What Questions Arise when Studying Cultural Universals in Depression? Lessons from Abnormal Psychology Textbooks

We examined 70 abnormal psychology textbooks published from 1920s to the present to identify consistent cross-cultural themes with regard to human depressive experiences over time and across regions of the world. The cultural and cross-cultural literature on abnormality and depression, in particular, has contributed to widening the scope of abnormal psychology textbooks over time. However, the texts are almost entirely dependent on Western diagnostic categories, particularly with regard to definitions of depression. Within the Western classification framework, authors of abnormal psychology textbooks have increasingly recognized the role of culture in depressive experiences and their communication. On the basis of our content analysis of the textbooks, we propose 10 culturally informed questions to study the relationship between culture and depression

Role playing and affect

Typescript.Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1978.Bibliography: leaves 116-125.Microfiche.x, 125 leaves illThe present work investigated whether untrained people can encode and decode "happiness" and "depression" within a social context by developing a role playing method. It also examined personality variables of the encoders and the effects of encoding on their self-ratings of affect. Forty-three female students served as role playing subjects (encoders). They were divided into three groups on the basis of their scores on the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale. Subjects were individually interviewed three times. The first interview served as its own control. The interviewer asked about the subjects' school work, family, and friends for about three minutes. The second and third interviews involved subjects' role playing under "happy" and "depressed" instructions. Subjects were told to remember a time when they felt very "depressed" or "happy" and act as if very "depressed" or "happy" while being interviewed. The order of role playing was counterbalanced. The design of the study was a 3 X 2 X 2 (Zung SDS group, role playing condition, order of role playing) factorial design with repeated measures across role playing conditions. Immediately after each interview, subjects rated themselves on the four S-point affect scales: "happy," "depressed," "pleasant," and "anxious." Scores on these self-rating dependent measures in each role playing condition were converted to change scores from baseline to each role playing condition and they were entered into four separate analyses of variance. The results indicated that role playing subjects' self-report on three of the four dependent measures changed significantly (p < .001) according to their role enactment under "happy" and "depressed" instructions. Subsequent tests revealed that the changes were in the predicted directions. There was no significant effect of the Zung group. These results support the hypothesis that untrained people can act "happy" and "depressed" and these enactments have a significant impact on self-reported ratings of affect. Videotape segments of subjects' baseline and their role playing under "happy" and "depressed" instructions were made and randomized in order. They were subjected to an independent validation by 9 groups of untrained observer-judges (N = 108 females). Observer-judges rated subjects' baseline and their role playing under "happy" and "depressed" instructions on 9 affect scales. For the purpose of the present work the four scales which corresponded to the self-ratings ("happy," "depressed," "anxious," and "pleasant") were examined and the scores were entered into four separate analyses of variance using the same design as that of role playing subjects. The results indicated that the ratings made by observer-judges of the subjects in the three independent conditions of baseline, "happy" and "depressed" were significantly different at p < .001. Subsequent tests revealed that the differences were in the predicted direction. These results offered a strong validation of the subjects' role playing by observer-judges independent of the subjects' self-report and supported the hypothesis that untrained people can decode "happiness" and "depression." Personality measures, such as the Zung Scale, Beck Inventory for Measuring Depression, Taylor MAS, and Pullman Facilitation-Inhibition Scale, were most significantly correlated to subjects' baseline but not to scores in role playing conditions. When the situation changed from baseline to role playing "happy" and "depressed," the personality measures were not consistent. The present study demonstrated that untrained people can communicate affect via overt behavior within a social context. Role playing has a significant effect upon self-ratings of affect. The results also indicated that within the population sampled there is a social consensus on what behaviors are considered as "happy" and "depressed." It remains to be studied what specific behaviors communicate "happiness" and "depression" among people at large

Living in the tide of change: explaining Japanese subjective health from the socio-demographic change

Today, countries around the world are caught in the tide of change towards Gesellshaft, or individualistic socio-demographic condition. Recent investigations in Japan have suggested negative impacts of change on emotional and motivational aspects of the Japanese self (Norasakkunkit, Uchida, and Toivonen, 2012; Ogihara and Uchida, 2014). Building on previous findings, in Study 1, we measured socio-demographic change towards individualistic societal condition during 1990 to 2010—two decades marked by great economic recession—at the levels of prefecture and city using archival data. In Study 2, we tested whether Japanese adults’ general health, satisfaction with life, self-esteem, and perceived social support were negatively predicted by the change using social survey. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed small but unique negative effects of the change on several health measures, suggesting that this change had an impact on health, above and beyond individual personality traits and demographics. Additionally, interdependent happiness, the type of cultural happiness grounded in interdependence of the self (Hitokoto and Uchida, 2014), showed an independent positive relationship with all aspects of health examined. Implications for health studies in changing socio-demographic condition are discussed in the context of Japanese society after economic crisis

The appropriateness of using the S-R Inventory of Anxiousness to measure sources of behavioral variability

The S-R Inventory of Anxiousness is critically examined for its appropriateness as a research strategy to demonstrate sources of behavioral variance. The purpose, development, use of the inventory, and ensuing analysis are reviewed. Three major problems are discussed in light of the research questions. These problems include (1) the apparent lack of distinction between person and mode of response (2) influence of the nonrandom selection of situation and mode of response on the results of the analysis, and (3) problems in specifying and assessing the nature of person-situation interactions. Although initial efforts to statistically demonstrate variance contribution of interactions deserve recognition, it is maintained that the variance components approach and previous application of the S-R Inventory of Anxiousness do not lead to clarifying the specific nature of person-situation interactions in influencing anxiousness. Rather, it is suggested that future research on person-situation interactions would benefit by identifying specific person and situation characteristics and incorporating aspects of both these factors into a systematic research design