SELF-SCHEMAS, STRESS, AND DEPRESSED MOOD IN COLLEGE-STUDENTS

Beck's (1987) cognitive model of depression provided a vulnerability-s tress framework for assessing the relationship between self-schemas, r ecent negative life events, and depressed mood. Decision times require d to make me/not me judgements of trait adjectives were used to measur e the self-schemas of college students. When stress levels were high, the postivity of the schema was inversely related to the level of depr essive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). When students' stress was low, self-schemas were not reduced to BDI scores. The inte raction of self-schemas and stress occurred when the schemas were in d omains relevant to symptoms of depression, but not when the schemas we re irrelevant.