[Locus of control of depressive patients in a cross-cultural comparison]

On the background of social-cognitive theories and transcultural aspects of depression relationships between generalized locus of control orientations and indicators of depression were analyzed in clinical samples from Egypt and West Germany. Data were collected in samples of 50 Egypt and 45 German inpatients with major depressive disorder (MDD, DSM-III) as well as in control samples of 50 Egyptian and German inpatients with acute medical diseases. Besides the "Beck Depression Inventory" (BDI) and the Hopelessness-Scale (H-Scale) the IPC-Scales were used, measuring internality, powerful others control and chance control in generalized control orientations. Results are: (1) Depressive inpatients are more depressive, more hopeless, more external, and less internal than patients with medical diseases; (2) While the Egyptian patients reach in general a markedly higher level in depression (BDI) than the patients in the German samples, a similar difference in the H-Scale was only observed for the depressive samples; (3) The Egyptian patients show distinctly higher scores in powerful others and chance control; (4) Discriminant analysis shows, that about 60% can be classified to the correct disease- and nationality-group by using the IPC-Scores; (5) There are some cultural specifica in the correlative patterns of the studied variables. It is concluded, that the results confirm on a general level the transcultural validity of cognitive approaches to depression. But it is noted as well, that cultural specificia in the structure of the cognitive orientations underlying depression require some differentiations of the constructs of such approaches.