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Depression and marital discord are related to feeling criticized by others, especially by spouses (e.g., Hooley, J. M., & Teasdale, J. D. 1989). This study evaluated the extent to which criticism was overperceived in relation to “actual” spousal critical comments, with actual critical comments being established by independent observers and by criticizing spouses themselves. Using dyadic interaction and questionnaire data from 72 married couples, signal detection and regression analyses suggested that both dysphoria and marital discord were associated with a general bias towards feeling criticized. Marital discord's association with criticality bias subsumed dysphoria's, but dysphoria's did not subsume marital discord's. Criticality bias also accounted for a significant proportion of perceived spousal criticism. A common cognitive process may underlie established associations among perceived criticism, dysphoria, and marital discord.

Depression and marital discord are related to feeling criticized by others, especially spouses (e.g., Hooley and Teasdale, 1989, Lynch et al., 2001 and Riso et al., 1996). It is unclear, however, whether these reports reflect (a) actual exposure to hypercritical spouses, (b) the generally negative views taken by people who are feeling depressed or maritally discordant (e.g., Bradbury and Fincham, 1990, Epstein and Baucom, 2002, Gotlib and Krasnoperova, 1998, Ingram et al., 1998 and Townsley et al., 1991), or (c) some combination of spouse hypercriticality and criticality bias. The purpose of this study is to examine these possibilities in a design that permits observational assessment of exposure to interspousal criticism independent of self-reported perceived criticism. Criticism and Depression Criticism has been linked to depression relapse in studies of expressed emotion (EE; Hooley et al., 1986, Hooley and Teasdale, 1989 and Vaughn and Leff, 1976a). EE, which is indicated by family members' critical, hostile, or emotionally overinvolved statements about their relatives, has traditionally been assessed with the Camberwell Family Interview (Brown and Rutter, 1966, Rutter and Brown, 1966 and Vaughn and Leff, 1976b) or with the Five Minute Speech Sample (Magaña et al., 1986). The importance of EE is underscored by a study of potential demographic and clinical relapse predictors in a sample of patients hospitalized for unipolar depression (Hooley et al., 1986). Among the candidate demographic and clinical variables tested, only EE predicted relapse to a statistically significant degree. A meta-analysis of this literature suggests that patients who are hospitalized for the treatment of depression have a 2 to 3 times greater risk of relapse when they live with “high EE” relatives than when they live with “low EE” relatives (Butzlaff & Hooley, 1998). EE has been linked to poor outcomes in a number of other psychological and medical conditions, such as schizophrenia, eating disorders, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes (for a review, see Wearden, Tarrier, Barrowclough, Zastowny, & Rahill, 2000). However, the link between EE and relapse may be especially strong with respect to depression. A meta-analysis of studies examining EE and several psychological disorders revealed that EE was a significantly better predictor of relapse in mood disorders than in schizophrenia (Butzlaff & Hooley, 1998). Furthermore, the criticism dimension of EE may be especially toxic for those with depression. Criticism from others may reinforce depressed people's own self-critical tendencies, validating and perpetuating depressive cognitions (Wearden et al., 2000). Relapse in depression is associated with lower levels of criticism than is relapse in schizophrenia, suggesting that depressed people may be particularly sensitive to criticism (Hooley et al., 1986 and Vaughn and Leff, 1976a). Additionally, among EE, marital adjustment, and responses to the question, “How critical is your spouse of you?”, the single-item measure of perceived criticism was the best predictor of relapse following recovery from depression (Hooley & Teasdale, 1989). Perceived criticism has been described as an especially potent relapse predictor because, beyond indicating mere exposure to criticism, it reflects how much criticism is “getting through” to patients (Hooley & Teasdale, 1989). Criticism and Marital Discord Criticism can be considered a generic stressor because it has been linked not only to various forms of medical and psychiatric pathology but also to marital dysfunction (Hayhurst et al., 1997, Hooley and Teasdale, 1989 and Lynch et al., 2001). In both observational and self-report investigations of the “demandingness” dimension of the demand-withdraw pattern, criticism has been shown to correlate with and predict marital adjustment (Christensen and Shenk, 1991 and Lynch et al., 2001). Gottman (1994) identifies criticism as one of the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse,” factors he believes to be especially predictive of divorce. Finally, according to the marital discord model of depression, poor marital adjustment may lead to depression, in part because it undermines spousal support and increases stress and criticism (see Beach, Sandeen, & O’Leary, 1990). Depression and Marital Discord Processes such as interspousal criticism that relate to both marital discord and depressed mood are particularly interesting because they might account for at least part of the substantial relationship between poor marital adjustment and depressive symptoms (Dehle and Weiss, 1998, O'Leary et al., 1994 and Scott and Cordova, 2002; see Beach et al., 1994, Gotlib and Hammen, 1992 and Whisman, 2001, for reviews). For instance, a recent meta-analysis revealed that approximately 16% of the variance in depressive symptoms can be explained by level of marital adjustment (Whisman, 2001). Longitudinally, depressive symptoms predict later declines in marital adjustment (Beach & O'Leary, 1993a), and marital adjustment predicts levels of dysphoria over time, even after controlling for earlier levels of depressive symptoms (Beach et al., 2003 and Beach and O'Leary, 1993b). First episodes of major depressive disorder are often preceded by marital and other interpersonal stressors (Whisman & Bruce, 1999). Distinguishing “Perceived” and “Actual” Criticism Although the picture emerging from this brief summary of the criticism literature is fairly consistent, it is worth remaining mindful of a potentially important distinction not being emphasized, namely, the distinction between criticism as it is perceived and criticism as it is expressed. On the one hand, EE ratings in the depression literature are based on observations of criticism expressed during a Camberwell Family Interview or Five Minute Speech Sample, both undertaken in the absence of the patient (e.g., Hooley et al., 1986 and Magaña et al., 1986). On the other hand, perceived criticism is assessed via patient self-reports of their global experiences (e.g., Riso et al., 1996). In the marital literature, the prototypic observational coding study of 10-minute videotaped marital problem-solving interactions is concerned with expressed criticism ( Weiss & Summers, 1983). However, owing to their self-report nature, the more typical marital assessments are concerned with perceived criticism ( Christensen and Shenk, 1991, Fiscella and Campbell, 1999 and Lynch et al., 2001). Because these disparate literatures rely on different assessment perspectives, synthesizing their results is perilous. The more broadly integrative the effort, the more reliant it would be on the untested assumption that perceived and expressed criticism are substantially related to each other. Especially insofar as depression and marital discord are concerned, it is probably unwise to assume expressions and perceptions correspond with each other. The general negativity bias that is known to underlie interpersonal perceptions of people who are depressed or maritally discordant (e.g., Bradbury and Fincham, 1990, Epstein and Baucom, 2002, Gotlib and Krasnoperova, 1998, Ingram et al., 1998 and Townsley et al., 1991) might even be defined as a lack of correspondence between what others express and what is perceived. Unfortunately, correlations between traditional measures of perceived and expressed criticism do not directly address the correspondence of interest, because perceived criticism ratings are not made with respect to the behavior from which expressed criticism is scored. That is, patients rating perceived criticism do not do so based on their observations of the Camberwell Family Interviews or Five-Minute Speech Samples. In the present study, perceived criticism is assessed in reference to the same behaviors used to assess expressed criticism. Expressed criticism that participants directly rate for perceived criticism will be referred to as “actual” criticism in order to distinguish it from expressed criticism that participants do not directly rate for perceived criticism. We consider it actual criticism because we are able to generate converging assessments of this behavior—from the criticizers themselves and from outside observers—that are independent of any biases on the part of the participants who rate perceived criticism. The Present Investigation No study has directly compared perceived and actual criticism during an interspousal interaction. The purpose of this study is to directly compare perceived and actual (viz. observed and intended) criticism and to clarify the nature of the relationships among marital discord, depressive symptoms, and perceptions of criticism in marriage. Specifically, we will start by using signal detection methods (Macmillan & Creelman, 2005) to characterize the amount and variability of bias in perceiving criticism from one's spouse; that is, we will descriptively characterize “criticality bias.” Second, we will examine the correlations among actual and perceived criticism, criticality bias, marital discord and dysphoria. Third, we will test for differences between spouses who overperceive criticism and those who underperceive criticism. Fourth, we will examine redundancy in the associations among criticality bias, perceived criticism, dysphoria, and marital discord. And lastly, we will explore whether criticality bias moderates the association between dysphoria and marital discord.