Self‐evaluation and self‐reinforcement in depressed patients

Previous work evaluating Rehm's self‐control model of depression suggests that depressed subjects show a discrepancy between self‐evaluations on a trial by trial basis during specific tasks and questionnaire based evaluations of the total self. This experiment examines self‐evaluations at ‘specific’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘global’ levels using a specially constructed questionnaire. Specific evaluations concern performance on everyday tasks, intermediate evaluations important personal qualities and global evaluations the total self. Subjects comprised hospitalized depressed and non‐depressed patients and a normal group. Results showed that, as the evaluations moved from ‘specific’ to ‘global’, those of depressed subjects became increasingly more negative, while those of the non‐depressed subjects became more positive. The results are discussed in terms of the primary effect of depression on the self‐schema and its influence as a standard for self‐evaluation as objective evidence weakens. Finally some clinical implications are explored.