Depression and the pursuit of the negative self-concept.

Although self-enhancement has been shown to be a powerful motivation for most people, depressives tend to endorse and pursue negative self-concepts, even when apparently detrimental to their well-being. Social cognition theorists have claimed that the motive for this is self-consistency, whereas clinical psychologists have suggested that it is driven by defensive needs, especially those connected with relationships. However, there is a lack of empirical data to confirm these hypotheses. Three studies were designed to look at depressive self-concept. 76 male and female subjects, who were more or less depressed, were administered questionnaires for Studies 1 and 2. Study 1 investigates the way that depressives conceive of their future in terms of possible selves (Markus & Nurius, 1986). While depressives had both more hoped for and more feared possible selves than nondepressives, their expectations for the future were more negative. They were more concerned about their relationships in the future. Study 2 involved memories of positive and negative social interactions and how subjects responded to them. Depressives were less likely to take credit for a positive interaction and more likely to accept blame for a negative one. Positive interactions did not make depressives feel as good as nondepressives and were less likely to remind them of other positive things. At the same time, depressives felt worse about themselves, felt bad for longer, and were more reminded of other negative events following a negative interaction. Study 3 was a field study investigating the effect of being socially accepted or rejected by sororities during Sorority Rush. 161 female subjects who were more versus less depressed were tested on a number of measures before and after Rush and differences were assessed both for level of depression and whether they were accepted or rejected. Nondepressives became more depressed but did not lose self-esteem following rejection and gained self-esteem if accepted. Depressives did not become more depressed following rejection but did lose self-esteem in various domains; they did not gain self-esteem if accepted. Depressives' self-esteem was not consistent but showed more lability than nondepressives. The results supported the hypothesis that pursuing a negative self-concept may be defensive.PhDSocial PsychologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/105689/1/9208539.pdfDescription of 9208539.pdf : Restricted to UM users only