Abstract

The present study explored implicit and explicit self-esteem of autonomous and sociotropic depressed college students. Specifically, we examined whether autonomous depressed students had lower implicit self-esteem than sociotropic depressed students, while exhibiting the same level of explicit self-esteem. Study 1 attempted to examine the differences between autonomous and sociotropic depressed students with respect to implicit and explicit self-esteem using the implicit self-esteem measure, IBPT(Initials and Birthday Number Preference Task) and explicit self-esteem measure, RSES(Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). The Personal style Inventory(PSI), IBPT, RSES, and Beck Depression Inventory(BDI) were administered to 391 college students. On the basis of PSI and BDI scores, two groups were selected: the autonomous-depressed students(A-D), and the sociotropic-depressed students(S-D). There was no group difference between the A-D and S-D groups in explicit self-esteem, however, A-D group had lower implicit self-esteem than the S-D group. Study 2 was carried out to confirm the differences between autonomous and sociotropic depressed college students with respect to implicit self-esteem using the implicit self-esteem measure, IAT(Implicit Association Task). The IAT effect was divided into competence-IAT and relation-IAT, and an anagram task was used to explore change in implicit self-esteem after a failure experience. Wih respect to the IAT, there were no differences between groups; however, the A-D group showed a decrease in their IAT score, implying an instability in implicit self-esteem. From the results of this study, it can be partially explained why previous studies have not found any differences in the level of implicit self-esteem between depressives and non-depressives. The results were discussed in terms of theoretical and clinical implications. Also limitations of this study and suggestions for future study were discussed.