Self-derogations and the interpersonal theory.
The interpersonal theory of personality has been applied to explain depressed people's dilemma: The depressed person's submissive behavior invites dominating reactions from other people, and those reactions sustain the depressed person's depression. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that self-derogations connote submissiveness but are generally judged to be neutral in affiliation. Experiment 3 tested implications for the behavior of dysphoric and nondysphoric Ss as they interacted with a self-derogating, other-derogating, or nonderogating confederate partner. Ss selected a topic from a list and talked about it for 1 min: the confederate's script was fixed. The S's judgments of the confederate, choice of topics, satisfaction with the interaction, and actual responses were analyzed. Self-derogators were judged to be submissive, elicited dominating reactions, and selected more topics with negative content.
Horowitz
L M
LM
Department of Psychology, Stanford University, California 94305-2130.
Locke
K D
KD
Morse
M B
MB
Waikar
S V
SV
Dryer
D C
DC
Tarnow
E
E
Ghannam
J
J
D000328:Adult; D004291:Dominance-Subordination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D014705:Verbal Behavior