This article provides a critical review of the empirical literature on the role of depression and elation in biasing mnemonic processing. Two classes of effects-state dependence and mood congruenceare examined. The latter, which involves the enhanced encoding and/or retrieval of material the aifective valence of which is congruent with ongoing mood, is the more extensively researched of the two and is thus the focus of much of the present review. Though the support for claims of such a phenomenon is impressive in its size, consistency, and diversity, a number of questions remain. These include whether such effects are linked to mood states per se, and the possible role that such effects may play in the development of persistent depression.

No abstract

Two experiments tested a theoretical model of behavioral self-regulation, which makes predictions about the effects of failure on a person's subsequent efforts. This model holds that degree of effort will be a product of two things: expectancy of being able to redress the failure and degree of self-attention. In the experiments, a failure pretreatment was used to create large within-self discrepancies among female subjects. It was predicted (a) that negative outcome expectancies regarding a subsequent task would lead to decreased persistence on that task, (b) that positive outcome expectancies for the subsequent task would lead to increased persistence on that task, and (c) that both of these tendencies would be mediated by self-directed attention. The results of the two studies supported these predictions. Discussion centers on implications for research and theory in the areas of self-awareness, self-efficacy, and helplessness.A good deal of attention has been devoted in recent years to the consequences that an initial failure can have for subsequent task performances. Sometimes the inability to achieve an expected goal at one task has led to performance increments at a second task (e.g., Hanusa & Schulz, 1977;Roth & Kubal, 1975). This typically has been interpreted as reflecting heightened efforts to compensate for the prior inadequacy. In other circumstances, however, failure at one task has led to performance decrements at a second task (e.g., Hiroto & Seligman, 1975;Seligman, 1975). This "giving up" phenomenon is widely believed to reflect a belief that effort on the second task will not lead to a positive outcome.

Previous studies have independently identified social support and the hardy personality as variables that reduce the effects of life stress on physical or psychological disturbance. This study examined their relation and the relative importance of each in reducing the effects of life stress. Eighty-three female undergraduates completed self-report measures of life stress, social support, hardiness, and depression. The commitment and challenge dimensions of hardiness were found to be significantly correlated with social support, whereas the control dimension was not. When the interactions among life stress, social support, and hardiness were considered, only the alienation from self scale was found to moderate the effects of life stress (p < .01). We discuss the possibility that studies that found social support to be a moderator of life stress may have indirectly measured hardiness.

Several theorists have posited two focuses for depressive experience and/or vulnerability: dependency and rejection, and self-criticism and failure. In turn, three instruments have emerged, each addressing these two components, respectively: the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Dependent and Self-Critical scales), the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scales (SAS), and the Anaclitic and Introjective Dysfunctional Attitude Scales (DAS). In this study, we addressed the relations within and among these three pairs of scales in a large undergraduate sample. Generally, the DEQ-Dependent, SAS-Sociotrophy, and DAS-Anaclitic scales showed substantial convergent and discriminant validity. Although this was true also for the DEQ-Self-Critical and DAS-Introjective scales, neither scale was closely related to the SAS-Autonomy scale, which appeared instead to be a better measure of counter dependency than a measure of self-critical, introjective features.