Title
Emotional stroop interference for depressionrelated stimuli in a United Arab Emirates student population
Source of Publication
Social Behavior and Personality
Abstract
A bilingual Arabic-speaking student population performed an emotional Stroop task designed to assess the interference effects of depressive stimuli. The aim was to replicate the findings of previous studies with English-speaking participants in which slower color-naming responses were reported for depression-related stimuli, with speed negatively correlated with increasing levels of depressive symptomatology. We used repeated measures design measuring any slowing of naming for the emotional words, while Pearson's r was used to explore the relationship between emotional Stroop performance decrease and extent of depressive symptoms. University students (N = 261) completed a computerized, Arabic-language version of the emotional Stroop task, along with a questionnaire (the Beck Depression Inventory) measure of depressive symptoms. The response time differential for depression related (RT depressive - RT normal), but not neutral (RT neutral - RT normal), words were positively correlated with depressive symptom scores. The findings were consistent with studies reporting mood-congruent information processing biases in English-speaking populations. The emotional Stroop task may prove useful as a culturally-neutral adjunct in the implicit assessment of depressive symptoms or vulnerabilities. © Society for Personality Research (Inc.).
Document Type
Article
First Page
597
Last Page
604
Publication Date
6-17-2010
DOI
10.2224/sbp.2010.38.5.597
Recommended Citation
Thomas, Justin; Campbell, Carol; Altareb, Belkeis; and Yousif, Ahmed, "Emotional stroop interference for depressionrelated stimuli in a United Arab Emirates student population" (2010). Scopus Indexed Articles. 2199.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/scopus-indexed-articles/2199