Assessment of cognitive self-statements during marital problem solving: A comparison of two methods

Twenty maritally distressed couples (DC) and 20 nondistressed couples (NDC) were recruited and asked to undertake 10 minutes of problem-solving discussions, which were videotaped. Each individual partner's cognitive self-statements during the interaction were assessed using two methods: videoassisted recall (VR) and thought listing (TL). Reported cognitions from each method were content-analyzed and classified into five categories: partnerreferent positive, partner-referent negative, self-referent positive, self-referent negative, and other. Proportions of reported cognitions falling into each category were analyzed in two separate two-way MANOVAs (marital distress/nondistress ×sex) for the VR and TL measures. Results of each MANOVA indicated a highly significant effect of marital distress on cognitions, and a significant effect of sex on the VR but not the TL measure. Discriminant analyses showed that the VR and TL methods both discriminated between DC and NDC groups. Post hoc univariate ANOVAs indicated that DC had significantly higher proportions of negative partner-referent cognitions, and lower proportions of positive partner-referent cognitions, than NDC while problem solving. The relative merits of each cognitive assessment method, and their potential use in increasing marital therapy effectiveness, are discussed.     

Marital Satisfaction and an Information-Processing Measure of Partner-Schemas

In comparison with most research on relationship cognitions that has focused on cognitive contents as assessed by self-report measures, this study introduces an information-processing measure of partner-schemas, based on the incidental recall task. Indices from this task include judgments as to whether negative and positive personal adjectives describe the partner (i.e., a measure of schema content) and incidental recall of adjectives initially endorsed as describing the partner (i.e., a measure of facilitated recall of schema-relevant information). Results from a sample of married couples indicated that the newly introduced measure of partner—schemas was correlated with marital satisfaction, and that these correlations remained significant when controlling for symptoms of depression. These findings suggest that the incidental recall task may be a useful measure of partner-schemas.     

The role of spouses' depression and anger in the attribution—marital satisfaction relation

This study examined spouses' depression and anger, causal attributions for negative marital events, and marital satisfaction in a community sample of 312 newlywed couples. The results showed moderate intercorrelations among these variables for both husbands and wives. Regression analyses showed that spouses' attributions accounted for unique variance in marital satisfaction after controlling for own and partners' affect. Additional findings regarding affect and marital satisfaction were discussed.This research was supported by a grant (R01 AA07183) from NIAAA to Kenneth E. Leonard. We appreciate the helpful comments of Tom Bradbury and Linda Roberts.     

Cognitive Reactivity in Everyday Life as a Prospective Predictor of Depressive Symptoms

We used PDA devices and an experience sampling technique to assess participants’ negative mood and thoughts as they engaged in their normal daily routines over the course of a week. We then calculated each person’s own unique relationship between mood and thoughts, and used this index of cognitive reactivity to predict depressive symptoms at 6-month follow-up. Participants who demonstrated a stronger link between their momentary negative mood and negative cognitions reported more depressive symptoms at follow-up than those who had a weaker relationship between mood and cognitions. Further, this cognitive reactivity index was a better predictor of follow-up depressive symptom scores than initial depressive symptoms, dysfunctional attitudes, average experienced negative mood or thoughts, or variability of negative mood or thoughts. These results are consistent with earlier findings and build on previous research by demonstrating that naturally occurring cognitive reactivity is predictive of future mood disruptions.     

Child Exposure to Marital Conflict and Child Coping Responses as Predictors of Child Adjustment

This study examined the influence of children's exposure to marital conflict and children's coping responses to marital conflict on child adjustment. Forty-three mother–child dyads and 38 of the children's teachers participated in this investigation. Preadolescent children reported the marital conflict they witnessed, their coping responses to marital conflict, and their feelings of depression and global self-worth, while mothers reported their marital conflict and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and teachers reported children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Hierarchical regression analyses were conducted to examine the contribution of demographic, marital conflict, and child coping variables to the prediction of child adjustment. The results indicated that aggressive marital conflict was predictive of children's feelings of low self-worth, mother's reports of child externalizing behavior problems, and teacher's reports of child internalizing behavior problems. Moreover, child coping factors contributed unique variances to the prediction of child reports of child depression and teacher reports of child externalizing behavior problems after marital conflict and demographic variables were considered.     

Marital Adjustment and Depressive Symptoms in Korean Americans

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the quality of marital adjustment and depressive symptoms in Korean American couples. Fifty-three wives and 19 husbands reported on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies for Depression Scale. Results from linear regression indicated a negative relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms at a significant level for wives and near significant for husbands. The model explained 15% of the variance in wives’ depressive symptoms. The negative impact of marital adjustment on depressive symptoms indicates that Korean American couples’ marital adjustments need to be addressed.     

Marital adjustment and depressive symptoms in Korean Americans

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the quality of marital adjustment and depressive symptoms in Korean American couples. Fifty-three wives and 19 husbands reported on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies for Depression Scale. Results from linear regression indicated a negative relationship between marital adjustment and depressive symptoms at a significant level for wives and near significant for husbands. The model explained 15% of the variance in wives' depressive symptoms. The negative impact of marital adjustment on depressive symptoms indicates that Korean American couples' marital adjustments need to be addressed.     

Social Problem Solving, Mood, and Suicidality Among Inpatient Adolescents

Relationships between social problem solving, mood, and suicidality were examined in a sample of 105 adolescent psychiatric inpatients (ages 12–18). Youth were administered the Social Problem-Solving Inventory—Revised (T. D'Zurilla & A. Maydeu-Olivares, 1995) as well as standardized self-report and interview measures of dysphoria, hopelessness, anxiety, and suicidality. Results indicated that a negative problem orientation as well as an avoidant or impulsive problem-solving style were associated with less favorable scores on all of the latter measures, including greater reported suicidality. By contrast, associations were not observed between utilization of rational problem-solving skills and measures of either mood or suicidality. Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that the relationships found between the former measures of social problem solving and suicidality were mediated by more direct associations of less-effective social problem solving with both dysphoria/state-depression and hopelessness.     

Attribution processes in distressed and nondistressed couples: 5. Real versus hypothetical events

The majority of studies on attribution in marriage have examined hypothetical behaviors, raising the possibility that results are not applicable to actual marital events. In addition, it is not known whether attribution biases found for partner versus self-behavior in distressed and nondistressed spouses occur for clinically relevant problem behaviors. To examine these issues, wives seeking marital therapy and nondistressed wives from the community made responsibility attributions for self- and partner behaviors identified as problematic for the relationship and for hypothetical behaviors used in past research. The pattern of responses obtained for distressed and nondistressed groups was not affected by the real or hypothetical nature of the behavior. In addition, attributions for problem-related and hypothetical behaviors predicted marital satisfaction equally well. In regard to attribution biases, distressed spouses saw their own behavior as more unselfishly motivated and unintentional than spouse behavior. Nondistressed spouses made equally benign attributions for both self- and partner behavior. The conceptual and clinical significance of the results are outlined.     

Marital satisfaction and psychophysiological responsiveness in spouses of patients with chronic pain

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between spouse marital satisfaction and spouse solicitousness to their physiological responsiveness during marital interactions about pain. Twenty-six couples engaged in a series of structured marital interactions about neutral and pain-related topics while monitored for skin conductance (SC) and heart rate (HR). There was strong support for the role of spouses’ marital satisfaction in predicting their physiological responsiveness. The more satisfied a spouse, the more physiologically reactive the spouses were when listening to the patient describe pain, and the less reactive when responding to it. Dissatisfied spouses demonstrated the opposite pattern. They autonomically deactivated when hearing about the pain and became reactive when responding to it. Solicitousness was not a significant predictor of the spouses’ physiological responsiveness. Block’s (1981) proposed physiological mechanism for the origin of solicitousness in spouses did not receive support. It appears that responding in any fashion may lessen the magnitude of arousal in maritally satisfied spouses, whereas dealing with pain-related topics produces unpleasant arousal in dissatisfied spouses.     

妊娠晚期妇女抑郁与婚姻适应的相关性

目的探讨妊娠晚期妇女抑郁和婚姻适应现状之间的关系。方法采用爱丁堡产后抑郁量表(Edinbburgh postnatal depression scale,EPDS)和婚姻适应量表(dyadic adjust ment scale,DAS)对2008年1月至2009年12月某院834例妊娠晚期妇女进行问卷调查。结果 EPDS评分≥9.5分,存在抑郁的有250例,占31.8%;DAS得分≤107分,存在婚姻适应不良的有212例,占29.4%。EPDS与DAS总分及4个维度均呈负相关(婚姻满意度r=-0.397,P<0.01;婚姻一致性r=-0.311,P<0.01;情感表达r=-0.282,P<0.01;婚姻内聚性r=-0.227,P<0.01)。结论妊娠晚期妇女抑郁发生率较高,婚姻适应不良是其中的重要原因之一。医护人员应针对妊娠晚期配偶双方婚姻适应的状况,做好健康教育,从而减少妊娠晚期妇女抑郁的发生。     

Mood and the suppression of positive and negative self-referent thoughts

The hypothesis was that, due to the increased accessibility of material congruent with current mood, mood-congruent thoughts would be more likely to intrude than mood-incongruent thoughts during a period of thought suppression. In Study 1, subjects were led to experience either positive or negative mood and were then asked not to think about either a positive or negative event drawn from their own pasts. As predicted, positive-mood subjects exhibited more intrusions for positive than negative unwanted thoughts, whereas negative-mood subjects exhibited more intrusions for negative than positive unwanted thoughts. These findings were replicated in Study 2 in which dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects suppressed thoughts of an autobiographical event that was either positive or negative. Results are discussed with respect to the relation between mood and cognition, the role of intrusive cognitions in depression, and the relative merits of successful and unsuccessful thought suppression.The article is based on portions of a dissertation by Andrew Howell submitted to Concordia University in partial fulfillment of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The research was conducted while Andrew Howell was holding a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC) doctoral fellowship, and was supported by SSHRCC and Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l'Aide à la Recherche of Quebec (FCAR) research grants to Michael Conway.     

Depressive Mood Reactions to Failure in the Achievement Domain: A Test of the Integration of the Hopelessness and Self-Esteem Theories of Depression

This prospective study tested the diathesis-stress and causal mediation components of the integration of the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression. One hundred and thirty-six high school seniors applying early decision to the University of Pennsylvania completed measures of depressed mood, hopelessness, self-esteem, and depressogenic inferential styles 1–8 weeks before receiving their admissions decision (Time 1). The assessment of self-esteem and depressogenic inferential styles was preceded by a priming task designed to activate latent cognitive vulnerability factors. In addition, participants completed measures of mood and hopelessness shortly after they received their admissions decision (Time 2) and 4 days later (Time 3). In line with the diathesis-stress component of the theory, depressogenic inferential styles about consequences, causes, and the self for achievement events interacted with low self-esteem to predict enduring depressive mood reactions (Time 3) in negative outcome students. In addition, in partial support of the causal mediation component of the theory, in negative outcome students with low self-esteem, the relationship between depressogenic inferential styles and enduring depressive mood reactions was partially mediated by hopelessness.     

Characteristics of depressed patients with elevated levels of dysfunctional cognitions

The characteristics of subjects with elevated scores on both the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale and Cognitive Bias Questionnaire were studied in a sample of 72 depressed inpatients. In comparison with low cognitive dysfunctional subjects (n =48), subjects with elevated dysfunctional cognitions (n =24) revealed greater severity of depression, more hopelessness, higher frequencies of automatic thoughts, less social support, and overall poorer social adjustment. Furthermore, the data suggest that age of depression onset, duration of current depressive episode, and number of previous depressive episodes are associated with elevated levels of dysfunctional cognitions. There were no differences between high and low dysfunctional cognitive groups with respect to DSM-III melancholic diagnosis or response on the dexamethasone suppression test. This study was supported by NIMH Grants MH31640, MH35945 and by Biomedical Research Support Grant S07RR0517. The authors thank Marilyn Foulke and Dorothy Lampal for their valuable assistance in the completion of this project.     

The effects of induced mood on irrational thoughts and views of the world

Sixty college students participated in an experiment concerning the influence of somatic mood induction statements on measurements of irrationality as defined by Ellis. Subjects were randomly assigned to depression, elation, and neutral mood induction groups. There were significant differences between groups on mood and irrationality. Results are discussed in terms of the Ellis and Beck cognitive models of depression, the Isen cognitive loop model, and the relationship between irrationality and depression. This study added irrational thinking as defined by Ellis to the growing list of cognitions that have been manipulated by mood, and it supports a body of findings that demonstrate the reciprocal influence of cognition and mood in depression. The study also has implications for the Beck and Ellis hypothesis that cognitions are the dominant causes of depression.     

Effects on parents of an intervention to resolve infant behavioral sleep problems

PURPOSE: Because behavioral sleep problems affect a large proportion of infants and can result in health issues for children and their parents, the study evaluated the effects of a sleep intervention for infants from 6 to 12 months old. METHOD: For this quasi-experimental one group pre-test and post-test design, 39 eligible families were recruited through a newborn hotline. Seventy parents with healthy 6 to 12-month old infants completed the intervention. The intervention involved information about infant sleep and strategies for sleep problems in classes of up to 6 couples, chart completion, and bi-weekly telephone calls for 2 weeks. The primary outcome measures were parents' sleep quality, fatigue, cognitions about infant sleep, depression, marital harmony, and sleepiness. FINDINGS: Following the intervention, there was a significant improvement in parents' sleep quality, cognitions about infant sleep, fatigue, and depressed mood. CONCLUSIONS: The study findings demonstrated that providing parents with information and support to assist with infant behavioral sleep problems can improve parental psychological well being.     

Aggressive Cognitions of Violent Versus Nonviolent Spouses

This study extends previous research on the relationship between aggressive cognition and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration by comparing the aggressive cognitions of both husbands and wives (not just husbands) in an actual (not hypothetical) relationship problem discussions across three groups of couples—bi-directionally violent (V), nonviolent but maritally distressed (NVD), and nonviolent and nondistressed (NVND). Further extending previous work, across these groups, we also compared spouses’ inferences of aggressive cognitions in their partners’ thoughts and objective observers’ inferences of aggressive cognitions. Violent spouses, whether male or female, had significantly more aggressive cognitions than NVD and NVND spouses. Findings are discussed in relation to how they extend past research and their clinical implications.

Coping Attitudes Scale: Psychometric Properties of a Measure of Positive Attitudes in Depression

The current study investigated the reliability and validity of the Coping Attitudes Scale (CAS), a new measure designed to assess positive cognitions in depression. The CAS is based on cognitive theory and the items reflect the experience of depressed patients during recovery. Psychiatric inpatients (n = 141) meeting criteria for a major depressive disorder and college students (n = 135) completed the CAS and measures of depression and hopelessness. The 23-item CAS demonstrated high internal consistency and retest reliability. Preliminary evidence for validity was observed via strong, negative correlations with measures of depression and hopelessness. Based on difference scores, changes in the CAS were inversely related to changes in depression. However, factor analytic results suggest that the CAS is not merely assessing the opposite of depression. Preliminary findings indicate that the CAS is a reliable, stable scale that measures positive cognitions.