Differential roles of depressive and anxious symptoms and gender in defensiveness

Joiner T., Schmidt N., Lerew D., Cook J., Gencoz T., Gencoz F.

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT, vol.75, no.2, pp.200-211, 2000 (SSCI) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 75 Issue: 2
  • Publication Date: 2000
  • Doi Number: 10.1207/s15327752jpa7502_2
  • Journal Name: JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT
  • Journal Indexes: Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.200-211
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Among a sample of Air Force cadets facing the prospect of basic training (N = 1,190; 1,005 men and 185 women), the influence of a defensive test-taking style on measures of depressive and anxious symptoms was examined. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck & Steer, 1987) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988), as well as the MMPI (Hathaway & McKinley, 1943) L scale. Results supported hypotheses that defensiveness would affect a self-report measure of depression but not a self-report measure of anxiety and would do so more among men than women. Applied implications of the results are discussed.