It's Not Me It's You: Examining the Link Between Partner-Schema Organization, Relationship Functioning, and Depressive Symptoms

Depression is associated with a host of interpersonal difficulties, particularly within intimate relationships. While a significant body of literature has supported the presence of a highly consolidated negative self representation or “self-schema”, no studies have examined whether depression is also associated with a highly organized negative “partner-schema”, and whether this represents a risk factor for relationship distress. Given the high degree of similarity between cognitive representations of self and close others, it was predicted that depression would be associated with a partner-schema structure mirroring that of the self-schema: an organized cognitive structure characterized by tightly interconnected negative information, and loosely dispersed positive information. In a sample of 291 undergraduate students, results supported this hypothesis, and revealed that partner-schema structure was associated with relationship quality and attributions about a partner’s behaviours. These findings have important implications for understanding the link between cognitive risk factors, relational dysfunction, and depressive symptoms.

Name thesis:degree_name

M Sc

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

The University of Western Ontario

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Wilde, Jesse Lee

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David J. A. Dozois

• depression
• interpersonal difficulties
• cognitive schemas
• relationship dysfunction
• attributions

Language dc:language.iso

en_ca

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14721/27104

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwo.scholaris.ca:20.500.14721/27104