No abstract

Important, but not unequivocal, support has been found for Sociotropy and Autonomy as vulnerability factors for depression. Using a novel approach we gave subliminal sociotropy-related and autonomy-related visuoverbal stimulation to nondepressed students (Study 1, N = 36), and patients treated for clinical depression (Study 2, N = 34) in completely balanced within-groups designs. Autonomy, as measured with the Personal Style Inventory, was unrelated to response. Sociotropy predicted negative outcome after a sociotropy-related abandonment stimulus in both Study 1 (r = − .34 to a decrease in positively valenced autobiographical memories) and Study 2 (r = .38 to an increase in selection of depression-related words on a word-selection task). This finding may interest developers of depression therapies, and support further attempts to study Sociotropy as a putative vulnerability factor for depression.