D. Pusch et al., THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN SOCIOTROPIC AND AUTONOMOUS PERSONALITY STYLES AND DEPRESSIVE REALISM IN DYSPHORIC AND NONDYSPHORIC UNIVERSITY-STUDENTS, Canadian journal of behavioural science, 30(4), 1998, pp. 253-265
The current study examined the hypothesis that participants' responses
to depressive realism tasks are not only a function of mood state, bu
t also a function of sociotropic and autonomous personality style. In
the first experiment, university students who scored high or low on a
measure of sociotropy and high or low on a measure of dysphoria were e
xposed to a depressive realism paradigm in which they engaged in dyadi
c interaction with a friend. Following the interaction, participants'
estimates of their performance were compared with the evaluations of t
heir friend. In the second experiment, participants who scored high or
low on a measure of autonomy and high or low on dysphoria were expose
d to a computerized success/failure task. The results across both expe
riments did not support the depressive realism hypothesis, in that the
participants' degree of realism, distortion and/or bias generally var
ied as a function of both personality style and mood state in the pred
icted directions. Implications of these findings for the depressive re
alism literature are discussed.