Depressive cognition: a test of depressive realism versus negativity using general knowledge questions

The Journal of Psychology
E R StoneN Johnson

Abstract

This research is an examination of whether cognition in depressed individuals incorporates a realistic view of the world or a general tendency toward negativity. Participants provided two types of probability judgments of the likelihood that they correctly answered general knowledge questions: the probability that they correctly answered each of the individual questions and an aggregate judgment, after completing the questionnaire, of the percentage of all the questions they thought they had correctly answered. These tasks generally elicit overconfidence and accuracy in nondepressives. In accord with theories of both depressive realism and general negativity, in their item-by-item assessments of their answers to the individual questions, depressed participants demonstrated less overconfidence than nondepressed participants. In accord with the theory of general negativity but not with the theory of depressive realism, however, depressed participants demonstrated underconfidence in their aggregate judgments. The implications of these findings on theories of depressive cognition are discussed.

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Citations

Jun 22, 2012·Clinical Psychology Review·Michael T Moore, David M Fresco
Aug 3, 2006·Journal of Personality and Social Psychology·Matthew C Keller, Randolph M Nesse
Sep 21, 2010·Psychiatry Research·Katharina PaulyUte Habel
Oct 28, 2011·Nursing Forum·Patricia Perry
Oct 22, 2009·Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy·Annette van RandenborghJoachim Hüffmeier
Nov 11, 2011·Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry·Tiffany Szu-Ting FuAnthony J Cleare
Jul 31, 2012·Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience·Katharina PaulyUte Habel
Oct 15, 2019·Frontiers in Psychiatry·Madeleine E Moses-PayneJonathan P Roiser
Oct 23, 2019·Translational Psychiatry·Monja HovenRuth J van Holst
Jan 15, 2021·Behavior Research Methods·Jennifer H Coane, Sharda Umanath

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