Objective: This study aimed to investigate relationships among temperament-character traits, dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts, and compare with patient group with diagnosis of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and healthy control group in terms of these variables.
Method: 127 patients with a diagnosis of major depressive disorder and 128 healthy subjects participated voluntarily in the study. The Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI), the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS), Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ), and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were administered to participants.
Results: It was seen that the patient group had higher harm avoidance and lower self-directedness, cooperativeness and persistence. Moreover, it was seen that the persons in the patient group had more dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts related to depression, comparing to the control group. In addition, according to results of the multiple mediating variables analysis,dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts are fully mediated in relationship between among harm avoidance and self-directedness and depression.
Conclusion: This study shows that the cognitive theory and psychobiological personality model may be used together for explaining depression. Accordingly, it can be said that harm avoidance and self-directedness were the risk factors for depression. Based upon the results of the research, it can be made works for preventing depression. Moreover,the effectiveness of cognitive psychotherapy intended to depressive people can be increased by taking these temperament and character traits into consideration.