When Depression Breeds Rejection Rather Than Compassion: Disagreeableness, Stigma, and Lack of Empathic Concern Among Support Providers

Abstract

Past research has shown that the close relationships of depressed individuals are often characterised by rejection rather than compassion. The goal of this research was to broaden interpersonal models of depression by investigating the reports of support providers themselves. Individual differences, including disagreeableness, stigmatic beliefs about depression, and empathic concern were measured. These were examined in relation to reported interpersonal behaviours toward a significant other who was currently depressed. A cross-sectional design was used in an undergraduate (N = 312) and community sample (N = 296). Disagreeable individuals reported less compassionate and more rejecting behaviours toward depressed significant others based on an interpersonal circumplex model of social support. Serial mediation models further indicated that the associations between disagreeableness and rejecting behaviours reported by providers were mediated by stigma and lower empathic concern. The current studies shed light on how the personality, attitudes and emotions of support providers influence the level of compassion expressed toward depressed individuals.

Evaluating an Abbreviated Version of the Circumplex Team Scan Inventory of Within-Team Interpersonal Norms

“…The CTS-16 items may not prove sufficiently reliable to measure specific segments, especially in smaller teams; however, they did show sufficiently robust circumplex fit and between-group differentiation to validate them as a measure of a team’s average inclinations across segments, which is useful for measuring change and comparing teams to each other. Indeed, contemporary studies using interpersonal circumplex inventories typically emphasize the aggregated “structural summary” findings and often do not bother reporting findings for individual segments (e.g., Du et al, 2020; Kehl et al, 2021; Mongrain & Shoikhedbrod, 2021). Individuals’ personality dispositions and feelings about their team may bias their CTS-16 responses (with more alienated or dissatisfied members tending to portray their team’s norms as less supportive/empowering); nonetheless, individuals’ responses showed sensible associations with their teammates’ average impressions of team climate and average extraversion levels.…”