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Depressive symptoms and bias in perceived social competence among young adults
Author(s) -
Whitton Sarah W.,
Larson Justine J.,
Hauser Stuart T.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20488
Subject(s) - psychology , depressive symptoms , competence (human resources) , clinical psychology , cognitive bias , perception , cognition , social competence , developmental psychology , psychiatry , social change , social psychology , neuroscience , economics , economic growth
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.