Psychological Well Being

Psychological Well Being

Before Interaction between stressful events and personality:

It is now widely accepted that stressful life events interact with personality characteristics and possibly genetics to cause depression. However, before arriving on such conclusions researchers have proposed several theoretical explanations that considers personality   experiences as a separate predisposing factor. Blatt (as cited in Blatt & Zuroff, 1992), stated that feelings of loneliness, helplessness and weakness (anaclitic depression), and feelings of unworthiness, inferiority, failure and guilt (introjective depression) cause depression. Blatt developed the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ), a 66-item questionnaire on which individuals rate themselves to assess experiences associated with depression. Items assessed issues such as fear of loss, self-blame, guilt and ambivalence. The DES has been criticized because individuals rate themselves, and it contained too many items that tap state depression. However, it highlighted the importance of dependency, self-criticism and efficacy as important characteristics in the psychological etiology of depression.

    This led Beck (1983, as cited in Blatt & Zuroff, 1992) to develop his own scale to test the importance of dependency and self criticism. He believed that dependence and self criticism developed as a result of 2 types of personality: socially dependent (sociotropic) individuals invest a lot in interchange with others have narcissistic wishes such as wanted to be admired. Depression occurs in response to perceived social rejection. Autonomic individuals invest in preserving and increasing independence, personal rights and freedom of actions and expression. Depression occurs when autonomic individuals blame themselves for falling below their own standards. Becks’ Sociotropy-Autonomy Scales (SAS) was a questionnaire consisting of 30-item self-report scales. The scales’ validity has been questioned, due to the fact that individuals...