Exploring the sociotropy-autonomy dimensions in a sample of Turkish psychiatric inpatients

The present study explored the constructs of sociotropy and autonomy with a group of Turkish depressed inpatients, who were administered the Beck Depression Inventory, the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale, the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, and the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale. A comparison group of students from three SES levels also were included in the study. Comparisons were made on the scale scores among the non-dysphoric students, the dysphoric students, and the depressed patients. The results seem to support the relationship of sociotropy with other depression measures in both samples. However, several problems were encountered with the construct autonomy as it is conceptualized in the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale.