A behavioral psychotherapy program for treating depression has been developed based on a self-control or self-management model that postulates that depressed persons selectively attend to negative events and immediate consequences of events; set stringent self-evaluative standards; make negative, inaccurate attributions of responsibility for events; reward their own behavior inadequately; and punish themselves excessively. To test the effectiveness of specifying three different treatments (a behavioral target program focused on increasing activity level, a cognitive target program focused on modifying and increasing positive self-statements, and a combined program including both targets) for different populations of depressed patients, 104 college women participated in 21 therapy groups. In general, results suggested a better outcome for subgroups of subjects who had an acute onset of depression. There were no significant differences due to subject characteristics, a factor which emphasizes the generalizability of the program. Subjects high and low on positive activity frequency were equal in outcome within the cognitive target program. Within the behavioral target program, subjects who reported a high frequency of positive activities did better, and in the combined cognitive program subjects who reported a low frequency of positive activities did better. The findings suggest a need for further replication. (JAC)