Browsing by Author "McDonnaugh, Linda Frances"

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    Cognitive theories of depression: applicable across different socioeconomic classes?
    McDonnaugh, Linda Frances (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1984)
    Are the cognitive and reality correlates of depression similar across different socioeconomic classes? There is reason to suspect that they are not. Depression in the lower class may be tied more to bad life events than to aberrant cognitions, while depression in the middle and upper classes may show the opposite pattern. However, no study has investigated these possibilities. In the present investigation, 396 college students completed questionnaires assessing depressive symptoms, social support, occurrence of life events, dysfunctional attitudes, and attributional style. Some support for the hypothesis of different correlates across SES classes was found, but for the most part, correlates were the same in all classes. Depression was correlated with the occurrence of aversive life events, with the endorsement of dysfunctional attitudes, and with an attributional style in which bad events were explained with Internal, Stable and Global causes. This pattern was consistent across the sexes. Possible reasons for the results and implications are discussed.
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    Internal-external attributions and learned helplessness among lower and middle class adults
    McDonnaugh, Linda Frances (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1982)
    The present study tested Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale's (1978) reformulation of the learned helplessness hypothesis. Specifically, the study employed a laboratory paradigm to investigate: (a) whether attributions about uncontrollable events mediate subsequent deficits, particularly self-esteem loss; and (b) if lower socio-economic class individuals are more susceptible to helplessness following uncontrollability than are middle class individuals, All subjects were Black female college students, 25 from the lower class and 25 from the middle class. These subjects were randomly assigned to one of five experimental conditions: internal attribution provided for failure to a concept-identification task, external attribution provided for failure, no attribution provided for failure, no attribution provided for success, and no pretreatment task. All subjects were then tested for performance deficits on an anagram-solving task. Additional dependent variables included mood change, self-esteem change, and persistence at Rubick's Cube. A two-way analysis of variance using the factors social class and experimental condition revealed few differences across groups on any of the measures. Possible reasons for the failure to obtain differences were discussed.