How specific are negative automatic thoughts to a depressed population? An exploratory study

This paper is concerned with the relationship between negative or dysfunctional automatic thoughts and dysphoric mood in a non‐clinical population. It addresses the question of how specific are these automatic thoughts to a depressed population. Negative automatic thoughts were obtained from 27 normal subjects via a thought‐sampling method using the Daily Record of Dysfunctional Thoughts Form (Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979) over a two‐week period. A thought‐content analysis was conducted. The resultant data were compared using χ 2 with Blackburn & Eunson's (1989) data from depressed patients. The results presented in this paper indicate that basic cognitive distortions occur in a normal population, but differ qualitatively and quantitatively from those found in depressed patients

Cognition · Developmental psychology · Dysfunctional family · Mood · Population · Psychiatry · Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes · Clinical Psychology · Medicine · Mental Health Research Topics · Mind wandering and attention · Psychology