Relations between personality and depressive symptoms: a multimeasure study of dependency, autonomy, and related constructs.

Seventy-four patients seeking treatment for major depression completed four measures of dependent and autonomous personality and two measures of depressive symptomatology. Relationships among the personality measures were investigated by principal-components analysis, enabling systematic comparison of their composition. Relationships between personality components and symptom dimensions were examined to clarify specific associations that have been proposed but inconsistently obtained in previous research. Neither dependency nor autonomy were unitary constructs, and alternative measures had substantial differences in composition. Some support for symptom specificity was obtained. Dependency and autonomy have distinctive associations with depressive symptoms, but their correspondence to unitary personality dimensions and the equivalence of their alternative scales cannot be assumed. Copyright 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.