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Psychology Commons

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Social Psychology

Depression

University of Massachusetts Amherst

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Full-Text Articles in Psychology

Behavior Or Diagnosis? Effects Of Irritable Patient Behavior And Diagnostic Labels On Mental Illness Stigma, Nathan R. Huff Mar 2022

Behavior Or Diagnosis? Effects Of Irritable Patient Behavior And Diagnostic Labels On Mental Illness Stigma, Nathan R. Huff

Masters Theses

Although research demonstrates significant stigma towards individuals with mental illness, the relative importance of observed behavior and a psychiatric diagnosis in eliciting stigma remains poorly understood. Using video vignettes, three experiments (ns = 195, 749, and 791) examined the effect of irritable (vs. calm) behavior and the presence (vs. absence) of a psychiatric diagnosis (schizophrenia in Studies 1 and 2; schizophrenia and depression in Study 3) on attitudinal, emotional, and behavioral dimensions of stigma towards a fictitious emergency room patient seeking migraine treatment. In line with labeling theory, irritable behavior resulted in greater blameworthy attributions for behavior, greater fear and …


Correspondence Between Change In Adult Attachment Patterns And Change In Depression Symptoms In Early Marriage, Cassandra C. Devito Jul 2016

Correspondence Between Change In Adult Attachment Patterns And Change In Depression Symptoms In Early Marriage, Cassandra C. Devito

Doctoral Dissertations

Countless studies have demonstrated the association between attachment styles and depressive symptoms; however, thus far, none have examined concurrent change. That is, does change in attachment style predict change in depressive symptoms over time? This question was examined in a sample of 229 heterosexual newlywed couples from Western Massachusetts. It was found that changes in attachment avoidance in particular predicted changes in depressive and anxious symptoms over time. Being a parent also played a role in participants' overall attachment styles, depressive symptoms and anxious symptoms on average, with differences observed by gender. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.


The Link Between Insecure Attachment And Depression: Two Potential Pathways, Cassandra C. Devito Aug 2014

The Link Between Insecure Attachment And Depression: Two Potential Pathways, Cassandra C. Devito

Masters Theses

A wealth of research demonstrates a strong link between insecure attachment and depressive symptoms. However, thus far no work has discerned different pathways to depression for each of the insecure subtypes: anxious and avoidant attachment. This work looks at the behaviors that couples engage in during a conflict interaction as a potential mediator for the attachment-depression relationship, with different behaviors mediating the link between anxious and avoidant attachment and depression. For anxiously attached individuals, it was predicted that lack of support and response from the partner (actual or perceived) would account for the relationship between their attachment and depressive symptoms. …