Self-Derogations and the Interpersonal Theory

The interpersonal theory of personality has been applied to explain depressed people's dilemma: The depressed person's submissive behavior invites dominating reactions from other people, and those reactions sustain the depressed person's depression. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that sel...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of personality and social psychology 1991-07, Vol.61 (1), p.68-79
Main Authors: Horowitz, Leonard M, Locke, Kenneth D, Morse, Marjorie B, Waikar, Sachin V, Dryer, D. Christopher, Tarnow, Eugen, Ghannam, Jess
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Behavior
Biological and medical sciences
Connotations
Dominance-Subordination
Female
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Human
Humans
Interpersonal communication
Interpersonal Interaction
Interpersonal Relations
Major Depression
Male
Obedience
Personality
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Self Concept
Self-Esteem
Social Identification
Social interactions. Communication. Group processes
Social psychology
Social research
Verbal Behavior
Word Meaning
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The interpersonal theory of personality has been applied to explain depressed people's dilemma: The depressed person's submissive behavior invites dominating reactions from other people, and those reactions sustain the depressed person's depression. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that self-derogations connote submissiveness but are generally judged to be neutral in affiliation. Experiment 3 tested implications for the behavior of dysphoric and nondysphoric Ss as they interacted with a self-derogating, other-derogating, or nonderogating confederate partner. Ss selected a topic from a list and talked about it for 1 min; the confederate's script was fixed. The S's judgments of the confederate, choice of topics, satisfaction with the interaction, and actual responses were analyzed. Self-derogators were judged to be submissive, elicited dominating reactions, and selected more topics with negative content.
ISSN:0022-3514
1939-1315
DOI:10.1037/0022-3514.61.1.68