Studied by 4 people
Joiner et al (1999)
Aim: to determine the role of depressive and anxious thinking patterns on the development of depressive symptoms
Procedure: The sample was made of 119 American university students, all taking an abnormal psychology course. The mean age of the students was 19 years old.
The stressor that the researchers would observe was mid-term examinations. The students were assessed two weeks before and two weeks after their mid-term examinations.
1. The Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale [DAS] This test measures thinking patterns such as vulnerability, the need for approval, perfectionism, and the need to impress. This was taken only before the mid-term exams.
2. The Cognitive Checklist [CCL]. Half of the questions determine automatic thoughts linked to depression; the other half, are linked to anxiety. This test was taken both before and after the exams.
3. The Beck Depression Inventory [BDI] A standardized assessment to measure levels of symptoms linked to depression. This test was also taken both before and after the exams.
Results: researchers found an increase in the scores on the BDI only in students who had higher scores on the DAS and who had failed an exam. Students who had a higher score on the DAS but did well on the exams showed no significant increase in their BDI scores. For the students who had lower scores on the DAS, even if they received low grades, they did not experience depressive reactions.
Conclusion: for the CCL, there was a correlation between having higher scores on the depressive thinking patterns questions and the increase in the BDI scores if a student failed an exam. no significant correlation between the anxiety scores and an increase in BDI scores.
Evaluation: The study was prospective, allowing the researchers to see change over time. This allows researchers to control for bidirectional ambiguity.
The study was naturalistic, meaning that there was limited control over extraneous variables.
Although there was an increase in depressive symptoms, this is not the same as a clinical diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder. The experiment's results may not indicate what may happen in clinical depression.
There was a sampling bias. The study was carried out on American undergraduates who were studying psychology. The age, culture, and education of the sample may all have played a role in the results of the study.
Caspi et al (2003)
Aim: to determine whether there is evidence for a gene-environment interaction (G x E) for a mutation of the serotonin transporter gene - 5-HTT. The serotonin transporter is involved in the reuptake of serotonin in brain synapses.
Procedure: a sample of 847 New Zealand 26-year-olds. All were members of a cohort that had been assessed for mental health on an every-other-year basis until they were 21.
grouped based on allele size; Group 1 had two short alleles; Group 2 had one short and one long allele; Group 3 had two long alleles. The mutation of the 5-HTT gene has the shorter alleles. Roughly 43% of people have the shorter alleles
questionnaire which asked them about the frequency of 14 different events - including financial, employment, health, and relationship stressors - between the ages of 21 and 26. They were also assessed for depression.
Conclusion: People who had inherited one or more short versions of the allele demonstrated more symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation in response to stressful life events. The effect was strongest for those with three or more stressful life events. Simply inheriting the gene was not enough to lead to depression, but the genes' interaction with stressful life events increased one's likelihood of developing depression.
Evaluation: The theory acknowledges the interaction between both biological and environmental factors in depression. This is a more holistic approach, not reductionist.
Later studies have not been able to show similar results. Risch et al (2009) carried out a meta-analysis of attempted replications and found that the results were not able to be replicated. It appears that the study has low reliability.
There were some participants who did not carry the gene mutation who became depressed; therefore, we cannot say that gene expression alone can cause depression.
The study is correlational, so no cause and effect relationship can be determined.
The study makes the assumption that serotonin causes depression.
Nolen Hoeksema (2000)
A: To carry out a prospective study of the role of rumination on symptoms related to depression.
P: sample of 1132 participants that had been randomly selected from a community sample of adults in the San Francisco area, including San Jose and Oakland. They were chosen by random-digit dialing of telephone numbers. interviewed two times over a period of one year. All of the participants were interviewed in person in their own homes. The interview consisted of a clinical interview which lasted for 90 minutes. This included a battery of tests which included the Beck Depression Inventory, the Hamilton Rating Scale for depression, the SCID, and the Beck Anxiety Inventory.
rumination and coping questionnaire, designed by the researchers. For example, on the questionnaire they were asked to rate how often they think, “Why do I react this way”, “I think about how sad I am”, or “I think that I will lose my job if I don’t get better.”
R: Participants who showed signs of Major Depressive Disorder at the time of the first interview had a significantly higher score on ruminative responses than those who did not show signs of MDD. Participants who had never been depressed had significantly lower rumination scores than the other participants. In addition, those who had been depressed but improved had lower rumination scores than those who remained chronically depressed.
E: The study relied on self-report questionnaires as well as diagnosis through clinical interviews.
Originally there were 1317 participants. Although there was a small attrition rate, it was those with the strongest symptoms that dropped out – which means that there may have been a bias introduced into the study
The research supports Beck's theory that patterns of cognition can have a negative effect on mental health.
Delgado and Moreno (2000)
Aim: To investigate levels of noradrenaline & serotonin in patients suffering from MDD.
Procedure: sample of Pps who had already been diagnosed w/ clinical depression, and Pps who were not considered clinically depressed. only used women.
Brain scans were used to check levels of noradrenaline & serotonin.
Results: - Abnormally low levels of noradrenaline & serotonin in patients suffering from MDD.
- In an earlier study (Delgado et al (1994)), they gave depressed patients who were receiving antidepressant medication a special diet that lowered their tryptophan levels - a precursor of serotonin.
--> Most patients experience a return of their depressive symptoms, which disappeared when their diet returned to normal.
Conclusion: more serotoning or trytophan = less big sad fr.
Evaluation: Large sample group so the results can be generalized. Brain scans provide an accurate representation of the brain activity, however we cannot truly measure serotonin levels.
Study only carried out on females, perhaps the results would have varied had males been included. Low ecological validity as the method used was brain scans. Bidirectional ambiguity: Unknown if low levels of serotonin CAUSE the depression, or if it is a RESULT of the depression.
Parker et al (2001)
Aim: To compare the extent to which depressed Chinese patients in Malaysia and Caucasian patients in Australia identified both cognitive aspects of depression and a range of somatic symptoms as a sign of their depression and the reason that they sought professional help.
Procedure: 50 Malaysian participants of Chinese heritage and 50 Australian participants of Caucasian, Western heritage. Whereas the Australians all had English as their first language, the Chinese were a mix of Chinese (80%) and English (20%) as their first language. All participants were out-patients who had been diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, but who did not have other diagnoses.
questionnaire was based on two sets of symptoms. First, a set of mood and cognitive items common in Western diagnostic tools for depression. Secondly, a set of somatic symptoms commonly observed by Singaporean psychiatrists. (back translated = credibility).
asked to judge the extent to which they had experienced each of the 39 symptoms in the last week. They had only four options: all the time, most of the time, some of the time and not at all. They were also asked to rank the symptoms that they experienced in order of how distressing they were. Through the assistance of their psychiatrists, it was also noted what the primary symptom was that led to them seeking help
Results: which symptom led them to actually seek help, 60% of the Chinese participants identified a somatic symptom, compared to only 13% of the Australian.
Conclusion: There was no significant difference in the number of somatic symptoms indicated by each group as being linked to their depression. However, the Chinese participants were significantly less likely to identify cognitive or emotional symptoms as part of their problem. They were less likely to rate feeling helpless and hopeless, a depressed mood, having poor concentration, or having thoughts of death than the Australian participants. The role of culture is evident here; in Western culture it is more appropriate to discuss one's emotions and depression is seen as linked to a lack of emotional well being; whereas in Chinese culture, it is less appropriate and even stigmatized if one speaks about a lack of emotional health.
Evaluation: The study attempted to develop a questionnaire based on cultural evidence relevant to the participants. They did not simply use a standardized Western questionnaire that may have influenced the results.
Asking patients to recall their "first symptoms" is open to memory distortion and to demand characteristics. If in the West we believe that depression is an emotional disorder, patients may expect that this is the correct response.
Malaysia is a very modern and Westernized society. The effects of globalization may account for the relatively small difference in the data. Research on more cultures would be necessary to test the reliability of the findings.
chose participants based on western criteria for MDD, etic approach. may have eliminated people from the sample who may have a form of depression that does not meet the Western criteria for diagnosis; this may account for the similarities in the two samples.
Brown and Harris (1978)
Aim: to investigate how depression could be linked to social factors and stressful life-events in a sample of women.
Procedure: 458 women in South London were surveyed on their daily life and depressive episodes. The researchers focused on important biographical details - that is, particular life events or particular difficulties faced by the women. These events were later rated in severity by independent researchers.
8% of all the women - that is, 37 in total - had become clinically depressed in the previous year. 33 of these women (nearly 90%) had experienced an adverse life event (e.g. loss of a loved one) or a serious difficulty (e.g. being in an abusive relationship). Only 30% of the women who did not become depressed suffered from such an adversity. Only four of the 37 women who became depressed had not experienced any adversity.
Results: Social class - measured by the occupation of the husband - played a significant role in the development of depression in women with children. Working class women with children were four times more likely to develop depression than middle-class women with children.
Factors affecting depression:
Protective factors found to protect against the development of depression in spite of stressors
Vulnerability factors found to increase the risk of depression in combination with particularly stressful life events
Provoking agents found to contribute to acute and ongoing stress. These stressors could result in grief and hopelessness in vulnerable women with no social support.
Conclusion: The study showed that social factors in the form of life-stress (or serious life-events) could be linked to depression. The fact that working-class mothers were more likely to develop depression than middle-class mothers showed risk factors associated with social class. According to Brown and Harris, low social status leads to increased exposure to vulnerability factors and provoking agents, whereas high social status was associated with increased exposure to protective factors and decreased exposure to provoking agents.
Evalutaion: The study used semi-structured interviews to get an in-depth understanding of the participants' situation as they see it themselves. This increased the credibility of the results.
The sample size of the original study was relatively large, making the results potentially more reliable.
However, only females were interviewed so the results may not be generalized to men, but the relationship between stressful events and onset of depression might be applicable to men as well.
In addition, this study is based on self-reporting of depressive episodes. Therefore, it is impossible to accurately determine the actual extent of depression for each of the women interviewed.
Finally, this is an example of correlational research. Although there appears to be a relationship between stressful events and depression, we cannot determine that it is a cause and effect relationship. As other variables are not controlled for, it is possible that biological vulnerability may also play a role in this study. This is what modern research appears to indicate.
