Do depressed people interpret guilt-provoking situations differently than nondepressed people? Cognitive-behavioral theories of psychopathology would predict that they do, since a major premise of such theories is that maladaptive emotional patterns are mirrored in distinct cognitive responses. Highly depressed subjects in an exploratory study of this question were significantly harsher in evaluations of their own guilt-provoking behavior, and were significantly less likely to provide a justification for it, than were mildly depressed and nondepressed subjects. The depressed groups were also significantly more likely, than the nondepressed group, to focus on guilt-provoking situational features and to identify self-oriented, rather than interpersonal, behaviors as guilt-provoking. Future investigation should attempt to distinguish the cognitive biases or distortions (e.g., selective recall, overly strict self-evaluative standards, attributions to internal causality) that may contribute to these differences. (Author/CS)