Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Depressed mood and social perception: An investigation of the accuracy of estimating the frequency of others' behaviors
Abstract
Rational and correct interpretation of the social environment has previously been assumed to be necessary for the maintenance of mental health. However, research has documented that mentally healthy adults make errors and are biased in their interpretations of the environment. Depressed individuals have also been described as error prone in information processing skills and negatively biased in their interpretations. Beck's cognitive theory of depression has postulated faulty information processing as fundamental to the development and maintenance of depression (Beck, Rush, Shaw and Emery, 1979). Recent research within the personality field questioned this assumption by presenting evidence describing how depressed subjects are more realistic than nondepressed subjects in judgments of contingency, attributions and expectancies. The present study examined the effects of depressed mood on the accuracy of estimates about the frequency of others' common behaviors. In addition, the effects of depressed mood on the relationship between subjects' self-reports of behavior and estimates about others' behaviors were examined. The influence of desirability and frequency of behavior was also investigated. Data from 100 college students were used to develop baserates of common behaviors that served as comparison measures for an estimation task. There were 227 other subjects who were asked to estimate the modal frequency of others' behaviors and to self-report their own frequency of behavior. These scores were compared to the baserates to determine accuracy and to assess deviation between self-reports and estimates about others' behaviors. Results indicated a significant difference between the depressed subjects and the nondepressed subjects on the accuracy of estimates about others' behaviors. The depressed subjects were less accurate than the nondepressed subjects. Although depressed and nondepressed subjects saw themselves as different from others, the magnitude of this difference was less for depressed subjects. The direction of this difference varied with mood and desirability of behavior. The depressed subjects were more inclined to see themselves as similar to others for undesirable behaviors. The implications of this research on the understanding, prevention and treatment of depressed individuals were explored. Suggestions for further research were also offered.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Social psychology
Recommended Citation
Bennett, Marcia Ann, "Depressed mood and social perception: An investigation of the accuracy of estimating the frequency of others' behaviors" (1992). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9308166.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9308166