Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T10:44:04.582Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Association of Biological and Psychological Attributions for Depression with Social Support Seeking Intentions in Individuals with Depressive Symptoms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2012

Rebecca K. Blais  and
Keith D. Renshaw
Rebecca K. Blais*
Affiliation:
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA
Keith D. Renshaw
Affiliation:
George Mason University, Fairfax, USA
*
Reprint requests to Rebecca Blais, University of Utah, Psychology Department, 380 South 1530 East Room, 502 Salt Lake City, Utah 84112, USA. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Background: Research suggests that biological and psychological attributions for depression are related to professional help-seeking, but the association of these attributions with informal support seeking in social relationships is unknown. As social support is linked with recovery from depression and a lower likelihood of experiencing future episodes of depression, it is important to understand factors that influence an individual's decision to seek social support. Aims: The present study examined depressed individuals’ own attributions for their depressive symptoms (i.e. personal attributions), perceptions of a friend's attributions for these symptoms (i.e. perceived attributions), and the depressed individuals’ willingness to seek social support from that friend. Method: Eighty-six individuals experiencing at least mild depressive symptoms completed self-report measures of personal attributions, perceived attributions, and a social support seeking intentions scale. Results: Participants’ own attributions for depressive symptoms were unrelated to their willingness to seek social support. In contrast, perceived biological attributions were related to greater help-seeking intentions, whereas perceived psychological attributions were associated with lower support seeking intentions. Conclusions: These results suggest that decisions to seek social support are more influenced by perceptions of others’ beliefs about depression than one's own beliefs.

Keywords

Depressioncausal attributionssocial supportrelationships
Type
Research Article
Information
Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy , Volume 40 , Issue 5 , October 2012 , pp. 605 - 617
Copyright
Copyright © British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aiken, L. S. and West, S. G. (1991). Multiple Regression: testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE.Google Scholar
Ajzen, I., Brown, T. C. and Carvajal, F. (2004). Explaining the discrepancy between intentions and actions: the case of hypothetical bias in contingent valuation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 1108–1121.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Antony, M., Bieling, P., Cox, B., Enns, M. and Swinson, R. (1998). Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychological Assessment, 10, 176–181.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barney, L., Griffiths, K., Jorm, A. and Christensen, H. (2006). Stigma about depression and its impact on help-seeking intentions. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 40, 51–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrera, M., Sandler, I. and Ramsay, T. (1981). Preliminary development of a scale of social support: studies on college students. American Journal of Community Psychology, 9, 435–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barrowclough, C. and Hooley, J. (2003). Attributions and expressed emotion: a review. Clinical Psychology Review, 23, 849–880.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Billings, A. G. and Moos, R. H. (1985). Life stressors and social resources affect posttreatment outcomes among depressed persons. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 94, 140–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blais, R. K. and Renshaw, K. D. (2008a). The Development and Validation of the Illness Attribution Measure – Depression (IAM-D). Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Orlando, FL, USA. November.Google Scholar
Blais, R. K. and Renshaw, K. D. (2008b). The Impact of Personal and Perceived Attributions for Depression on Stigma. Poster presented at the annual conference for the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, Orlando, FL, USA. November.Google Scholar
Blais, R. K. and Renshaw, K. D. (2012). The development and validation of scales assessing attributions for depression and willingness to seek social support. Manuscript in preparation.Google Scholar
Burleson, B. R. (1984). Age, social-cognitive development, and the use of comforting strategies. Communication Monographs, 51, 140–153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cauce, A. M. and Srebnik, D. (1990). Returning to social support systems: a morphological analysis of social networks. American Journal of Community Psychology, 18, 609–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coyne, J. C. and Calarco, M. M. (1995). Effects of the experience of depression: application of focus group and survey methodologies. Psychiatry, 58, 149–163.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cutrona, C. and Russell, D. (1990). Type of social support and specific stress: toward a theory of optimal matching. In Sarason, B.R., Sarason, I.G. and Pierce, G.R. (Eds.), Social Support: an interactional view (pp. 319–366). Oxford: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Deacon, B. J. and Baird, G. (2009). The chemical imbalance explanation of depression: reducing blame at what cost? Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology, 28, 415–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dehle, C., Larsen, D. and Landers, J. (2001). Social support in marriage. The American Journal of Family Therapy, 29, 307–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinos, S., Stevens, S., Serfaty, M., Weich, S. and King, M. (2004). Stigma: the feelings and experiences of 46 people with mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry, 184, 176–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Faul, F., Erdfelder, E., Lang, A.-G. and Buchner, A. (2007). G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behavior Research Methods, 39, 175–191.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gammel, D. and Stoppard, J. (1999). Women's experiences of treatment and depression: medicalization or empowerment? Canadian Psychology, 40, 112–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstein, B. and Rosselli, F. (2003). Etiological paradigms of depression: the relationship between perceived causes, empowerment, treatment, preferences, and stigma. Journal of Mental Health, 12, 551–563.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoge, C. W., Castro, C. A., Messer, S. C., McGurk, D., Cotting, D. I. and Koffman, R. L. (2004). Combat duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, mental health problems, and barriers to care. New England Journal of Medicine, 351, 13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lovibond, S. and Lovibond, P. (1995). Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. Sydney: The Psychological Foundation of Australia.Google Scholar
MacGeorge, E. L. (2003). Gender differences in attributions and emotions in helping contexts. Sex Roles, 48, 175–182.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKay, N. and Barrowclough, C. (2005). Accident and emergency staff's perceptions of deliberate self-harm: attributions, emotions, and willingness to help. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44, 255–267.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Alliance on Mental Illness (n.d.). Major Depression Fact Sheet. Retrieved 1 May 2010, from http://www.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=DepressionandTemplate=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfmandContentID=88956.Google Scholar
Nasser, E. H. and Overholser, J. C. (2005). Recovery from major depression: the role of support from family, friends, and spiritual beliefs. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 111, 125–132.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newsom, J., Rook, K., Nishishiba, M., Sorkin, D. and Mahan, T. (2005). Understanding the relative importance of positive and negative social exchanges: examining specific domains and appraisals. Journals of Gerontology, 60B, 304–312.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paykel, E. S., Hart, D. D. and Priest, R. G. (1998). Changes in public attitudes to depression during the Defeat Depression Campaign. British Journal of Psychiatry, 173, 519–522.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pierce, G. R., Sarason, I. G., Sarason, B., Solky-Butzel, J. A. and Nagle, L. C. (1997). Assessing the quality of personal relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14, 339–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rafter, J. A., Abell, M. L. and Braselton, J. P. (2003). Statistics with Maple. Burlington, MA: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Renshaw, K. D., Rodrigues, C. S. and Jones, D. H. (2008). Psychological symptoms and marital satisfaction in spouses of Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans: relationships with spouses’ perceptions of veterans’ experiences and symptoms. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 586–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sarason, I., Levine, H., Basham, R. and Sarason, B. (1983). Assessing social support: the Social Support Questionnaire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 44, 127–139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schreiber, R. and Hartrick, G. (2002). Keeping it together: how women use the biomedical explanatory model to manage the stigma of depression. Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 23, 91–105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Servaty-Seib, H. and Burleson, B. (2007). Bereaved adolescents’ evaluations of the helpfulness of support-intended statements: associations with person centeredness and demographic, personality, and contextual factors. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 24, 207–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherburne, C., Hayes, R. and Wells, K. (1995). Personal and psychosocial risk factors for physical and mental health outcomes and course of depression among depressed persons. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, 345–355.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherwood, C., Salkovskis, P. M. and Rimes, K. A. (2007). Help-seeking for depression: the role of beliefs, attitudes and mood. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 35, 541–554.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skarsater, I., Langius, A., Argen, H., Haggstrom, L. and Dencker, K. (2005). Sense of coherence and social support in relation to recovery in first-episode patients with major depression: a one-year prospective study. International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, 14, 258–264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Srebnik, D., Cauce, A. and Baydar, N. (1996). Help–seeking pathways for children and adolescents. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 4, 210–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verhofstadt, L. L., Buysee, A. and Ickes, W. (2007). Social support in couples: an examination of gender differences using self-report and observational methods. Sex Roles, 57, 267–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weiner, B., Perry, R. P. and Magnussen, J. (1988). An attributional analysis of reactions to stigmas. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 738–748.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.