Abstract
The present study compared levels of self-criticism and of dependency in 20 currently clinically depressed patients, 20 remitted patients, and 20 normal controls. Results from the Depressive Experience Questionnaire (DEQ) and the Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (IDI) indicated that currently depressed and remitted patients had equally high levels of self-criticism and of dependency, which were significantly higher than those of normal controls. Dependency and self-criticism of DEQ and IDI scales correlated positively, raising the question of the independence of the two constructs. Overall, results supported the status of self-criticism and dependency as stable vulnerability factors to depression, in that these factors remain active beyond the end of a depressive episode. Discussion about the research methodology is presented.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
American Psychiatric Association (1987).Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorder (3rd ed., rev.) (DSM-III-R). Washington DC: Author.
Arieti, S., & Bemporad, J. (1980). Depression-prone personality in women.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 303–308.
Barnett, P. A., & Gotlib, I. H. (1988). Psychosocial functioning and depression: Distinguishing among antecedents, concomitant, and consequences.Psychological Bulletin, 104, 97–126.
Beck, A. T., Epstein, N., Harrison, R. P., & Emery, G. (1983).Development of the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale: A measure of personality factors in psychopathology. Unpublished manuscript, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Garbin, M. g. (1988). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Invenoty: Twenty-five years of evaluation.Clinical Psychology Review, 77–100.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. M., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 4 561–571.
Beck, A., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L. (1974). The measurement of pessimism: The hopelessness scale.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 42, 861–865.
Belsher, G., & Costello, C. G. (1988). Relapse after recovery from unipolar depression: A critical review.Psychological Bulletin, 104, 84–96
Blaney, P. H. (1986). Affect and memory: A review.Psychological Bulletin 99, 229–246
Blatt, S. J. (1974). Level of object representation in anaclitic and introjective depression.Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 29, 107–157.
Blatt, S. J., D'Afflitti, J. P., & Quinlan, D. M. (1976). Experiences of depression in normal young adults.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 383–389.
Blatt, S., Quinlan, D., Chevron, E., McDonald, D., & Zuroff, D. (1982). Dependency and self criticism: Psychological dimensions of depression.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50, 113–124.
Brewin, C. R., & Furnham, A. (19870. Dependency, self-criticism and depressive attributional style.British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 26, 225–226.
Brown, J. D., & Silberschatz, G. (1989). Dependency, self-criticism, and depressive attributional style.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 187–188.
Derry, P. A., & Kuiper, N. A. (1981). Schematic processing and self-reference in clinical depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 90, 286–297.
Dobson, K. S., & Shaw, B. F. (1986). Cognitive assessment with major depressive disorders.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 13–29.
Dobson, K. S., & Shaw, B. F. (1987). Specificity and stability of self-referent encoding in clinical depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96.
Dohr, K. B., Rush, J. A., & Bernstein I. (1989). Cognitive biases in depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 263–267.
Eaves, G., & Rush, A. J. (1984). Cognitive patterns in symptomatic and remitted unipolar major depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 93, 31–40.
Endicott, J., & Spitzer, R. (1978). A diagnostic interview: The Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia.Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 837–844.
Gotib, I. H., & Cane, D. G., (1987). Construct accessibility and clinical depression: A longitudinal investigation.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 199–204.
Hamilton, E. W., & Abramson, L. Y. (1983). Cognitive patterns and major depressive disorder: A longitudinal study in a hospital setting.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 92, 173–184.
Hammen, C., Ellicott, A., Gitlin, M., & Jamison, K. R. (1989). Sociotropy/autonomy and vulnerability to specific life events in patients with unipolar depression and bipolar disorders.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 154–160.
Hammen, C. L., Marks, T., deMayo, P., & Mayol, A. (1985). Self-schemas and risk for depression: A prospective study.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1147–1159.
Hirschfeld, R. M. A., Klerman, G. L. Clayton, P. J., & Keller, M. B. (1983). Personality and depression; Empirical findings.Archives of General Psychiatry, 40, 993–998.
Hirschfield, R. M. A. Klerman, G. l. Clayton, P. J. Keller, M. B., & Andreasen, N. C. (1984). Personality and gender-related differences in depression.Journal of Affective Disorders, 7, 211–221.
Hirschfeld, R. M. A., Klerman, G. L., Gough, H. G. Barrett, J., Korchin, S. J., & Chodoff, P. (1977). A measure of interpersonal dependency.Journal of Personality Assessment, 41, 610–618.
Hollon, S. D., & Kendall, P. C. (1980). Cognitive self-statements in depression: Development of an automatic thoughts questionnaire.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 4, 383–396.
Hollon, S. D., Kendall, P. C., & Lumry, A. (1986). Specificity of depressotypic cognitions in clinical depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 52–29.
Keller, M. B., Lavori, P. W., Endicott, J., Coryell, W., & Klerman, G. L. (1983). “Double depression”: Two-year follow-up.American Journal of Psychiatry, 140, 689–694.
Kuiper, N. A., & MacDonald, M. R. (1982). Self and other perception in mild depressives.Journal of Personality, 50, 67–80.
Nietzel, M. T., & Harris, M. J. (1990). Relationship of dependency and achievement/autonomy to depression.Clinical Psychology Review, 10, 279–297.
NIMH/NIH Consensus Development Conference Statement (1985). Mood disorders: Pharmacologic prevention of recurrences.American Journal of Psychiatry, 142, 469–476.
Pilon, D. J., Olioff, M., Bryson, S. E., & Doan, B. D. (1986).Relation of depressive experiences and symptoms to stress in a clinical sample. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Canadian Psychological Association, Toronto, Ontario.
Pilowsky, I., & Katsikitis, M. (1983). Depressive illness and dependency.Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia, 66 11–14.
Pincus, A. (1987).Dependency: pathology, disposition, and construct validity. Paper presented at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.
Reich, J., Noyes, R., Hirschfeld, R., Coryell, W., & O'Gorman, T. (91987). State and personality in depressed and panic patients.American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 181–187.
Robins, C. J. (1985).Construct validity of the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale: A measure of vulnerability to depression Unpublished manuscript, New York University, New York.
Robins, C. J., & Block, P. (1986).The role of personalty and life events in depression: A test of an interactinal model. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Safran, J. D. (1990). Towards a refinement of cognitive therapy in light of interperson theory: I. Theory.Clinical Psychology Review, 10 87–105.
Safran, J. D., & Segal, Z. V. (1990).Interpersonal process in cognitive therapy. New York: Basic Books.
Safran, J. D., Setal, Z. V. Hill, C., & Whiffen, V. (1990). Refining strategies for research on self-representations in emotional disorders.Cognitive Research and Therapy, 14, 143–160.
Segal, Z. V. (1988). Appraisal of the self-schema construct in cognitive models of depression.Psychological Bulletin, 103, 147–162.
Seligman, M. E. P., Abramson, L. Y. Semmel, A., & von Baeyer, C. (1979). Depressive attributional style.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 88 242–247.
Silverman, J. S., Silverman, J. A., & Eardley, D. A. (1984). Do maladaptive attitudes cause depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 28–30.
Simons, A., Murphy, G., Levine, J., & Wetzel, R. (1986). Cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression: Sustained improvement over one year.Archives of General Psychiatry, 43, 43–48.
Weissman, A. N., & Beck, A. T. (1978).Development and validation of the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale: A preliminary investigation. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Educational Research Association, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Welkowitz, J., Lish, J., & Bond, R. N. (1985). The depressive experiences questionnaire: Revision and validation.Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 89–94.
Zimmerman, M. (1983).The Inventory to Diagnose Depression. Iowa City: Department of Psychiatry, University of Iowa.
Zimmerman, M., & Coryell, W. (1987). The Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD): A self-report scale to diagnose major depressive disorder.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55, 55–59.
Zimmerman, M., Coryell, W, Corenthal, D., & Wilson, S. (1986). A self-report scale for diagnose major depressive disorder.Archives of General Psychiatry, 43.
Zuroff, D., Igreja, I., & Mongrain, M. (1990). Dysfunctional attitudes, dependency, and self-criticism as predictors of depressive mood states: A 12 month longitudinal study.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 315–326.
Zuroff, D. C., & Mongrain, M. (1987). Dependency and self-criticism: Vulnerability factors for depressive affective states.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 14–22.
Zuroff, D. C., Moskowitz, D. S., Wielgus, M. S., Powers, T. A., & Franko, D. L. (1980). Construt validity of the dependency and self-criticism scales of the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire.Journal of Research in Personality, 17 226–241.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
We would like to thank Dr. Ian Bradley from the Department of Psychology of the Allan Memorial Institute and Dr. Ronald Remick from the Department of Psychiatry of the Health Sciences Center, for their collaboration in the project. The present study was supported in part by a Quebec Government Graduate Fellowship (F.C.A.R.) awarded to the first author.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Franche, RL., Dobson, K. Self-criticism and Interpersonal Dependency as vulnerability factors to depression. Cogn Ther Res 16, 419–435 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01183166
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01183166