Personal vulnerability, life events, and depressive symptoms: A test of a specific interactional model.

Abstract

We tested Beck's (1983) hypothesis that depressive symptoms occur when an individual experiences a negative life event that specifically matches the individual's personal motivational vulnerability. Ninety-eight undergraduates completed measures of depression level, recent life events, and sociotropic and autonomous achievement motivations. Consistent with the theory, sociotropy was associated with depression level and also served as a moderator of the relations between depression and frequency of recent negative social events. However, sociotropy also demonstrated nonpredicted interactive effects with negative events categorized a priori as autonomy related. Autonomy was unrelated to depression and showed no evidence of being a vulnerability to any type of life event. The findings generally support the value of examining the role in depression of interactions between personality characteristics and life events, although they do not support the specific matching predictions.

Ethnic differences in social anxiety between individuals of Asian heritage and European heritage: A meta-analytic review.

“…People with sociotropic tendencies catastrophize the possibility of losing connection with others and are fearful of being excluded from their group (Blatt & Zuroff, 1992;Robins & Block, 1988). This may be consistent with individuals who have interdependent selfconstrual, emphasizing group harmony and defining themselves by their relationship with others.…”

Dysthymia: a review of pharmacological and behavioral factors

“…[74][75][76][77] It has been suggested that stressful events or failure experiences are associated with depressive illness. [78][79][80] Such an outcome may stem from the stressor experience provoking the formation of attributions, which give rise to negative expectancies of future performance and may result in the development of cognitive disturbances, such as helplessness. 81,82 Alternatively, stressor experiences may give rise to neurochemical alterations that favor depressed mood.…”

Influences of self-construals and personality styles on international students' depressive symptoms.

“…The interaction of sociotropic personality style and interpersonal-related events and interaction of autonomous personality style and achievement events would be associated with depressive symptoms. While previous studies found a weak (Bagby et al, 2001;Bieling & Alden, 2001) or even a lack of (Alford & Gerrity, 1995;Robins & Block, 1988;Segal, Shaw, Vella, & Katz, 1992) Sato and McCann (1998), it was hypothesized that the association from autonomous personality style and achievement-related events to depressive symptoms would be significant.…”

“…As sociotropy and autonomy are viewed as vulnerabilities (Sutton et al, 2011), stressful life events are necessary to trigger the development of depressive symptoms (Beck, 1983). Multiple studies found a significant interaction between the sociotropic personality style and negative social events to trigger depressive symptoms (Hammen et al, 1989;Mongrain & Blackburn, 2005;Nietzel & Harris, 1990;Robins & Block, 1988). Positive relationships were also found between sociotropy and depressive symptoms (Alford & Gerrity, 1995;Bagby et al, 2001;Bieling & Alden, 2001;Mazure, Raghavan, Maciejewski, Jacobs, & Bruce, 2001;Nelson, Hammen, Daley, Burge, & Davila, 2001;Sato & McCann, 1998;Sutton et al, 2011).…”

“…For example, a few studies found that the association between depressive symptoms and the interaction of high autonomy and failure events was not as strong as the association between depressive symptoms and the interaction of sociotropy and negative social events (Hammen et al, 1989). Other studies did not find significant relationships between depressive symptoms and the interaction of high autonomy and failure events (Iacoviello et al, 2009;Mazure et al, 2001;Robins & Block, 1988).…”