Implicit Conceptualizations of Depression: Implications for an Interpersonal Perspective

Recent conceptualizations of depression have focused on the quality of the interactions between depressed individuals and others, and on the role these interactions may play in maintaining or exacerbating the depression. The behavior of depressives is hypothesized to engender negative affect and hostility in those with whom they interact. Although the behavior of depressives undoubtedly exerts a strong influence on nondepressed others, research from the areas of social cognition and person perception suggests that the cognitive representations nondepressed individuals routinely use to organize their perceptions of others also exert a strong influence on their interpersonal behavior. Further insight into the interpersonal sequence hypothesized to maintain depression may be obtained, therefore, by examining the cognitive representations people use to organize their impressions of others and the effects these structures have on subsequent interactions. The present paper integrates research from the areas of person perception and social cognition with research specifically addressing the manner in which depressed individuals are perceived. The implications of this integration are discussed with reference to proposed interactional theories of depression, and directions for future research are suggested.