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Roseanna Hopper

Psych 1100 Term Project


Marcia Flocken
28 April 2015
Portfolio Assignment: Depression
Article 1: Toward a Comprehensive Developmental Model for Major Depression in Women
This research article is from 1997 and it attempts to establish a comprehensive model for
risk factors and causal factors in episodes of Major Depression (MDD) among North American
women. It draws upon several interviews with women who are twins over the course of nine
years to establish various developmental and environmental factors which influence the
likelihood that a particular woman will have experienced depression within the last year. It
relates to the material covered in this course and in the text by addressing a major psychological
disorder, depression, from a developmental perspective as well as a lifespan perspective, taking
into account adverse childhood events and family environment as well as temperament and
adverse life events that happen to adults.
The research study is rigorous in statistical analysis with a longitudinal aspect and a
limited scope, based only on white North American Women drawn from a twin registry in the
state of Virginia. While it is limited in some ways, the article is comprehensive in the sense that
the researchers who wrote it looked at many different factors related to a very common disorder
in an attempt to describe a complex, multifactorial disorder in quantitative ways. Specifically, the
study draws correlations and even suggests causal relationships between particular life
circumstances and the incidence of depression among the individuals studied.

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There are many elements of this research study related to the material covered in the text
and class. One was the concept of temperament, which describes personality differences which
generally remain consistent from infancy throughout the life span of individuals. In this research
study on depression, it was noted that a neurotic temperament is a risk factor for depression as
well as an indicator of the likelihood for anxiety disorders. This research study made a
contribution to the understanding of the connection between temperament, depression and
anxiety disorders, establishing that early-onset anxiety disorders are not only correlated with
temperament but also separately represent a unique and potent risk factor for major depression
within the past year, independent of neurotic temperament. This means that early-onset anxiety
disorders are a risk factor for depression independent of the personality type of a woman
represented by her temperament.
The study also investigated other developmental-related factors as predictors for
depression, including childhood sexual abuse and a disturbed family environment. Both of these
were found to correlate with depression and most likely in a causal manner in this case. In class
we talked about childhood maltreatment and its long-lasting effects, which aligns well with the
finding that childhood sexual abuse (even as it is imperfectly self-reported) contributes to
depression later in life. From a developmental perspective, childhood experiences are part of the
nurture element that helps shape individual humans, and indeed the study found that a
disturbed family environment may play an important role in the developmental cascade leading
to depression (1143).
The paper also dedicates time to acknowledging the difference between correlation and
causation, separating out certain predictive factors as most likely having a causal relationship

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with depression, where others are most likely correlated and may in fact also be caused by the
depression experienced by the individuals who participated in the study. For example, the paper
points out that having marital issues within the last year could both contribute to and result from
an episode of major depression. The distinction between correlation and causation is an
important subject in the textbook as it relates to the conclusions that can be drawn from many
different research studies, so the fact that this research study distinguishes between the two is
another sign that it is accurate according to the developmental model presented in this course.
This paper does an excellent job of explaining the ways in which the studys weaknesses
were accounted for and minimized. The authors acknowledge the weakness of recall bias since
the data is based on interviews after the fact, and states that this was minimized by asking
participants to recall certain dates for major traumas or adverse events, as well as asking
questions only about the past year as much as possible. When they gathered data about childhood
events and situations, they also compared these interviews to interviews with the twin sisters and
as many parents as possible in order to control for recall bias with events so far in the past. The
authors also provide relevant examples of statements by participants that were used to establish
quantitative measures since the interviews were somewhat qualitative instead of being multiple
choice or yes/no questions.

Article 2: Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression


This article combines an ethnographic approach to looking at cultural differences with a
semi-structured interview model in order to explore depression as an experience and as an illness

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that requires treatment between two different cultural groups. The author interviewed 36 South
Asian immigrant women and 37 European American women and opened each interview with a
vignette about a woman experiencing symptoms typical of depression in order to gather data.
The author also demonstrates an understanding of other research on the topic of cultural
differences between groups of people and their handling of depression. The main findings of this
research study are that recent South Asian immigrants identify the feelings associated with
depression just as often as European Americans, but they often identify different causes and
solutions for those symptoms.
This study relates to the material covered in class as it is an exploration of a common
developmental disorder, depression, structured in order to increase understanding of depression
that encompasses a wider portion of the population rather than taking for granted that white,
middle class U.S. citizens are representative of everyone. The article mentions research methods
including a snowball sample method and careful translation and back-translation of the interview
questions and vignette into several South Asian languages in order to ensure that the participants
could communicate in their preferred language (usually L1 for the immigrant women) and also
that their results would reflect the same interview style that occurred in the English interviews.
The analysis in this study is largely descriptive, but some quantitative analysis was used to
describe the demographics of the participants and their opinions about depression.
This article is well-developed research and aligns well with the material covered in the
textbook and during lectures. The textbook for his course does not go into very much depth about
cultural differences related to human growth and development as the subject of the course

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is extremely broad, so it was interesting to read more in depth about culture as it relates to a
specific developmental subject.

Article 3: Toma Haiku Web log Youre not depressed. Youre selfish.
This web log post is written by a blogger who declares mental illnesses do not exist on
their web page in the About section right below their photo. This clearly establishes their
opposition to the field of psychology and any sort of scientific research on psychological
disorders, so it comes as no surprise that their blog post Youre not depressed. Youre selfish.
denies the reality of depression as a psychological disorder. This article is essentially inaccurate
in every way based on the materials covered in this course.
The articles thesis is that depression results from focusing on ones self and that it can be
easily cured by focusing on the positive things in life or things greater than oneself. The author
also asserts that reported rates of depression in countries outside of the West is a result of lower
incidence of depression, which is in turn a result of poorer people being more happy and less
selfish, which is an unfounded and illogical conclusion without evidence to tie each logical step
to the next. The author confuses lower reported rates of depression with a lower incidence of
depression, and makes the broad claim that people are not depressed when they are working hard
to feed themselves and their families. They neglect to investigate whether or not poor working
people in Western countries also report depression at lower rates than those with higher SES or
whether reported depression matches the rate of depression experienced by individuals by
looking into how those numbers are reported.

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Further, the article cited by the blog author to prove that rates of depression are higher in
Western countries is a pop science article on the website livescience.com which states that the
rate of depression in the US and France appears to be about 14.6% with an incidence of about
11.1% in other countries. Looking at those numbers, it appears to me that the more relevant
conclusion is that depression is in fact experienced worldwide, even if it is reported at different
rates and most likely experienced differently in different cultures.
This article is related to the course material of developmental psychology in that it is
about the developmental disorder of depression, but every part of the article/blog post denies the
reality of psychological disorders and the usefulness of psychology as a field, revealing the
authors lack of understanding of the concepts they are writing about.

Article 4: Hyperbole and a Half Web log Depression Part Two


This web log post is an account of a bloggers personal experience with depression. It is
the second part of a two-part series on the authors depression experience and it chronicles her
experiences from about the time that she was at her worst through her seeking treatment and
beginning to feel somewhat better. The author uses stylized computer drawings as well as words
to tell her story and relates experiences in a humorous way which made her depression posts very
popular on the internet a in 2013 when they were first published.
The blog post relates to the developmental phenomena of depression by giving a personal
account of an individuals experiences. While the post is not focused on the developmental
perspective or addressing depression from an academic perspective at all, the experiences the

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author describes as part of her depression align well with the psychological perspective and
research on depression. For example, she writes about feeling suicidal and how she didnt think
that she wanted to kill herself as much as she wanted to stop being around or dealing with her
own existence, which is a red flag indicator for the seriousness of suicidality. She also writes
about her reactions to the advice of people who have never experienced depression in their
bodies and their lives who offered useless and at times insulting advice. Based on our class
discussion about suicide and depression, it was clear that the most useful thing to do for a loved
one feeling depression would be to offer a listening ear, support, and encouragement to see a
mental health professional. In the Hyperbole and a Half blog post the author writes that it was
some time after taking this step that she began to feel better, with the support of prescription
medication and people around her.
This blog post doesnt use terms that were covered in the course materials other than the
depression itself, but it still portrays this developmental disorder in an interesting and accurate
way based on the personal experiences of one individual. It also provides a characterization of
how depression is viewed by some people in society today with misconceptions based on their
lack of personal experience. Because the medium is a blog with spare words and many pictures it
is accessible and effective at communicating to a wide variety of readers.

Article 5: Roseanna Hopper Web log My Depression


The description of my own experience of depression is available through a page on my
ePortfolio. I have experienced MDD during several intervals of my life so I have a personal

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connection to the developmental disorder of depression. My mother has also experienced
depression and has shared her experience with me, so she passed down both the genetic
predisposition as well as some tools and knowledge for dealing with my disorder.
In class we talked about depression as a very common disorder which is even more
common among women and which often occurs among adolescents. I experienced depression
both as an adolescent and during emerging adulthood, and being a woman places me pretty well
in the broadest risk category for experiencing depression. In our class discussions on depression
we also talked about suicidality, which was not an element of my experience of depression, and
we talked about prescription depression medication, which I have never taken.
Everything that we learned about in class regarding depression and that I have learned
about in further research for this term project (i.e. from the research studies) aligns well with my
own personal experience of depression and makes sense to me in relation to my real life
experiences. This is the case even though not all aspects of depression that I have learned about
apply to my own experience and depression is a complex disorder with unique elements for
every individual who faces it.

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Sources
Berger, Kathleen Stassen. (2014). Invitation to The Life Span, Second Edition. New York, NY:
Worth Publishers.
Gardner, C. O., Ph, D., Prescott, C. A., & Ph, D. (1997). Toward a Comprehensive
Developmental Model for Major Depression in Women, 11331145.
Hopper, Roseanna. (2015). My Depression [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://downwithkyriarchy.weebly.com/my-depression.html
Hyperbole and a Half. (2013, May 9). Depression Part Two [Web log post]. Retrieved from
http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2013/05/depression-part-two.html
Karasz, Alison. (2005). Cultural differences in conceptual models of depression. Social Science
& Medicine, 60(7), 16251635. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2004.08.011
Toma Haiku. (2013, March 9). Youre not depressed. Youre selfish. [Web log post]. Retrieved
from http://tomahaiku.com/youre-not-depressed-youre-selfish/

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