USE OF CURRENT SITUATIONAL INFORMATION AND CAUSAL INFERENCE - DO DYSPHORIC INDIVIDUALS MAKE UNWARRANTED CAUSAL INFERENCES

According to Beck's original theory, depressives make unwarranted nega tively biased personal inferences. Specifically, Beck suggested that d epressives ignore current positive situational information and are und uly influenced by current negative situational information in making i nferences. To test Beck's theory we used Kelley's normative model of c ausal inference to examine the utilization of causally relevant situat ional information by dysphoric, nondepressed, and very nondepressed su bjects in making causal attributions for personal success and failure. We used Stevens and Jones' classic method from social psychology and embedded the relevant causal information in the natural flow of events . Results showed that dysphoric, nondepressed, and very nondepressed s ubjects did, to an equal degree, use such information to make causal a ttributions. Although dysphoric and both groups of nondepressed subjec ts used current situational information consistently with Kelley's mod el, clear-cut baseline differences in the content of their causal attr ibutions existed. Thus, the results supported the reformulations of Be ck's theory that emphasize content, rather than process, differences b etween depressive and nondepressive cognition for dysphoria.