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Depression

Clinical Psychology

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An Empirical Examination Of The Dyadic Partner-Schema Model Of Relationship Distress And Depression, Jesse Lee Wilde Ms. Jul 2023

An Empirical Examination Of The Dyadic Partner-Schema Model Of Relationship Distress And Depression, Jesse Lee Wilde Ms.

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Romantic relationship discord is prevalent in depression and has been repeatedly associated with poor prognosis for the disorder. Although a significant body of literature has examined the ways in which depressive self-schema structures (SSS) are implicated in depression, a paucity of research has investigated the role of partner-schema structures (PSS) in the disorder. The Dyadic Partner Schema Model (DPSM; Wilde & Dozois, 2019) was recently developed as a novel theoretical model of the mechanisms that maintain relationship distress in depression. This dissertation provided the first direct empirical examination of the DPSM by examining four main research questions: (1) how are …


Neuroimaging Depression Risk In A Sample Of Never-Depressed Children, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer Nov 2021

Neuroimaging Depression Risk In A Sample Of Never-Depressed Children, Matthew R. J. Vandermeer

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Children of mothers with a history of depression are at significantly higher risk for developing depression themselves. Although numerous mechanisms explaining this relationship have been proposed (Goodman & Gotlib, 1999), relatively little is known about the neural substrates of never-depressed children’s depression risk. Of the few studies that have used neuroimaging techniques to characterize risk-based differences in children’s neural structure, function, and functional connectivity, most have used samples that include participants with a personal history of depression or older samples (i.e., past the typical age of onset for depressive disorders). These approaches limit what can be determined regarding whether findings …


Exploring The Links Between Social Anxiety And Depression In The Maintenance Of Romantic Relationships, Christian M. Hahn Nov 2019

Exploring The Links Between Social Anxiety And Depression In The Maintenance Of Romantic Relationships, Christian M. Hahn

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Social anxiety is characterized by fear and avoidance of social encounters and has recently been associated with a variety of difficulties in romantic relationships. Complicating further investigation of these associations is the high degree of comorbidity between social anxiety and depressive symptomatology, which share several similarities in expression despite disparate underlying causes. The present thesis examines the unique influences of social anxiety and depression on a number of central aspects of relationship functioning and provide the first longitudinal investigation of the impacts of actor and partner social anxiety and depression on relationship quality and functioning. In Study 1, three independent …


Baseline And Stress-Induced Cognitive Control Deficits And Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines In Currently, Remitted, And Never Depressed Individuals, Katerina Rnic Nov 2019

Baseline And Stress-Induced Cognitive Control Deficits And Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines In Currently, Remitted, And Never Depressed Individuals, Katerina Rnic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Background: Cognitive theories posit that cognitive control deficits promote depression by reducing ability to self-regulate under stress. When activated by stress and accessible to working memory, negative cognitive content and structure (i.e., schemas), may interfere with cognitive control abilities, resulting in even greater declines in executive functioning. Moreover, burgeoning evidence indicates that social stress upregulates inflammation, resulting in a pro-inflammatory phenotype that drives depression pathogenesis. However, cognitive mechanisms underlying this process are not well understood. An objective of this study was to examine depression-related deficits in cognitive control and their association with poor self-regulation. Another purpose was to evaluate the …


The Role Of Social Disconnection In The Relationship Between Perfectionism And Psychological Distress, Samantha Chen Nov 2019

The Role Of Social Disconnection In The Relationship Between Perfectionism And Psychological Distress, Samantha Chen

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigated the interpersonal mechanisms through which various aspects of perfectionism confer risk for psychological outcomes. Three studies were conducted based on the Perfectionism Social Disconnection Model (Hewitt, Flett, & Mikail, 2017), which proposes that individuals with higher levels of perfectionism may experience significant social disconnection, which then lead to a variety of maladaptive outcomes. Study 1 examined the longitudinal impacts of trait perfectionism and sense of relatedness on the variance in change in psychological outcomes. Findings showed that negative perceptions of relatedness partially mediated the link between socially prescribed perfectionism and psychological distress three months later; however, this …


The Role Of Cognitive Distortions In The Longitudinal Relationship Between Problematic Drinking And Depressive Symptoms, Monica F. Tomlinson May 2019

The Role Of Cognitive Distortions In The Longitudinal Relationship Between Problematic Drinking And Depressive Symptoms, Monica F. Tomlinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigated the mechanisms by which problematic drinking contributes to depressive symptoms in two longitudinal, prospective, cohort-design studies. Distorted cognitive processes (dysfunctional attitudes, negatively-biased information processing, and rumination) were proposed as mediators in the relationship between problematic drinking and depressive symptoms over time. Study 1 (N = 1090) assessed participants’ levels of problematic drinking, dysfunctional attitudes, and depressive symptoms at three-month intervals for one year. Findings indicated that the social and occupational consequences of alcohol use (e.g., interpersonal conflict) significantly predicted depressive symptoms. The amount and frequency of alcohol consumption did not. Therefore, impairment, but not level of …


Understanding And Coping With Possible Depressive Symptoms: An Extension Of The Self-Regulation Model, Melissa N. Mohan Nov 2018

Understanding And Coping With Possible Depressive Symptoms: An Extension Of The Self-Regulation Model, Melissa N. Mohan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation used Leventhal’s Self-Regulation Model (SRM) as a theoretical framework to examine how undergraduates make sense of and cope with symptoms often associated with depression. Students completed questionnaires about possible depressive symptoms (not labelled as such); as well as other components of the SRM, including demographics, psychosocial context, current psychopathology, cognitive appraisals and emotional reactions. Previous SRM studies have often focused on how people make sense of depression once symptoms have coalesced into a clearer clinical picture. In contrast, Part 1 of this dissertation focused on an earlier application of the SRM to a range of vague, generally mild …


Trajectories Of The Effects Of Sad Mood Induction Procedures (Mips), Jennifer C. P. Gillies Aug 2018

Trajectories Of The Effects Of Sad Mood Induction Procedures (Mips), Jennifer C. P. Gillies

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Mood Induction Procedures (MIPs) are used widely in cognitive vulnerability to depression research. Although research supports certain MIPs as effective, little research has validated the assumption that MIP-induced sad moods are sufficiently persistent. This study addressed three questions: How long does an MIP-induced mood last? What are the shapes of the trajectories of the mood effects? Do these trajectories differ by type of MIP? Four-hundred-and-one undergraduate students were randomly assigned to undergo one of three commonly used sad MIPs or a neutral MIP. Mood was repeatedly measured immediately prior to and following the MIP.Results did not support the widely held …


Do You “Like” Me?: Reassurance Seeking On Facebook And Depression, Callista Forchuk Jul 2017

Do You “Like” Me?: Reassurance Seeking On Facebook And Depression, Callista Forchuk

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The objective of this study was to expand interpersonal theories of depression by incorporating online social behaviour. This study assessed the influence of Facebook reassurance seeking on concurrent depressive symptoms, as well as the moderating role of attachment anxiety in this relation. A sample of 458 undergraduates (68% female; mean age 18.54) completed self-report computer-based questionnaires of offline reassurance seeking, Facebook reassurance seeking, attachment style, and depression. Contrary to hypotheses, Facebook reassurance seeking was not associated with depressive symptoms. However, there was an interaction whereby, for those higher in attachment anxiety, more Facebook reassurance seeking was associated with lessened depressive …


It's Not Me It's You: Examining The Link Between Partner-Schema Organization, Relationship Functioning, And Depressive Symptoms, Jesse Lee Wilde Jun 2017

It's Not Me It's You: Examining The Link Between Partner-Schema Organization, Relationship Functioning, And Depressive Symptoms, Jesse Lee Wilde

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Depression is associated with a host of interpersonal difficulties, particularly within intimate relationships. While a significant body of literature has supported the presence of a highly consolidated negative self representation or “self-schema”, no studies have examined whether depression is also associated with a highly organized negative “partner-schema”, and whether this represents a risk factor for relationship distress. Given the high degree of similarity between cognitive representations of self and close others, it was predicted that depression would be associated with a partner-schema structure mirroring that of the self-schema: an organized cognitive structure characterized by tightly interconnected negative information, and loosely …


The Role Of Emotional Support In Emotional Well-Being, Maria Sol Pound Jun 2015

The Role Of Emotional Support In Emotional Well-Being, Maria Sol Pound

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The overall purpose of this dissertation was to study the role of emotional support in emotional well-being (positive affect, negative affect, and non-clinical depressive symptoms). The research literature on social support has primarily focused on support processes occurring in the context of negative experiences and often has not included positive social interactions. This dissertation aimed to expand the study of emotional support by investigating emotional support for both positive and negative experiences, as well as emotional invalidation of negative experiences. Also, the mechanisms linking social support with well-being remain largely unclear. Two studies in this dissertation explored the role of …


The Transdiagnostic Prevention Of Emotional Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Study, Rebecca Mcdermott Jun 2015

The Transdiagnostic Prevention Of Emotional Disorders: A Randomized Controlled Study, Rebecca Mcdermott

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Major Depression and anxiety disorders are prevalent, costly, and comorbid disorders. These emotional disorders also share some vulnerability factors, making them good candidates for transdiagnostic or simultaneous prevention. The current study is a double-blind, primary prevention study that focuses on preventing emotional disorders in at risk, first and second year undergraduate students. Three internet-delivered preventative programs were compared: a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) intervention (MoodGYM), an attentional bias modification program (Dandeneau & Baldwin, 2004), and an active attentional control. Participants (n = 354) completed symptom measurement pre- and post- a six-week intervention and again at a four-month follow-up, when they …


Interpretive Bias In The Context Of Life Stress And Depression: An Examination Of Stress Generation And Diathesis-Stress Models, Pamela M. Seeds Jun 2012

Interpretive Bias In The Context Of Life Stress And Depression: An Examination Of Stress Generation And Diathesis-Stress Models, Pamela M. Seeds

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Purpose: Researchers have recently demonstrated interest in interpretive bias, the tendency to interpret ambiguous information more negatively and/or less positively. The extent to which interpretive biases influence the occurrence of life stressors and potentially compound the negative effects of life stress in the development of depression is presently unknown. Hence, the purpose of this study was to investigate interpretive bias for ambiguous social information within the context of stress and depression. This study examined interpretive bias in the context of two theoretically and empirically supported models of depression – stress generation and diathesis-stress – to determine the mechanism through which …


Individual Differences In Temperament And Cognitive Biases In Middle Childhood: Vulnerability To Internalizing Psychopathology, Patricia L. Jordan May 2012

Individual Differences In Temperament And Cognitive Biases In Middle Childhood: Vulnerability To Internalizing Psychopathology, Patricia L. Jordan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A multi-trait multi-method study was conducted exploring associations between individual differences in child temperament and cognitive vulnerability for depression and anxiety. Two-hundred and five 7-year-old children and their parents participated. Low positive emotionality and high negative emotionality predicted a depressogenic attributional style as well as attentional biases for positive and sad stimuli. Individual differences in child fearfulness were also associated with attentional biases to threat-related information. Associations between child cognitive vulnerability and parental history of depression and anxiety were also explored, as well as associations between child internalizing symptoms and (1) child temperament and (2) cognitive vulnerability. Paternal, but not …


A Self-Regulation Model Of Depression: Content Of Cognitive Representations And Prediction Of Treatment Seeking, Catherine Leite Dec 2011

A Self-Regulation Model Of Depression: Content Of Cognitive Representations And Prediction Of Treatment Seeking, Catherine Leite

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Leventhal's self-regulation model (SRM) was applied as a conceptual framework from which to examine individuals' cognitive representations of depressive symptoms. This thesis explored the nature of these representations, as well as factors that may impact on these representations and, in turn, influence coping strategies and professional help seeking. In particular, Study 1 examined the effect of symptom severity and the label used to identify the symptoms on the cognitive representations of depressive symptoms and coping, whereas Study 2 examined the effect of symptom duration in this regard. This thesis also considered the extent to which the various SRM domains are …