Abstract
Beck's (1987) cognitive model of depression provided a vulnerability-stress framework for assessing the relationship between self-schemas, recent negative life events, and depressed mood. Decision times required to makeme/not me judgments of trait adjectives were used to measure the self-schemas of college students. When stress levels were high, the positivity of the schema was inversely related to the level of depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). When students' stress was low, self-schemas were not related to BDI scores. The interaction of self-schemas and stress occurred when the schemas were in domains relevant to symptoms of depression, but not when the schemas were irrelevant.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramson, L. Y. Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression.Psychological Review, 96, 358–372.
Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1988). Depressive realism: Four theoretical perspectives. In L. B. Alloy (Ed.),Cognitive processes in depression. New York: Guilford Press.
Anderson, N. H., (1968). Likeableness ratings of 555 personality-trait wordsJournal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 272–279.
Beck, A. T. (1967).Depression: Causes and treatment. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Beck, A. T. (1987). Cognitive models of depression.Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 1, 5–37.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelsohn, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
Billings, A. G., Cronkite, R. C., & Moos, R. H. (1983). Social-environmental factors in unipolar depression: Comparisons of depressed patients and nondepressed controls.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 92, 119–133.
Bradley, B., & Mathews, A. (1983). Negative self-schemata in clinical depression.British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 22, 173–181.
Brown, G., & Harris, T. (1978).Social origins of depression: A study of psychiatric disorders in women. New York: Free Press.
Cohen, J., & Cohen, P. (1983).Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Deardorff, W. W., & Funabiki, D. (1985). A diagnostic caution in screening for depressed college students.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 9, 277–284.
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. (1987). Specificity and stability of self-referent encoding in clinical depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 96, 34–40.
Dykman, B. M., Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., & Hartlage, S. (1989). Processing of ambiguous feedback among depressed and nondepressed college students: Schematic biases and their implications for depressive realism.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 431–445.
Greenberg, M. S., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Depression versus anxiety: Processing of self- and other-referent information.Cognition and Emotion, 3, 207–223.
Hammen, C. L. (1980). Depression in college students: Beyond the Beck Depression Inventory.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 48, 126–128.
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., & Goodman-Brown, T. (1990). Self schemas and vulnerability to specific life stress in children at risk for depression. Special issue: Selfhood processes and emotional disorders.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 215–227.
Hammen, C., Marks, T., Mayol, A., & deMayo, R. (1985). Depressive self-schemas, life stress, and vulnerability to depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 308–319.
Hammen, C., Miklowitz, D. J., & Dyck, D. G. (1986). Stability and severity parameters of depressive self-schema responding.Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 4, 23–45.
Hammen, C., & Zupan, B. A. (1984). Self-schemas, depression, and the processing of personal information in children.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 37, 598–608.
Kendall, P. C., Hollon, S. D., Beck, A. T., Hammen, C. L., & Ingram, R. E. (1987). Issues and recommendations regarding use of the Beck Depression Inventory.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 11, 289–299.
Krantz, S. E. (1985). When depressive cognitions reflect negative realities.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 9, 595–610.
Kuiper, N. A., & MacDonald, M. R. (1982). Self and other perception in mild depressives.Social Cognition, 1, 223–239.
Kuiper, N. A., Olinger, L. J., & Swallow, S. R. (1987). Dysfunctional attitudes, mild depression, views of self, self-consciousness, and social perceptions.Motivation and Emotion, 11, 379–401.
MacDonald, M. R., & Kuiper, N. A. (1984). Self-schema decision consistency in clinical depressives.Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 2, 264–272.
MacDonald, M. R., & Kuiper, N. A. (1985). Efficiency and automaticity of self-schema processing in clinical depressives.Motivation and Emotion, 9, 171–184.
Markus, H. (1990). Unresolved issues of self-representation. Special issue: Selfhood processes and emotional disorders.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 14, 241–253.
Metalsky, G. I., Halberstadt, L. J., & Abramson, L. Y. (1987). Vulnerability to depressive mood reactions: toward a more powerful test of the diathesis-stress and causal mediation components of the reformulated theory of depression.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 386–393.
Miranda, J., & Persons, J. B. (1988). Dysfunctional attitudes are mood-state dependent.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 97, 76–79.
Miranda, J., Persons, J. B., & Beyers, C. N. (1990). Endorsement of dysfunctional beliefs depends on current mood state.Journal of Abnromal Psychology, 99, 237–241.
Needles, D. J., & Abramson, L. Y. (1990). Positive life events, attributional style, and hopefulness: Testing a model of recovery from depression.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 156–165.
Olinger, L. J., Kuiper, N. A., & Shaw, B. F. (1987). Dysfunctional attitudes and stressful events: An interactive model of depression.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 11, 25–40.
Persons, J. B., Miranda, J., & Perloff, J. M. (1991). Relations between depressive symptoms and cognitive vulnerabilities of achievement and dependency.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 15, 221–235.
Robbins, C. J., & Block, P. (1988). Personal vulnerability, life events, and depressive symptoms: A test of a specific interactional model.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 847–852.
Ross, M. J., Mueller, J. H., & de la Torre, M. (1986). Depression and trait distinctiveness in the self-schema.Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 4, 46–59.
Segal, Z. V. (1988). Appraisal of the self-schema construct in cognitive models of depression.Psychological Bulletin, 103, 147–162.
Segal, Z. V., & Shaw, B. F. (1986). Cognition in depression: A reappraisal of Coyne and Gotlib's critique.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 671–693.
Spitzer, R. L., & Endicott, J. (1975).Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (SADS) (2nd ed.). New York: New York State Psychiatric Institute, Biometrics Research.
Spitzer, R. L., Endicott, J., & Robbins, E. (1978). Research Diagnostic Criteria: Rationale and reliability.Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 773–782.
Toner, B. B., Garfinkel, P. E., Jeejeebhoy, K. N., & Scher, H. (1990). Self-schema in irritable bowel syndrome and depression.Psychosomatic Medicine, 52, 149–155.
Weissman, A. N., & Beck, A. T. (1978).Development and validation of the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association Annual Convention, Toronto, Canada.
Wise, E. H., & Barnes, D. R. (1986). The relationship among life events, dysfunctional attitudes, and depression.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 257–266.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by a Marquette University Sabbatical Fellowship and a National Research Service Award to Lucinda McClain, as well as by a Romnes Fellowship and grants from the MacArthur Foundation, the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin and NIMH (R01MH43866) to Lyn Y. Abramson.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
McClain, L., Abramson, L.Y. Self-schemas, stress, and depressed mood in college students. Cogn Ther Res 19, 419–432 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02230409
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02230409