COGNITIVE VERSUS INSTRUMENTAL VIEWS OF THE NEGATIVE BIAS IN DEPRESSION

Cognitive and instrumental views of the negative bias in depressives' behavior were compared to ascertain the psychological significance of the negative expectations and self-blame which characterize depression. The cognitive model posited an intrapersonal explanation: a bias in the depressive's thinking was felt to distort the way he perceives his experience. This model proposed that depressives evaluate the causes of success and failure outcomes in a manner which minimizes positive feelings (pride, enhanced self-confidence) after success and fosters negative feelings (self-blame) after failure. The cognitive view also maintained that depressives misperceive the amount of positive feedback they have received so that they are less likely to fell successful.;The instrumental model viewed depressives' negative behavior as part of an interpersonal process: it hypothesized that depressives employ negative statements about themselves as a means of coping with stress or perceived threat from others. It also proposed that depressives used modesty and face-saving devices as additional means of coping with interpersonal stress.;In the present study, depressed and nondepressed subjects performed a task, received performance feedback, and evaluated themselves on their performance, either in public (examiner present) or in private (examiner absent). Subjects were told either that they succeeded, failed, or had an average performance on this task. Dependent measures were initial and final expectancy for task performance, expectancy change scores, perception of success and their number of correct responses on the task. In addition, subjects were asked to determine the degree to which their performance outcomes might be ascribed to ability, effort, task difficulty or luck. Planned contrasts and analysis of variance were used to determine the contribution of depression level, performance outcome (success, average or failure) and the public and private conditions to differences between groups on these measures.;The results showed that depressives' self-blame and negative expectations occur both as a function of a cognitive bias and as a means of coping with interpersonal stress. Depressive had significantly lower initial expectancy scores than nondepressives, which was clear evidence of a cognitive bias. They also ascribed performance outcomes significantly more to luck than did nondepressives, which might lead to less positive feelings after success.;Depressives evidenced three modes of instrumental responding: negative, self-demeaning behavior, face-saving, and self-enhancement. In public they attributed failure less to external factors and perceived less positive reinforcement than did nondepressives or depressives in private. This is evidence of negative coping behaviors. In public they behaved like nondepressives in statements of final expectancy: more modest after success (lower scores) and more face-saving after failure (higher scores).;Finally, self-enhancement was evident from depressives' more optimistic expectancy change scores in public than those of either depressives in private or nondepressives: they evidenced larger positive shifts after success and smaller negative shifts after failure.;Nondepressives responded instrumentally as well in the present study. They recalled having attained fewer correct answers on the task after public than after private success (modesty), and more after public failure than private (face-saving). They made more external attributions (to task difficulty) in public than they made in private, thereby appearing to take less credit for their successes and less personal responsibility for their failures.