Individualistic and collectivistic cognitions on depressive and nondepressive Chinese and Caucasian college students

The problem. Cognitive dimension of depression among Asians have not been systematically investigated by previous studies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between cultural orientation and depressive cognitions.; Method. A correlational study was conducted using 100 American Caucasian and 100 Chinese undergraduate students in San Diego County. Participants were administered the demographic questionnaire and three instruments: Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), the Cognitive Error Questionnaire (CEQ), and the Shortened Individualism-Collectivism Scale (INDCOL-SF). The CEQ was utilized to assess the cognitive styles associated with depression. and catastrophizing.; Results. The current study revealed that Caucasian and Chinese participants did not differ on the dimension of individualism and collectivism. This finding was contrary to the results of previous studies indicating that Caucasians are more individualistic than Chinese. The results also indicated that neither ethnicity nor cultural style was unrelated to depressive cognitions. However, only the scores on the CES-D were positively correlated with all cognitive styles in both ethnicities. In addition, further analysis revealed that individualism was significantly correlated with depression.