Article1980

Depression-prone personality in women.

Janet H. Altman · John Richard Wittenborn

74 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Abnormal Psychology

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Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes Personality Traits and Psychology Personality Disorders and Psychopathology

Abstract

An inventory of 134 self-descriptive items was developed to test the hypothesis that women who have been depressed have personalities different from those who have not. When the responses of the two groups were compared, 62 of the trial items discriminated between the two groups at the .05 level of significance. When these discriminating items were factor analyzed, five interpretable factors emerged: low self-esteem, unhappy outlook, narcissistic vulnerability, helplessness, and confidence. These findings suggest that any one or more of several different qualities of personality may distinguish women who have had a depression from women who have not had a depression. The present study was designed to test the following specific hypothesis: Formerly depressed women now in remission describe certain features of their personality in a manner different from that of women who have never been depressed. The first task was the formulation of selfdescriptive items that could discriminate in the manner predicted by the hypothesis. The formulation of the items was preceded by a searching examination of concepts (e.g., low self-esteem, narcissism, unhappy outlook, repressed hostility, and helplessness) and descriptions offered by many prior students of depression (Abraham, 1960/ 1911; Beck, 1967; Bibring, 1952; Cohen, Cohen, Fromm-Reichmann, & Weigert, 1954; Fenichel, 1945; Freud, 1957/1917; Homey, 1945; M. Klein, 1948; Rado, 1928). These writers have provided de facto characterizations of the personality of people who get depressed, and many but not all of these characterizations have common elements. Most of the items in the present inventory reflect these descriptions. Some were adapted from Lazare and Klerman (1968) and from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, but all items were

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References

1953The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud 1922Mourning and Melancholia 1957Two Factor Index of Social Position 2006The Psychoanalytic Theory Of Neurosis 1976Experiences of depression in normal young adults.1976Learned helplessness, depression, and the attribution of failure.1966Personality and Personal Illness 1946Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis

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