Unique Contributions of Metacognition and Cognition to Depressive Symptoms

ABSTRACT

This study attempts to examine the unique contributions of “cognitions” or “metacognitions” to depressive symptoms while controlling for their intercorrelations and comorbid anxiety. Two-hundred-and-fifty-one university students participated in the study. Two complementary hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed, in which symptoms of depression were regressed on the dysfunctional attitudes (DAS-24 subscales) and metacognition scales (Negative Beliefs about Rumination Scale [NBRS] and Positive Beliefs about Rumination Scale [PBRS]). Results showed that both NBRS and PBRS individually explained a significant amount of variance in depressive symptoms above and beyond dysfunctional schemata while controlling for anxiety. Although dysfunctional attitudes as a set significantly predicted depressive symptoms after anxiety and metacognitions were controlled for, they were weaker than metacognitive variables and none of the DAS-24 subscales contributed individually. Metacognitive beliefs about ruminations appeared to contribute more to depressive symptoms than dysfunctional beliefs in the “cognitive” domain.

Keywords:

• cognition
• depression, depressive symptoms
• dysfunctional attitudes
• metacognition
• schema

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Adviye Esin Yilmaz

Adviye Esin Yılmaz is assistant professor of Clinical Psychology at the Psychology Department of Dokuz Eylül University, Turkey. Her research focuses on cognitive theory and therapy of anxiety and mood disorders and scale adaptation.

Tülin Gençöz

Tülin Gençöz is professor of Clinical Psychology at the Psychology Department of Middle East Technical University, Turkey. She has published several articles in international journals about antecedents, concomitants, and consequences of psychological problems; personality traits and Big Five model of Personality; information processing approaches in clinical psychology; and scale adaptation.

Adrian Wells

Adrian Wells is professor of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology at University of Manchester (UK). He has published extensively in the areas of cognitive theory and therapy of anxiety and mood disorders. He is the originator of Metacognitive Therapy and his treatments have been included in NICE guidelines.