| Anxiety disorders and depressive disorders show a great deal of overlap in symptoms, but they can be distinguished statistically on the basis of clinical observations, rating scales, response to treatment, and physiological measures. In an effort to explain the differences theoretically, Beck (1976) has proposed that distortion in the form of an unrealistic expectation of danger occurs frequently in the thinking of anxious individuals, while the thinking of depressed individuals is characterized by distortion in the form of an unrealistic negative evaluation of one-self, the world, and the future. The present study investigated the capability of Beck's theory to differentiate anxiety and depression. A structured questionnaire, the Anxiety Situations Questionnaire, was developed to assess cognitive distortion in the thinking of anxious persons as a companion measure to Krantz and Hammen's (1979) measure of depressive-distortion, the Cognitive Bias Questionnaire. The two questionnaires, as well as an anxiety and a depression measure, were administered to a sample of university undergraduates (N = 228), and results with these subjects were sufficiently satisfactory to warrant use of the measures with clinical samples. The same measures plus a thought-listing measure were then administered to outpatient groups consisting of subjects with depressive disorders (n = 12), anxiety disorders (n = 5) and mixed anxious and depressed diagnoses (n = 5), as well as a control group (n = 15). The results for the clinical groups indicated that depressed subjects were more likely to endorse anxious as well as depressive statements than were anxious or control subjects. The differences between the anxious, depressed, and mixed diagnosis groups were not significant. These findings do not support the hypothesis that one type of dysfunctional cognitive process is more typical in depression, while another cognitive process is specific to the anxiety disorders. Methodological limitations of the study are discussed, as well as the comparative ability of the structured questionnaires and thought listing to assess cognitive processes. |
