How specific are negative automatic thoughts to a depressed population? An exploratory study.

This paper is concerned with the relationship between negative or dysfunctional automatic thoughts and dysphoric mood in a non-clinical population. It addresses the question of how specific are these automatic thoughts to a depressed population. Negative automatic thoughts were obtained from 27 normal subjects via a thought-sampling method using the Daily Record of Dysfunctional Thoughts Form (Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979) over a two-week period. A thought-content analysis was conducted. The resultant data were compared using X2 with Blackburn & Eunson's (1989) data from depressed patients. The results presented in this paper indicate that basic cognitive distortions occur in a normal population, but differ qualitatively and quantitatively from those found in depressed patients.