- Email: [email protected]
Effective Metacognitive Factors in Students’ Depression
Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19
WCPCG 2014
Effective Metacognitive Factors in Students' Depression Zahra Jamshidifara, Sara Mohammadizadeha, Niknaz Salehi Moghadama* a
Psychology Dept., Faculty of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch. Iran
Abstract This research is done with the aim of examining effective meta-cognitive factors in students' depression. The population studied in this research comprises all undergraduate (bachelor-level) students at Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, studying in the academic year 2008-2009. From among them, 35 depressed and 35 ordinary students were selected via the systematic random sampling method. The instrument in this research was Wells' Meta-cognition Test Depression can be predicted based on the meta-cognitive skills (five skills). The results achieved through administering of Wells' Meta-cognition Test suggested that the difference in means of depressed and ordinary students in the subscales of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, cognitive ability, general negative beliefs, cognitive self-awareness and the whole meta-cognition is significant. © by Elsevier Ltd. is an Ltd. open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2014 2014 Published The Authors. Published byThis Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center. Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center. Keywords: Metacognition, Depression, Student.
1. Introduction Metacognition refers to the structures, knowledge, and psychological processes dealing with control, change and interpretation of thoughts and cognitions, and is regarded as a major factor in development and persistence of Favell holds that development of memory of smart data reserve in mind is smart retrieval of data from the mind and smart control of these reserves and retrievals, which is treated as metamemory and nature of memory development (Favell, 1971). Metamemory typically refers to the knowledge of memory and memory activities, whereas metacognition refers to knowledge of cognition and control of cognitive activities. But this differentiation will vanish if memory is defined as "applying cognition" (Favell, 1971), in which case, metamemory can be defined as the knowledge of applying cognition, which is the very metacognition (Hacker, 1998). Favell (1979) has described metacognition as "the knowledge concerning variables which have interactive effects and influence performance. These variables * Niknaz Salehi Moghadam.Tel:+4-432-234-333. E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.320
Zahra Jamshidifar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19
include self, type of task, and strategies. Metacognition refers to any type of knowledge or cognitive process in which there is cognitive assessment, supervision, or control (Moses & Beard, 2002). From one viewpoint, it can be considered as a general aspect of cognition which plays a role in all cognitive activities. Some special aspects of metacognition are in relation to psychological disorders (Wells & Matthews, 1994; Wells, 2001).Metacognitive awareness is a type of metacognitive awareness whereby negative thoughts/feelings are experienced as mental events. Researchers have assumed that (a) a reduction in metacognitive awareness is in relation to vulnerability to depression, and (b), cognitive treatment and awareness-based cognitive treatment will decrease the rate of depression relapses through raising the level of awareness. They have found that (a) accessibility of metacognitive tendencies in proportion to depression symptoms in the vulnerable group (depression sufferers) is less than the control group (those not suffering from depression); (b) accessibility of metacognitive tendencies predicts depression relapses in the sufferers; (c) while cognitive treatment reduces relapses in depression sufferers, it increases the accessibility of metacognitive tendencies; and (d) awareness-based cognitive treatment reduces relapses in those having recovered from depression, it raises the accessibility of metacognitive tendencies. Cognitive treatment and awareness-based cognitive treatment may decrease relapses through changing relationships with negative thoughts rather than changing belief in the contents of thought (Brokowski,1992). Findings indicate that metacognition is involved in people suffering from psychological disorders and the aged (Wells & Carter, 2005). These behaviors are a cause for development and persistence of people's psychological and cognitive problems (Loban, Haddock, Fenidreman & Wells, 2002). Many theorists hold that metacognition is a multidimensional concept comprising the metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation involved in metacognition assessment, supervision and control (Nelson, 1990). Loss of metacognition may result in committing mistakes in the workplace and lead to being unaware of the mistakes which can be avoided by adopting a suitable approach (Huet, 2000). Klitman & Stanco (2007) demonstrated that existence of appropriate metacognitive knowledge raises individuals' self-confidence and improves their learning . Research has indicated that there is a relation between metacognition factors and anxiety, stress and depression (Spada, 2008). 2. Materials and methods The population studied in this piece of research comprises all undergraduate (bachelor-level) students at Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, studying in the academic year 2008-2009. From among them, 35 depressed and 35 ordinary students were selected via the systematic random sampling method. Wells' Metacognition Test: This test was developed by Wells in 1997, translated into Farsi by Sadati in 2002. This questionnaire is concerned with people's beliefs about their thoughts and consists of 65 items which are totally composed of five features. Each item has 4 choices, and the respondent is required to select the choice which best fits his/her current condition. The test is made up of these subscales: positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, beliefs about cognitive ability, general negative beliefs (responsibility, superstition and punitiveness), and cognitive selfawareness. Wells has considered construct validity of the test, examined via the factor analysis method, to be acceptable. The correlation between overall scores of Wells' Metacognition Test and those of Swanson's Metacognition Test equaled 0.78, indicating homogeneous validity of the test. Yosefi (2008) also put the internal homogeneity of this test through Cronbach's alpha method at 0.8819 for the entire test, 0.8451 for feature 1, 0.8582 for feature 2, 0.6798 for feature 3, 0.6386 for feature 4, and 0.5276 for feature 5. 3. Results Table 1: Results of comparing performances of depressed and ordinary students in Wells' Metacognition Test Variable Positive worrying beliefs Uncontrollability & feeling of danger cognitive ability General negative
Group Depressed Ordinary Depressed Ordinary Depressed Ordinary Depressed
number of Subjects 35 35 35 35 35 35 35
Mean 33.5 39.35 27.35 35.48 19.18 17.20 27.26
Standard Deviation 10.38 11.26 8.83 9.09 2.8 3.33 4.256
t
Level of Significance
2.089
0.05
3.629
0.001
-2.7
0.05
3.07
0.01
17
18
Zahra Jamshidifar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19 beliefs Cognitive selfawareness
Ordinary Depressed Ordinary
35 35 35
32.33 21.63 19.21
5.184 3.13 3.83
-2.915
0.01
According to the results of the independent T-test displayed in the above table, it can be concluded that the difference in averages of depressed and ordinary students in the subscales of positive worrying beliefs (p < 0.05, t = 2.089), uncontrollability and feeling of danger (p < 0.001, t = 3.629), cognitive ability (p < 0.05, t = - 2.7), general negative beliefs (p < 0.01, t = 3.07) and cognitive self-awareness (p < 0.01, t = -2.915) is significant. In addition, the comparison of scores of the two groups indicates that the mean of the scores won by depressed students in features of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, and general negative beliefs is higher than that of the scores attained by ordinary students; and in feature of cognitive ability and cognitive self-awareness, mean of the scores achieved by depressed students is lower than that of the scores earned by ordinary students. 4. Discussion The results achieved through administering of Wells' Metacognition Test suggested that the difference in means of depressed and ordinary students in the subscales of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, cognitive ability, general negative beliefs, cognitive self-awareness and the whole metacognition is significant. Besides, a comparison of means of the two groups reveal that mean of the scores attained by depressed students in features of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, and general negative beliefs is higher that of the scores won by ordinary students. In features of cognitive ability and cognitive self-awareness, mean of the scores attained by depressed students is lower than that of the scores earned by ordinary students. The first finding of this study demonstrates a difference between depressed and ordinary students over positive worrying beliefs, showing that depressed students have more positive worrying beliefs. Moreover, there is a positive, significant relation between positive worrying beliefs and depression. These results match the findings released by Papageorgiou and Wells (2000), suggesting a relation between the scale of positive worrying beliefs and mental rumination and depression, as well as the ones released by Yosefi (2008), confirming existence of difference between positive worrying beliefs in ordinary and depressed people. The reason for this may be the depressed individual's excessive thinking about his/her own problems. Wells (2003) holds that the depressed individuals realize their past mistakes and disabilities through thinking and worrying. The second finding of this study demonstrates a difference between uncontrollability and feeling of danger in depressed and ordinary students, indicating that depressed students have more uncontrollability and feeling of danger. Similarly, there is a positive, significant relation between uncontrollability and feeling of danger. This finding conforms to the findings achieved by Papageorgiou and Wells (2009), showing that depression sufferers have a tendency toward mental rumination and reviewing defective, negative thoughts and feel that they have lost their control over their thinking processes and worrying thoughts automatically enter their minds. This is also caused by depressed people's focusing on a series of specific, recurring thoughts the contents of which are usually negative events that are threatening for tem as a result of living. Nevertheless, uncontrollability or lack of control over thoughts leads to feeling of danger (Nolen & Hoeksema, 2002). The third finding of this study is existence of the difference between depressed and ordinary students in cognitive ability, implying that depressed people have less cognitive ability than the ordinary ones. Likewise, the relation between cognitive ability and depression was negative. This finding also matches the studies carried out by Wells and Papageorgiou (2009) and Yosefi (2008). Results of the studies conducted by them revealed that depression sufferers complained about bad memory, and had no confidence in their memory and their performance in assignments and recall was poor. This can be due to the fact that depressed people have less organized information than the ordinary people and are therefore unable to store, retrieve, or encode information. The fourth finding of the study also demonstrated that depressed and ordinary students differed over general negative beliefs (responsibility, punitiveness and superstition). Depressed students had more general negative beliefs. In the same way, the relation between general negative beliefs and depression was positive and significant. These results match the findings released by Yosefi and Biyabangard (2008), supporting the difference between ordinary and depressed people's general negative beliefs. This is also due to internal attribution of depressed people, based on which, they attribute failure to general, internal and sustainable factors, thereby punishing themselves and turning to superstitious thoughts. The fifth finding of the study displayed a difference between depressed and ordinary students in self-awareness, indicating that depressed students had less self-awareness – the result which
Zahra Jamshidifar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19
matches the findings released by Yosefi (2008) and Wells and Papageorgiou (2009). This may also be due to the fact that depression sufferers have a defect in their metacognitive inspection which causes cognitive dysfunction and disrupts the individual's ability in inspecting and checking. References Biyabangard E., (2002). Metacognition and cognitive analytic therapy. Cognitive Science Journal, 4(4):5-9. [Persian] Borkovec, T. D., (1994). The nature, functions and origins of worry. In: G.C.L. Borkowski, T. G. & Muthukrishna N., (1992); Moving Metacognition into the Classroom: “Working Models and Effective Strategy Teaching”; In M. Pressley, K. R. Harris & J. T. Guthrie (Eds.); Promoting Academic Competence and Literacy in School; Sandiego, CA: Academic, pp. 477-501. Fernandez-Duque D, Baired JA, Posner MI.(2000). Executive attention and metacognitive regulation. Conscious Cognition. (9): 288-307. Flavell, J. H., (1971); “First Discussant’s Comments: What is Memory Development the Development of?” Human Development, 14, pp. 272278. Flavell, J. H., (1979); “Metacognition and Cognitive Monitoring: A New Area of Cognitive – Development Inquiry”; American Psychologist, 34, pp. 906-911. Hacker, D. J., J. Dunlosky & Graesser A. C., (1998). Metacognition in Educational Theory and Practice; Mahwah. NJ: Erlbaum. Huet N.(2000). Assessment device of metacognition involved in a working situation. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics ,24(3):24351. Kleitman S, Stankov L., (2007). Self-confidence and metacognitive processes. Personality and Individual Differences , 17(2):161-73. Lobban, F. Haddock, E. Einderman, P. & Wells, A. (2002). The role metacopinitive beliefs auditory hallucination. Personality and Individual Differences, 32(6), 1351-1363. Moses, L.J., & Baird, J.A.(2002). Metacognition. In R.A. Wilson & F.C. Keil (Eds.), The MIT encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Nelson, T. O. & L. Narens (1990). Metamemory: Core Readings; Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Nolen-Hoeksema. S. & Harrell, Z. A. T. (2002). Rumination depression and alcohol use: Tests of gender differences. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An Imitational Journal. 16, 391404. Papageorgiou C, Wells A.(2002). Metacognitive beliefs about rumination in recurrent major depression. Cognitive Behavior Practice, 8(2): 160164. Papageorgiou, C., & Wells, A. (2004). Nature, functions, and beliefs about depressive rumination. In: C. Papageorgiou., &A.Wells (Eds). Depressive rumination: Nature, Theory and Treatment. Chichester, UK: JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd. Spadaa MM, Mohiyeddinia C, Wells A.(2008). Measuring metacognitions associated with emotional distress: Factor structure and predictive validity of the metacognitions questionnaire 30. Personality and Individual Differences , 45(3):238-42 Wells A, Fisher P, Myers S, Wheatley J, Patel T.(2009). Metacognitive therapy in recurrent and persistent depression: A multiple-baseline study of a new treatment. Cognitive Therapy Research , 33(3): 291-300. Wells A. (2009). Metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression. New York: Guilford:1-22. Wells A.(2002). Emotional disorders and metacognition:Innovative cognitive therapy. UK: Chichester. Wells, A., & Carter, K. (2001). Further tests of a cognitive model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Metacognitions and worry in GAD, panic disorder, social phobia, depression, and non-patients. Behavior and Therapy, 32, 85–102 . Wells, A. & Matthews, G. (1996). " Modeling Cognition in Emotional Disorder: The S-REF Model" Behavior and Therapy. 34, 881-888. Morrison, A. P., French. P., & Wells, A. (2007). Wells, A. (2000). Emotional disorders and metacognition: Innovative Cognitive Therapy. Chichester, UK: JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd. Wells, A., & Papageorgiou, C. (2004). Metacognitive therapy for depressive rumination. In: C. Papageorgiou & A. Wells (Eds). Depressive rumination: Nature, Theory and Treatment. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Yoosefi R, Aghdamjangi H, Sivanizade M, Adhamian E.(2008). Metacognition compared in patients with schizophrenia, Depression disorder and control Group. Advance Cognitive Science , 10(2): 1. [Persian].
19
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19
WCPCG 2014
Effective Metacognitive Factors in Students' Depression Zahra Jamshidifara, Sara Mohammadizadeha, Niknaz Salehi Moghadama* a
Psychology Dept., Faculty of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch. Iran
Abstract This research is done with the aim of examining effective meta-cognitive factors in students' depression. The population studied in this research comprises all undergraduate (bachelor-level) students at Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, studying in the academic year 2008-2009. From among them, 35 depressed and 35 ordinary students were selected via the systematic random sampling method. The instrument in this research was Wells' Meta-cognition Test Depression can be predicted based on the meta-cognitive skills (five skills). The results achieved through administering of Wells' Meta-cognition Test suggested that the difference in means of depressed and ordinary students in the subscales of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, cognitive ability, general negative beliefs, cognitive self-awareness and the whole meta-cognition is significant. © by Elsevier Ltd. is an Ltd. open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license © 2014 2014 Published The Authors. Published byThis Elsevier (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center. Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center. Keywords: Metacognition, Depression, Student.
1. Introduction Metacognition refers to the structures, knowledge, and psychological processes dealing with control, change and interpretation of thoughts and cognitions, and is regarded as a major factor in development and persistence of Favell holds that development of memory of smart data reserve in mind is smart retrieval of data from the mind and smart control of these reserves and retrievals, which is treated as metamemory and nature of memory development (Favell, 1971). Metamemory typically refers to the knowledge of memory and memory activities, whereas metacognition refers to knowledge of cognition and control of cognitive activities. But this differentiation will vanish if memory is defined as "applying cognition" (Favell, 1971), in which case, metamemory can be defined as the knowledge of applying cognition, which is the very metacognition (Hacker, 1998). Favell (1979) has described metacognition as "the knowledge concerning variables which have interactive effects and influence performance. These variables * Niknaz Salehi Moghadam.Tel:+4-432-234-333. E-mail address: [email protected]
1877-0428 © 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the Academic World Education and Research Center. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.12.320
Zahra Jamshidifar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19
include self, type of task, and strategies. Metacognition refers to any type of knowledge or cognitive process in which there is cognitive assessment, supervision, or control (Moses & Beard, 2002). From one viewpoint, it can be considered as a general aspect of cognition which plays a role in all cognitive activities. Some special aspects of metacognition are in relation to psychological disorders (Wells & Matthews, 1994; Wells, 2001).Metacognitive awareness is a type of metacognitive awareness whereby negative thoughts/feelings are experienced as mental events. Researchers have assumed that (a) a reduction in metacognitive awareness is in relation to vulnerability to depression, and (b), cognitive treatment and awareness-based cognitive treatment will decrease the rate of depression relapses through raising the level of awareness. They have found that (a) accessibility of metacognitive tendencies in proportion to depression symptoms in the vulnerable group (depression sufferers) is less than the control group (those not suffering from depression); (b) accessibility of metacognitive tendencies predicts depression relapses in the sufferers; (c) while cognitive treatment reduces relapses in depression sufferers, it increases the accessibility of metacognitive tendencies; and (d) awareness-based cognitive treatment reduces relapses in those having recovered from depression, it raises the accessibility of metacognitive tendencies. Cognitive treatment and awareness-based cognitive treatment may decrease relapses through changing relationships with negative thoughts rather than changing belief in the contents of thought (Brokowski,1992). Findings indicate that metacognition is involved in people suffering from psychological disorders and the aged (Wells & Carter, 2005). These behaviors are a cause for development and persistence of people's psychological and cognitive problems (Loban, Haddock, Fenidreman & Wells, 2002). Many theorists hold that metacognition is a multidimensional concept comprising the metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulation involved in metacognition assessment, supervision and control (Nelson, 1990). Loss of metacognition may result in committing mistakes in the workplace and lead to being unaware of the mistakes which can be avoided by adopting a suitable approach (Huet, 2000). Klitman & Stanco (2007) demonstrated that existence of appropriate metacognitive knowledge raises individuals' self-confidence and improves their learning . Research has indicated that there is a relation between metacognition factors and anxiety, stress and depression (Spada, 2008). 2. Materials and methods The population studied in this piece of research comprises all undergraduate (bachelor-level) students at Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch, studying in the academic year 2008-2009. From among them, 35 depressed and 35 ordinary students were selected via the systematic random sampling method. Wells' Metacognition Test: This test was developed by Wells in 1997, translated into Farsi by Sadati in 2002. This questionnaire is concerned with people's beliefs about their thoughts and consists of 65 items which are totally composed of five features. Each item has 4 choices, and the respondent is required to select the choice which best fits his/her current condition. The test is made up of these subscales: positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, beliefs about cognitive ability, general negative beliefs (responsibility, superstition and punitiveness), and cognitive selfawareness. Wells has considered construct validity of the test, examined via the factor analysis method, to be acceptable. The correlation between overall scores of Wells' Metacognition Test and those of Swanson's Metacognition Test equaled 0.78, indicating homogeneous validity of the test. Yosefi (2008) also put the internal homogeneity of this test through Cronbach's alpha method at 0.8819 for the entire test, 0.8451 for feature 1, 0.8582 for feature 2, 0.6798 for feature 3, 0.6386 for feature 4, and 0.5276 for feature 5. 3. Results Table 1: Results of comparing performances of depressed and ordinary students in Wells' Metacognition Test Variable Positive worrying beliefs Uncontrollability & feeling of danger cognitive ability General negative
Group Depressed Ordinary Depressed Ordinary Depressed Ordinary Depressed
number of Subjects 35 35 35 35 35 35 35
Mean 33.5 39.35 27.35 35.48 19.18 17.20 27.26
Standard Deviation 10.38 11.26 8.83 9.09 2.8 3.33 4.256
t
Level of Significance
2.089
0.05
3.629
0.001
-2.7
0.05
3.07
0.01
17
18
Zahra Jamshidifar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19 beliefs Cognitive selfawareness
Ordinary Depressed Ordinary
35 35 35
32.33 21.63 19.21
5.184 3.13 3.83
-2.915
0.01
According to the results of the independent T-test displayed in the above table, it can be concluded that the difference in averages of depressed and ordinary students in the subscales of positive worrying beliefs (p < 0.05, t = 2.089), uncontrollability and feeling of danger (p < 0.001, t = 3.629), cognitive ability (p < 0.05, t = - 2.7), general negative beliefs (p < 0.01, t = 3.07) and cognitive self-awareness (p < 0.01, t = -2.915) is significant. In addition, the comparison of scores of the two groups indicates that the mean of the scores won by depressed students in features of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, and general negative beliefs is higher than that of the scores attained by ordinary students; and in feature of cognitive ability and cognitive self-awareness, mean of the scores achieved by depressed students is lower than that of the scores earned by ordinary students. 4. Discussion The results achieved through administering of Wells' Metacognition Test suggested that the difference in means of depressed and ordinary students in the subscales of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, cognitive ability, general negative beliefs, cognitive self-awareness and the whole metacognition is significant. Besides, a comparison of means of the two groups reveal that mean of the scores attained by depressed students in features of positive worrying beliefs, uncontrollability and feeling of danger, and general negative beliefs is higher that of the scores won by ordinary students. In features of cognitive ability and cognitive self-awareness, mean of the scores attained by depressed students is lower than that of the scores earned by ordinary students. The first finding of this study demonstrates a difference between depressed and ordinary students over positive worrying beliefs, showing that depressed students have more positive worrying beliefs. Moreover, there is a positive, significant relation between positive worrying beliefs and depression. These results match the findings released by Papageorgiou and Wells (2000), suggesting a relation between the scale of positive worrying beliefs and mental rumination and depression, as well as the ones released by Yosefi (2008), confirming existence of difference between positive worrying beliefs in ordinary and depressed people. The reason for this may be the depressed individual's excessive thinking about his/her own problems. Wells (2003) holds that the depressed individuals realize their past mistakes and disabilities through thinking and worrying. The second finding of this study demonstrates a difference between uncontrollability and feeling of danger in depressed and ordinary students, indicating that depressed students have more uncontrollability and feeling of danger. Similarly, there is a positive, significant relation between uncontrollability and feeling of danger. This finding conforms to the findings achieved by Papageorgiou and Wells (2009), showing that depression sufferers have a tendency toward mental rumination and reviewing defective, negative thoughts and feel that they have lost their control over their thinking processes and worrying thoughts automatically enter their minds. This is also caused by depressed people's focusing on a series of specific, recurring thoughts the contents of which are usually negative events that are threatening for tem as a result of living. Nevertheless, uncontrollability or lack of control over thoughts leads to feeling of danger (Nolen & Hoeksema, 2002). The third finding of this study is existence of the difference between depressed and ordinary students in cognitive ability, implying that depressed people have less cognitive ability than the ordinary ones. Likewise, the relation between cognitive ability and depression was negative. This finding also matches the studies carried out by Wells and Papageorgiou (2009) and Yosefi (2008). Results of the studies conducted by them revealed that depression sufferers complained about bad memory, and had no confidence in their memory and their performance in assignments and recall was poor. This can be due to the fact that depressed people have less organized information than the ordinary people and are therefore unable to store, retrieve, or encode information. The fourth finding of the study also demonstrated that depressed and ordinary students differed over general negative beliefs (responsibility, punitiveness and superstition). Depressed students had more general negative beliefs. In the same way, the relation between general negative beliefs and depression was positive and significant. These results match the findings released by Yosefi and Biyabangard (2008), supporting the difference between ordinary and depressed people's general negative beliefs. This is also due to internal attribution of depressed people, based on which, they attribute failure to general, internal and sustainable factors, thereby punishing themselves and turning to superstitious thoughts. The fifth finding of the study displayed a difference between depressed and ordinary students in self-awareness, indicating that depressed students had less self-awareness – the result which
Zahra Jamshidifar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 159 (2014) 16 – 19
matches the findings released by Yosefi (2008) and Wells and Papageorgiou (2009). This may also be due to the fact that depression sufferers have a defect in their metacognitive inspection which causes cognitive dysfunction and disrupts the individual's ability in inspecting and checking. References Biyabangard E., (2002). Metacognition and cognitive analytic therapy. Cognitive Science Journal, 4(4):5-9. [Persian] Borkovec, T. D., (1994). The nature, functions and origins of worry. In: G.C.L. Borkowski, T. G. & Muthukrishna N., (1992); Moving Metacognition into the Classroom: “Working Models and Effective Strategy Teaching”; In M. Pressley, K. R. Harris & J. T. Guthrie (Eds.); Promoting Academic Competence and Literacy in School; Sandiego, CA: Academic, pp. 477-501. Fernandez-Duque D, Baired JA, Posner MI.(2000). Executive attention and metacognitive regulation. Conscious Cognition. (9): 288-307. Flavell, J. H., (1971); “First Discussant’s Comments: What is Memory Development the Development of?” Human Development, 14, pp. 272278. Flavell, J. H., (1979); “Metacognition and Cognitive Monitoring: A New Area of Cognitive – Development Inquiry”; American Psychologist, 34, pp. 906-911. Hacker, D. J., J. Dunlosky & Graesser A. C., (1998). Metacognition in Educational Theory and Practice; Mahwah. NJ: Erlbaum. Huet N.(2000). Assessment device of metacognition involved in a working situation. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics ,24(3):24351. Kleitman S, Stankov L., (2007). Self-confidence and metacognitive processes. Personality and Individual Differences , 17(2):161-73. Lobban, F. Haddock, E. Einderman, P. & Wells, A. (2002). The role metacopinitive beliefs auditory hallucination. Personality and Individual Differences, 32(6), 1351-1363. Moses, L.J., & Baird, J.A.(2002). Metacognition. In R.A. Wilson & F.C. Keil (Eds.), The MIT encyclopedia of the cognitive sciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Nelson, T. O. & L. Narens (1990). Metamemory: Core Readings; Boston: Allyn & Bacon. Nolen-Hoeksema. S. & Harrell, Z. A. T. (2002). Rumination depression and alcohol use: Tests of gender differences. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: An Imitational Journal. 16, 391404. Papageorgiou C, Wells A.(2002). Metacognitive beliefs about rumination in recurrent major depression. Cognitive Behavior Practice, 8(2): 160164. Papageorgiou, C., & Wells, A. (2004). Nature, functions, and beliefs about depressive rumination. In: C. Papageorgiou., &A.Wells (Eds). Depressive rumination: Nature, Theory and Treatment. Chichester, UK: JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd. Spadaa MM, Mohiyeddinia C, Wells A.(2008). Measuring metacognitions associated with emotional distress: Factor structure and predictive validity of the metacognitions questionnaire 30. Personality and Individual Differences , 45(3):238-42 Wells A, Fisher P, Myers S, Wheatley J, Patel T.(2009). Metacognitive therapy in recurrent and persistent depression: A multiple-baseline study of a new treatment. Cognitive Therapy Research , 33(3): 291-300. Wells A. (2009). Metacognitive therapy for anxiety and depression. New York: Guilford:1-22. Wells A.(2002). Emotional disorders and metacognition:Innovative cognitive therapy. UK: Chichester. Wells, A., & Carter, K. (2001). Further tests of a cognitive model of Generalized Anxiety Disorder: Metacognitions and worry in GAD, panic disorder, social phobia, depression, and non-patients. Behavior and Therapy, 32, 85–102 . Wells, A. & Matthews, G. (1996). " Modeling Cognition in Emotional Disorder: The S-REF Model" Behavior and Therapy. 34, 881-888. Morrison, A. P., French. P., & Wells, A. (2007). Wells, A. (2000). Emotional disorders and metacognition: Innovative Cognitive Therapy. Chichester, UK: JohnWiley & Sons, Ltd. Wells, A., & Papageorgiou, C. (2004). Metacognitive therapy for depressive rumination. In: C. Papageorgiou & A. Wells (Eds). Depressive rumination: Nature, Theory and Treatment. Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Yoosefi R, Aghdamjangi H, Sivanizade M, Adhamian E.(2008). Metacognition compared in patients with schizophrenia, Depression disorder and control Group. Advance Cognitive Science , 10(2): 1. [Persian].
19