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01-06-2008 | Original Article

Construction of Self and Others in Unipolar Depressive Disorders: A Study Using Repertory Grid Technique

Auteurs: Guillem Feixas, María Isabel Erazo-Caicedo, Stephanie Lewis Harter, Lorenzo Bach

Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research | Uitgave 3/2008

Abstract

This study used Kelly’s (1955/1991) Role Construct Repertory Grid (RepGrid) technique to assess cognitive features underlying depressive states. RepGrids from patients with depressive disorders (n = 105, including Major Depression, Dysthymia, and Adjustment Disorder with depressed or mixed symptoms) were compared with a non-clinical group (n = 305). The RepGrids of participants were analyzed using the computer program GRIDCOR (Feixas & Cornejo, 2002). Consistent with hypotheses, those with depressive disorders perceived themselves and others more negatively, perceived themselves as different from others, and generated fewer constructs to describe self and others in comparison to the non-clinical group. There were no differences in use of extreme ratings or in unidimensional construing (percent variance accounted for by the first factor in correspondence analysis) on the RepGrid. RepGrid techniques offer the potential to better understand the processes of construction of the self and others in persons with depressive disorders. Specific RepGrid profiles associated with depression–negativity, resentment, and isolation–may be helpful in further individuating treatment for depression.

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GRIDCOR is available in Spanish (with the name of RECORD) and English (including a manual for the Repertory Grid Technique) in the internet at www.terapiacognitiva.net/record. The current version, 4.0 (Feixas & Cornejo, 2002), provides the measures discussed in this article as well as additional measures.

Although personality disorders comorbid with depression were not a focus of this study, the potential generalizability of results to those with and without comorbid personality diagnoses was assessed by comparing depressed participants with and without comorbid personality disorders to the non-clinical comparison group on those variables for which depressed and comparison participants showed significant differences. For all variables (self–ideal, self–other, other–ideal relationships, and number of constructs) the direction of differences in means from the comparison group was similar for depressed participants with and without personality disorders. Depressed participants with or without personality disorders differed significantly from the non-clinical comparison group in perceiving the self as less similar to the ideal and as less similar to others. Also, depressed participants with and without co-morbid personality disorders used significantly fewer constructs to describe the self and others. Depressed participants with personality disorders differed significantly from non-clinical participants in perceiving others as less ideal. Depressed participants without personality disorders had the same tendency to perceive others as less ideal, although this did not reach statistical significance (P = .07). Further analysis of the relative contributions of depression and personality disorders was beyond the scope of this paper, given the few participants in any specific personality disorder classification. It is possible that personality disorders exacerbate the cognitive differences associated with depression, since those with personality disorders tended to differ most from the comparisons on the RepGrid variables. However, it is also possible that this is influenced by the greater severity of depression in those with personality disorders, since those with Major Depression had the greatest frequency of personality comorbidity (see also Feixas, Antequera, Almuedo, & Bach, 2006).

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Titel: Construction of Self and Others in Unipolar Depressive Disorders: A Study Using Repertory Grid Technique
Auteurs: Guillem Feixas
María Isabel Erazo-Caicedo
Stephanie Lewis Harter
Lorenzo Bach
Publicatiedatum: 01-06-2008
Uitgeverij: Springer US
Gepubliceerd in: Cognitive Therapy and Research / Uitgave 3/2008
Print ISSN: 0147-5916
Elektronisch ISSN: 1573-2819
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9149-7

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