Exploring Social Cognition under Negative Social Context in Depressed and Reactively Aggressive Taiwanese Adolescents
Date Issued
2015
Date
2015
Author(s)
Pan, Yi-Hsuan
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this thesis research was to investigate social information processing patterns of adolescents who present symptoms of depression and/or reactive aggression behaviors. By comparing social information processing patterns between depressed and reactively aggressive adolescents, the probable mechanisms of comorbidity would be suggested. METHOD: In investigating the above issues, two studies were designed. Study 1 validated the Children’s Depression Inventory 2nd Edition_Taiwan Version (CDI 2_TW), Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire_Taiwan Version (RPQ_TW), and Nowicki–Strickland Locus of Control Scale for Children_Taiwan Version (NSLCC_TW) with a sample of 346 junior high school students. In Study 2, four vignettes depicting common negative events of adolescents’ daily life and related questions were designed to probe the patterns of encoding and interpreting social cues in 616 junior high school participants. The CDI 2_TW, RPQ_TW, and NSLCC_TW were used to determine the participants’ level of depression, reactive aggression and external locus of control, respectively. RESULTS: First, the CDI 2_TW, RPQ_TW, and NSLCC_TW yielded good psychometric properties with confirmed factor structures as well as satisfactory test-retest reliability and internal consistency. Second, in explaining the negative events, depressed adolescents tended to adopt more social cues than their non-depressed peers, and rated their judgment with lower certainty. To judge the events, they were also more likely to rely on their past experiences and self-referenced social cues rather than other-referenced ones. Depressed adolescents held higher level of belief in external control as well as hostile attributional bias, and tended to believe having no control over the occurrences. Reactively aggressive adolescents, compared to their non-aggressive counterparts, were also more likely to rely on past experiences to judge the events, to hold higher level of belief in external control and hostile attributional bias, and to believe having no control over the occurrences. Yet, they showed no preference for self- or other-referenced social cues, nor did they adopt more or fewer cues explaining the events, compared to their non-aggressive peers. There was a significant interaction effect showing that, compared to depressed but not aggressive ones, those adolescents comorbid with depression and aggression were more likely to attribute the responsibilities of the events to others. DISCUSSION: Based on the findings, the present thesis tries to discuss the psychopathology of comorbid depression and aggression in adolescents with regard to the viewpoints of cognitive bias related to depression and aggression, locus of control, and attributional style. The probable mechanisms will be thus suggested. Possible applications, limitations and future research are also addressed.
Subjects
Adolescent depression
adolescent reactive aggression
comorbidity
social information processing
Type
thesis
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