Negative self-schemata in depression : the role of automatic self-evaluation

Abstract

Research into schemata in depression has found little evidence for schematic activity in the absence of a depressed or low mood. This has led to a widespread view that schemata in depression are latent and only influence information processing in the presence of a low or depressed mood (Segal, 1988). The lack of evidence of schematic activity in the absence of a depressed mood may be due to traditional conceptualisation of schema and the methodological difficulties inherent in the implicit tasks that are used. The aim of this thesis was to investigate schematic activity using two relatively new automatic self-evaluation tasks (the IAT and EAST). It was found that positive automatic self-evaluation was weaker in analogue depressed individuals, high-trait depressives, and recovered clinical depressives compared to non-depressed individuals and low-trait depressives. More importantly, these differences in automatic self-evaluation were not affected by mood or levels of depression. This thesis provides some support that vulnerability to depression or schematic activity can be measured in the absence of a depressed mood. These results also provide support for the growing evidence that automatic self-evaluation may be implicated as a vulnerability factor related to affective disorders (De Raedt, Schacht, Franck, & De Houwer, 2006; de Jong, 2000, Tanner, Stopa, & De Houwer, in press), and why SSRI antidepressant treatment may not be effective in preventing relapse in depression (Hensley, Nadiga, & Uhlenhuth, 2004). Suggestions for further research into schemata include further examination into the role of positive automatic self-evaluation in healthy individuals, the ratio of and different kinds of positive and negative schematic content in individuals who are, and who are not, vulnerable to depression, and investigating schemata from the ontological and neuroscientific perspectives.

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