Perception of self and other in major depression.

Previous research on the nature of person perception in depression has been inconclusive. This investigation differs from earlier studies in that extensive free-response descriptions of other people and self were collected from patients with major depression and from nonpsychiatric control Ss. In comparison with control Ss, depressed patients described fewer positive aspects not only of self but also of parents and significant others and reported more negative aspects of these people. Cluster analysis (HICLAS) also showed that more cognitive differentiation of negative self-perceptions (negative self-complexity) was characteristic of clinical depression. In both control Ss and patients, a positive (or negative) view of self was highly correlated (.85 or more) with a positive (or negative) view of parents and significant others. These correlations were significantly stronger than those between self and less important others.

Emotion differentiation. A correlate of symptom severity in major depression.

The relationship of emotion differentiation to symptom severity in depression was investigated. The subjects were 25 patients diagnosed with unipolar major depression. Subjects were clinically assessed using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia and the Hamilton rating scales for anxiety and depression. In addition, subjects completed a number of self-report measures of symptoms and attitudes. Twelve basic emotion terms were incorporated into free-response attribute lists which subjects used to rate aspects of themselves and of other significant people in their lives. A clustering algorithm (HICLAS) was used to derive a social perception structure from this data for each subject. The differentiation of negative emotion within an individual's structure (NES) was measured by dividing the number of attribute categories containing negative emotions by the total number of categories in that person's structure. The results indicated that NES is a significant correlate of depressive symptomatology independent of self-esteem and other variables. Relatively undifferentiated emotion structure (low NES) was associated with significantly higher levels of depressive symptomatology.

A measure of paradigm beliefs about the social world.

This study examined the reliability and construct validity of, along with age differences in, a measure of paradigm beliefs about the social world, beliefs that have been proposed to develop across the adolescent and adult life span. The scale is a 27-item, forced-choice preference measure of absolute, relativistic, and dialectical paradigm beliefs. In a series of investigations with 445 subjects, ranging in age from 16 to 83 years, it was shown to have good internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and both convergent and discriminant validities. It predicted performance on an in-depth interview about paradigm beliefs and was related to two other measures of paradigm beliefs. It was not related to selected personality variables (i.e., social dogmatism, intolerance of ambiguity and social desirability); nor was it related to a measure of verbal intelligence. The scale also showed predicted developmental trends, supporting its utility for developmental research.