VULNERABILITY FACTORS IN DEPRESSION - THE FACETS OF SOCIOTROPY AND AUTONOMY

Sociotropy-autonomy (Beck, 1983) describes a set of personality dimens ions that relate to an individual's vulnerability to depression. Two r ecently developed scales, the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (Clark & Beck, 1991) and the Personal Style Inventory (Robins et al, 1994), have bee n developed in order to assess these personality dimensions. Typically , these measures are used in isolation and little published informatio n is available concerning their interrelationship. The present study e xamined the relationship between the two scales and specified the vari ous factors that emerge when the items of the two scales are integrate d. Six hundred fifty-two participants responded to the Personal Style Inventory (Robins et al, 1994) and the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (Clar k & Beck 1991). A factor analysis on all of the items of the two scale s revealed a five-factor structure (two sociotropy, two autonomy and o ne achievement factor). The relationships among depression, the five d erived factors, and the original scales developed by Clark and Beck (1 991) and Robins et al (1994) were critically examined. The results are discussed in the context of vulnerability to depression.