Dja. Dozois et Bj. Backs-dermott, Sociotropic personality and information processing following imaginal priming: A test of the congruency hypothesis, CAN J BEH S, 32(2), 2000, pp. 117-126
Citations number
60
Categorie Soggetti
Psycology
Journal title
CANADIAN JOURNAL OF BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE-REVUE CANADIENNE DES SCIENCES DU COMPORTEMENT
Consistent with the cognitive theory of depression, research has documented
that the match between sociotropy and negative interpersonal life events p
redicts dysphoria or depression better than either variable alone. However,
there has been insufficient empirical attention to schema activation and c
ognitive processing in this personality mode. This study assessed the congr
uency hypothesis in sociotropy with respect to information processing. A sa
mple of 127 female undergraduates (High Sociotropy, n = 66; Low Sociotropy,
n = 61) listened to audiotaped presentations of rejection or failure episo
des and completed a descriptiveness rating task and an "interpersonal" Stro
op task. Our main prediction was that the congruent imaginal prime (i.e., r
ejection episode) would activate negative self-schemata in highly sociotrop
ic individuals, and that this congruence would influence both self-referent
ial endorsements and response latencies. Results indicated that highly soci
otropic individuals endorsed more negative and less positive adjectives as
self-descriptive following the rejection condition than individuals low on
sociotropy. When self-relevant adjectives were employed in the analyses of
reaction times, the results supported the information processing congruency
hypothesis.