Relationships of the Big Five facets and dysfunctional attitudes with depression

Abstract

There are two parallel lines of research on the relationship between personality and depression, one based on the Big Five personality model and one on Beck's cognitive theory of depression. However, no study has jointly examined the dimensions and facets of the Big Five and the dysfunctional attitudes of Beck's theory. This was the objective of the present study. The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI‐R), the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS‐A), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI‐IA) were applied to 221 adults from the Spanish general population (53.7% females; mean age: 38.3 years). Various multiple linear regression analyses revealed that only the facet of depression was significantly related to depressive symptomatology. The different associations of the broad and specific personality traits and the need to control as many third variables as possible to prevent the finding of spurious relationships are discussed.

The relationship between personality traits and dysfunctional attitudes in individuals with or without major depressive disorder: a case control study

“…Third, this study has not investigated if there is an interrelationship among the anxiety facets of 16PF, dysfunctional attitudes, and depression. A further research is needed to examine whether dysfunctional attitudes could be a potential process that mediates the effect of anxiety-related personality traits on depression [ 19 ]. Additionally, the in-depth examination of the effect of relevant specific domains of 16PF on dysfunctional attitudes should be further conducted and explain why the results differ between the MDD group and HC group.…”