Depressives' future-event schemas and the social inference process

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Social Cognition

Background:

• Depression is associated with negative cognitive biases.
• Previous research has yielded inconsistent findings on depression's effect on social inferences.
• Cognitive load may influence the expression of these biases.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how depression affects social inferences under varying cognitive loads.
• To explore the role of future-event expectancies in depression-related differences in characterizations.
• To reconcile inconsistent findings in prior research.

Main Methods:

• Two studies were conducted involving depressed and nondepressed participants.
• Participants made dispositional or situational inferences about a target's performance under cognitive load or no load.
• Study 2 examined the influence of schema-based future-event expectancies.

Main Results:

• Under cognitive load, depressed individuals made more pessimistic characterizations than nondepressed individuals.
• No depression-related differences in inferences were observed when cognitive resources were sufficient.
• Schema-based future-event expectancies accounted for the observed differences.

Conclusions:

• Cognitive load is a critical factor in depression-related biases in social perception.
• Depression influences social inferences through pessimistic future-event expectancies.
• These findings clarify previous inconsistencies regarding depression and social cognition.