Citation

Whitton SW, Larson JJ, Hauser ST. J. Clin. Psychol. (Hoboken) 2008; 64(7): 791-805.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/jclp.20488

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

We examined associations between depressive symptoms and young adults' self-perceptions of social competence to explore whether higher symptoms are associated with self-evaluations that are more accurate (i.e., depressive realism), negatively biased (i.e., cognitive distortion), or less accurate (i.e., self-verification perspective). In 133 young adults, depressive symptoms and discrepancies between self- and peer ratings of social competence were assessed. Results demonstrated a linear relationship between depressive symptoms and self-peer discrepancies, such that higher symptoms were associated with underestimation of the self and low symptom levels were linked with overestimation of the self relative to peer evaluations. These findings suggest negative bias in dysphorics' self-perceptions, supporting cognitive distortion models, as well as positive bias in self-perceptions of those with low depressive symptoms. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol 64: 1–15, 2008.