attributional Style Models of Depression in Children and Adolescents

Attributional style models of depression in adults (Abramson et al. 1989, 1978) have been adapted for use with children; however, most applications do not consider that children's understanding of causal relations may be qualitatively different from that of adults. If children's causal attributions depend on children's level of cognitive development, then support for attributional models of depression in young people will vary with cognitive development. In this paper, a new measure of cognitive development, the Peabody Causal Reasoning Test (PCRT), is introduced to assess children's understanding of ability versus effort, task difficulty, and luck as causal factors. Analyses revealed that in 8- to 16-year-old children, failure to control for level of cognitive development suppressed empirical support for cognitive diathesis-stress models of depression. Statistically controlling for measures of cognitive development strengthened support for this model.     

Predicting Stereotype Threat,Test Anxiety,and Cognitive Ability Test Performance: An Examination of Three Models

As the classroom and workplace, among other contexts, become more diverse in their population characteristics, the need to be aware of specific factors impacting testing outcome issues correspondingly increases. The focus in this study, among other purposes, was to identify possible interactions between examinee's individual-difference characteristics (e.g., personality) and characteristics of the testing environment on test anxiety reactions and cognitive ability test performance. This study assessed reactions and performance in 4 different testing conditions through a path-analytic testing of 3 well-established theoretical models of stress appraisal and coping (i.e., cognitive appraisal, personality trait, and transactional). The transactional model, incorporating both personality and testing condition factors, was best in predicting the variance associated with the cognitive ability test scores, the 3 test anxiety score indexes (i.e., social derogation, physical tenseness, and cognitive obstruction), and the stereotype threat scores. With personality traits, for example, agreeableness was a relatively strong and consistent predictor of all study measures. Regarding testing condition factors, only the manipulation of stereotype threat level (low or high) produced some significant accounting of variance. Higher perceived stereotype threat levels were generally associated with heightened stereotype threat belief perceptions, lower cognitive ability test scores, and, interestingly, reduced feelings of cognitive obstruction in test anxiety.