Abstract
Depressed college students were compared with nondepressed psychopathological students and normal controls regarding perceptions of their dormitory roommates' interpersonal behaviors towards them. Results indicated that depressed subjects overestimated hostility in their roommates and underestimated friendly roommate behaviors. Subjects who were to become depressed later also displayed overestimations of their roommates' aggressiveness. The findings are discussed in relation to Beck's theory of depression.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1988). Depressive realism: Four theoretical perspectives. In L. B. Alloy (Ed.),Cognitive processes in depression. New York: Guilford Press.
Barnett, P. A., & Gotlib, I. H. (1988). Psychosocial functioning and depression: Distinguishing among antecedents, concomitants, and consequences.Psychological Bulletin, 104, 97–126.
Beck, A. T. (1976).Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press.
Beck, A. T., & Beck, R. W. (1972). Screening depressed patients in family practice: A rapid technique.Postgraduate Medicine, 52, 81–85.
Clark, D. A., & Beck, A. T. (1989). Cognitive theory and therapy of anxiety and depression. In P. C. Kendall & D. Watson (Eds.),Anxiety and depression: Distinctive and overlapping features (pp. 379–411. San Diego: Academic Press.
Clark, D. A., Beck, A. T., & Brown, G. (1989). Cognitive mediation in general psychiatric outpatients: A test of the content-specificity hypothesis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 958–964.
Clark, D. A., Beck, A. T., & Stewart, B. (1990). Cognitive specificity and positive-negative affectivity: Complementary or contradictory views on anxiety and depression?Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 148–155.
Clark, L. A. (1989). The anxiety and depressive disorders: Descriptive psychopathology and differential diagnosis. In P. C. Kendall & D. Watson (Eds.),Anxiety and depression: Distinctive and overlapping features (pp. 83–129). San Diego: Academic Press.
Cofer, D. H., & Wittenborn, J. R. (1980). Personality characteristics of formerly depressed women.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 309–314.
Derogatis, L. R. (1975).Brief Symptom Inventory. Baltimore: Clinical Psychometric Research.
Dobson, K. S. (1989). Real and perceived interpersonal responses to subclinically anxious and depressed targets.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 13, 37–47.
Dykman, B. M., Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., & Hartlage, S. (1989). Processing of ambiguous and unambiguous feedback by depressed and nondepressed college students: Schematic biases and their implications for depressive realism.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 56, 431–445.
Fleiss, J. L. (1971). Measuring nominal scale agreement among many raters.Psychological Bulletin, 76, 378–382.
Gotlib, I. H. (1983). Perception and recall of interpersonal feedback: Negative bias in depression.Cognitive therapy and Research, 7, 399–412.
Greenberg, M. S., & Beck, A. T. (1989). Depression versus anxiety: A test of the content-specificity hypothesis.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 9–13.
Heimberg, R. G., Vermilyea, J. A., Dodge, C. S., Becker, R. E., & Barlow, D. H. (1987). Attributional style, depression, and anxiety: An evaluation of the specificity of depressive attributions.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 11, 537–550.
Hoehn-Hyde, D., Schlottman, R. S., & Rush, A. J. (1982). Perception of social interactions in depressed psychiatric patients.Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 50, 209–212.
Hokanson, J. E., & Meyer, B. E. B. (1984). Interpersonal expectancies and preferences for various types of social behaviors of depressed outpatients.Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, 1 279–292.
Hokanson, J. E., Rubert, M. P., Welker, R. A., Hollander, G. R., & Hedeen, C. (1989). Interpersonal concomitants and antecedents of depression among college students.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 209–217.
Hollander, G. R., & Hokanson, J. E. (1988). Dysphoria and the perception of incongruent communications.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 12, 577–589.
LaForge, R., & Suczek, R. (1955). The interpersonal dimension of personality: III. Interpersonal checklist.Journal of Personality, 24, 94–112.
Leary, T. F. (1957).Interpersonal diagnosis of personality. New York: Ronald.
Lewinsohn, P. M., Mischel, W., Chaplin, W., & Barton, R. (1980). Social competence and depression: The role of illusory self-perceptions?Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 203–212.
Loewenstein, D. A., & Hokanson, J. E. (1986). The processing of social information by mildly and moderately dysphoric college students.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 447–460.
Siegel, S. J., & Alloy, L. B. (1990). Interpersonal perceptions and consequences of depressive-significant other relationships: A naturalistic study of college roommates.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 99, 361–363.
Strack, S., & Coyne, J. C. (1983). Social confirmation of dysphoria: Shared and private reactions.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 798–806.
Vestre, N. D., & Caulfield, B. P. (1986). Perception of neutral personality descriptions by depressed and nondepressed subjects.Cognitive Therapy and Research, 10, 31–36.
Youngren, M. A., & Lewinsohn, P. M. (1980). The functional relation between depression and problematic interpersonal behavior.Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 89, 333–341.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
This research was supported by grant MH 40308 from the National Institute of Mental Health to Jack E. Hokanson.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hokanson, J.E., Hummer, J.T. & Butler, A.C. Interpersonal perceptions by depressed college students. Cogn Ther Res 15, 443–457 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01175728
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01175728