Objectives: The major question examined in this paper is whether selective attentional and interpretative processing of emotional information occurs in depression, and if so, whether it depends on a close match between the material used and current concerns.
Design: Twenty-four depressed patients and the same number of matched controls were tested using two selective processing tasks (described below), and their performance related to self-reported sociotropic and autonomy-related concerns.
Methods: Colour-naming interference and interpretation of ambiguous situations were assessed using material judged relevant to each of the Sociotropy-autonomy Scales.
Results: Depression was associated with a general interference effect for all negative concern words, and more negative interpretations of ambiguous situations, while controls showed a converse bias in favour of all positive interpretations. There was no convincing evidence that this negative processing bias was proportional to the match between material and self-reported sociotropic or autonomous concerns.
Conclusions: Depressed patients showed evidence of cognitive biases favouring all negative self-related information, on both attentional and interpretative tasks. We suggest that such effects in depression may occur only under conditions allowing the elaborative processing of negative material related to oneself.