The relationship of depression to guilt and shame in high-aspiring women

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship of different "types" of depression to guilt and shame anxiety. Previous research on depression has provided support for the idea that there may be two or more dimensions of depressive experiences. Recent theoretical developments have led to suggestions that the differences between types of depression may be related to differences in proneness to guilt or shame. This proposed relationship is of particular interest vis-a-vis women, who have been shown to exhibit greater incidences and levels of depression than men.

Subjects were 65 female graduate students at the University of Tennessee. Two measures of depression were administered. The Beck Depression Inventory was used as a measure of gross depressive symptomatology. The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire was used to measure experiences of introjective and anaclitic depression. Guilt and shame were assessed through the administration of the Van Lennep's Four Picture Story Test, which was scored by means of the Gottschalk-Gleser Content Analysis Scales.

Hypotheses were tested concerning the relationship between depressive symptomatology, types of depressive experiences, and guilt and shame. No significant differences were found between types of depressive experiences for guilt or shame. Nor were there significant differences for guilt or shame between subjects with depressive symptomatology and those without. Positive significant correlations were shown between the three depression indices.

The lack of significant findings in this study has implications for both theory and future research. Further effort is needed towards the development and construct validation of instruments for the assessment of complex psychological constructs. These results also suggest that caution should be taken in assuming continuity between "normal" and "clinical" depression. Finally, the results of this study demonstrate that further effort is needed to provide empirical support for existing theory.