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Fu, T., Koutstaal, W., Poon, L., & Cleare, A. J. (2005). Affective states and accuracy of confidence assessments: A test of two competing hypotheses. A well-established cognitive theory of depression proposes that the cognitive processes of depressed individuals are negatively distorted due to their negative views or schemas of the self. This theory leads to the prediction that the depressed are over-pessimistic in their self-evaluation of cognitive decisions. Surprisingly, however, several studies appear to support the contrary view of "depressive realism"--such that depressed persons are neither over-optimistic nor over-pessimistic but rather "realistic." Yet, studies supporting depressive realism seldom include severely depressed patients but only mildly depressed patients and often have used decision-tasks for which there is no objectively correct answer. These shortcomings were addressed in our previous study (Fu, Koutstaal, Fu, Poon, & Cleare, in press), which provided no support for depressive realism. The proposed research will use a novel paradigm that manipulates degree of involvement of self-schema, thereby providing a strong contrasting test of depressive realism versus the cognitive theory of depression in severely depressed patients. Thus, this study will help shed light on the cognitive causes of depression by evaluating the validity of the two competing hypotheses. BACK |
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