Negative self‐schemata in clinical depression

Abstract

Predictions from a negative self‐schema model of depression were tested using decision speed and recall measures for self and other person‐referent positive and negative adjectives. Clinical depressives, compared to non‐psychiatric controls, recalled more negative than positive self‐referent adjectives, although there were no differences between groups in decision speed. Depressives' negative bias in recall applied only to the self‐referent conditions; in the other referent conditions they exhibited the normal tendency towards positive recall bias. The self‐referent recall bias in depressives did not relate significantly to either duration or intensity of depression. The results appear to be consistent with expectations derived from a negative self‐schema model of depression, but alternative explanations remain to be investigated.