CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE - DEPRESSION, SELF-CONSISTENCY, SELF-ENHANCEMENT, AND THE RESPONSE OF OTHERS

We proposed and tested an integration of Coyne's (1976b) interpersonal theory of depression with work on the interplay between self-enhancem ent and self-consistency theory (e.g., Swann, Griffin, Predmore, & Gai nes, 1987). Students' levels of depressive symptoms, reassurance-seeki ng, and negative feedback-seeking were assessed at Time 1 and their sa me-gender roommates' appraisals of them were assessed five weeks later . In line with our conceptualization, we found that depressed students reported engaging in more self-enhancing reassurance-seeking and more self-consistent negative feedback-seeking than nondepressed students at Time 1. In addition, as predicted, it was the combination of negati ve feedback-seeking, high reassurance-seeking, and depression which pl aced subjects at greatest risk of negative evaluation by their roommat es. Implications of our conceptualization and results for future work on interpersonal aspects of depression are discussed.