title: Depression proneness and reactions to a depressive stimulus.
abstract: In the context of a project examining depression vulnerability and cigarette smoking, the authors tested whether depression-vulnerable people differed from less vulnerable people in their reactions to a depressive stimulus. Regular smokers with a history of depression but not currently depressed (n = 63) and never-depressed smokers (n = 64) listened to audiotapes of confederates reading depressive and nondepressive scripts and reported their reactions. Neither a history of depression nor self-reported depression proneness predicted reactions to depression. However, depression proneness was positively correlated with beliefs about depression contagion. Likewise, stronger depression-related contagion beliefs and lower levels of empathic responding predicted behavioral rejection of the depressive stimulus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, American University, Washington, DC 20016-8062, USA.
authors.forename: Rachel A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Wernicke
authors.forename: Michelle Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Pearlman
authors.forename: Frances P
authors.initials: FP
authors.lastname: Thorndike
authors.forename: David A F
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Haaga
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D004777:Environment; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires