The effects of observational purpose are thought to impact on such diverse processes as categorization, behavior perception, trait ascription, and memory. The role of observational purpose in the categorization of behavior was explored to determine whether differences between trait and goal concepts affect certain information-processing…

A central tenet of a self-schema model for depression is the idea that severity of depression is a crucial determinant of the content and cohesiveness of the depressive's self-schema. Consistent with predictions generated form this model, sample nondepressives displayed superior recall for self-referenced, nondepressed-content adjectives. Recall…

A study of 135 undergraduate students suggests that students' personality traits in general, and their self-esteem and achievement motivation in particular, have a substantial influence on their approaches to study and to levels of knowledge processing. (Author/MSE)

Many scientists are currently studying the manner in which individuals process social information. The reconstruction of attitudinal and subsequent behavioral information was studied to determine whether information about a person's schema can influence the interpretation of that person's subsequent behavior or whether the behavior itself is more…

Depressed individuals seem to believe that they are qualitatively inferior; they tend to misinterpret and exaggerate losses and overgeneralize the meaning of self-relevant information. The way in which information about the self is processed by depressed individuals, in particular, the differences in self-schema content (the constellation of…