Depression, Marital Discord, and Inter-Spousal Criticism

University Of Notre Dame, Notre Dame IN

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Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): It would be difficult to overstate the magnitude of the burden depressive disorders pose, not only to society and to the friends and relatives of those afflicted, but especially to depressed people themselves. Marital discord is a substantial risk factor for major depression, and this investigation is designed to clarify the nature of the association between depression and discord through detailed examination of inter-spousal criticism. The purpose is two-fold. First of all, this investigation seeks to determine whether perceptions of excessive spousal criticism are due to depressed people's biased perceptions of otherwise benign communications or to their accurate perceptions of comments from genuinely hypercritical spouses. Secondly, this study seeks to clarify and contextualize various individual differences predisposing to sending and receiving criticism. Carefully diagnosed depressed and non-depressed married people and their spouses will participate in a laboratory session during which they each complete marital, symptom, and personality questionnaires as well as undertaking a dyadic criticism perception accuracy task. The stimulus interaction for the criticism accuracy task will be a social support discussion of something one spouse would like to change about themselves. Both spouses then review the interaction videotape. The target spouses indicate time-linked thoughts and feelings they recall having experienced during the original interaction. Non-target ("source") partners review these same moments and indicate the thoughts and feelings they perceived their spouse as having experienced as well as disclosing their own intentions as they recall having them during the original interaction. Signal detection analyses will be deployed to determine the accuracy and bias in inferring criticism as evidenced by discrepancies between the two spouses' reports. Outside observers will also provide criticality ratings for comparison purposes. The role of individual differences in perceiving and emitting criticism will also be examined.