title: Depressives' future-event schemas and the social inference process.
abstract: Two studies examined depressed and nondepressed perceivers' characterizations and thoughtful inferences about the behaviors of another person. In Study 1, depressed and nondepressed participants under a cognitive load or no load were asked to make either dispositional (ability) or situational (task ease) inferences about a target's videotaped performance. When cognitive resources were limited, depressed compared with nondepressed individuals made more pessimistic characterizations. No depression-related differences were found when sufficient cognitive resources were available for inferential correction. Study 2 provided evidence that the depressed-nondepressed differences in characterizations could be accounted for by schema-based future-event expectancies (S. M. Andersen, L. A. Spielman, & J. A. Bargh, 1992). Results are examined in light of previous failures to find consistent differences as a function of level of depression in inferences about others.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210, USA. reich.16@osu.edu
authors.forename: D A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Reich
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weary
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D003071:Cognition; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D012718:Set, Psychology; D014743:Videotape Recording