Abstract

There are two positions in the research on the relationship between self-concept and depression: functionalist perspective and structuralist perspective. Functionalist perspective includes two contrasting interpretations. The first interpretation is that the more extremely a person evaluates himself/herself extremely(too positively), the lower degree of his or her experiencing depression becomes. The second interpretation is that the more neutrally a person evaluates himself/herself, the lower degree of his or her experiencing depression. Like the functionalist perspective, there are two contrasting interpretations. The first interpretation is that the higher the differentiation of the self-concept becomes, the lower the degree of experiencing depression becomes. The second interpretation is that the higher the differentiation of the self-concept becomes, the higher the degree of experiencing depression becomes. This study is to explain the pitfalls of two contrasting perspectives on the relationship between self-concept and depression by introducing "self-differentiation within dimension" and "self-differentiation across dimension". First, in order to prove the limitation of interpretation of functionalist perspective on the self-concept and depression, the first hypothesis was developed: in case a person's self-concept is extreme, the lower the differentiation across dimension is, the lower degree of depression is: in case a person's self-concept is neutral, the higher the differentiation across dimension is, the lower the degree of depression is Also, in order to prove the limitation of interpretation of structuralist perspective, second hypothesis were developed: (1)the higher the differentiation within dimension is, the higher the degree of experiencing depression is. (2) the higher the differentiation across dimension is, the lower the degree of experiencing depression is. The results of the study are as follows. First, Research 1 included two sub-research. In the pilot study, the researcher draw introduced value of differentiation within dimension, and differentiation across dimension, and further tried to measure degree of correlation between Scott's Self Differentiation, differentiation within dimension, and differentiation across dimension since the problem of Scott's self-differentiation scale was not to consider the above two concepts. Sub-research 1 was to examine whether the degree of differentiation within dimension and differentiation across dimension mediate the relationship between self-evaluation and depression in the subjects of college students when the level of prior depression was controlled. As a result, the first hypothesis was confirmed. Differentiation across dimension was a critical mediating variable in the relationship between self-evaluation and depression. However, differentiation within dimension' did not mediate the relationship between self-evaluation and depression. Second, Research 2 was first to examine the relationship among differentiation within dimension, differentiation across dimension, and depression, and second to examine differentiation within dimension, differentiation within dimension, and self-integration. As a result, the second hypothesis was confirmed. Differentiation across dimension was negatively correlated with depression. However, differentiation within dimension was positively correlated with depression. These results have many implications not only for further theoretical discussion on the relationship between self-concept and depression but also for practical utilities, e. g. counselling psychology.