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

1992; Wiley; Volume: 65; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/j.2044-8341.1992.tb01696.x

2056-5194

Nirmal Kumari, Ivy‐Marie Blackburn,

Mind wandering and attention

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.