Sociotropic personality and information processing following imaginal priming: A test of the congruency hypothesis

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.