Validity and Reliability of the Interpersonal Sensitivity/Privileged Self Scale: Solving a New Type of Depression

Although “modern-type” depression (MTD), having different features than melancholic-type depression, has become problematic in Japan especially since the late 1990s, there are few psychological studies of MTD. Sakamoto, Muranaka, and Yamakawa (2014) proposed a psychological framework depicting the onset of MTD, and coined a new concept of interpersonal sensitivity/ privileged self, which is assumed to be a vulnerability factor for MTD. In the present study, we examined the validity and reliability of the Interpersonal Sensitivity/Privileged Self Scale (IPS; Muranaka, Yamakawa, & Sakamoto, 2014), which has two superordinate factors, namely Interpersonal Sensitivity (IS: 16 items) and Privileged Self (PS: 9 items). Because MTD is presumed to overlap with atypical depression, it was expected that the IPS score in an atypical depression group would be higher than in a melancholic depression group, and the IPS score would be positively correlated with the depressive symptoms. Participants were 112 (70 male, 42 female) Japanese undergraduates, aged 18 25 years (M = 19.19, SD = 2.07). Cronbach’s α of the IPS was 0.90 (IS: α = 0.91, PS: α = 0.72). As we predicted, the IPS, IS, and PS were positively correlated with depressive symptoms. ANOVAs revealed significant differences in the scores of the IPS, IS, and PS among depression types. Post-hoc analyses showed that scores for anatypical depression group were significantly higher than those for a melancholic group and an unclassified-type group. These results support our prediction that IPS scores manifest differently in MTD and melancholic depression; validity and reliability of the IPS were confirmed.