Direction of causation

If the links between both love and physical contact experience and depression are causal in nature what next needs to be determined is the direction of causality. Our original hypothesis was that unsatisfactory physical contact experience predisposes to depression and it would now be argued on the same basis (i.e. the effect on self-esteem) that being not loved results in a similar predisposition. Although the links that have been demonstrated are consistent with these hypotheses, they are also of course consistent with these hypotheses in reverse. In other words the picture obtained so far could be explained just as easily in terms of depression predisposing to unsatisfactory physical contact experience and to being not loved as vice versa. The argument here would be that depression tends either to promote in others negative attitudes and reactions towards the sufferer, thus causing a real deterioration in the latter’s interpersonal relationships, or alternatively to promote in the sufferer a negative perception of these relationships regardless of the actual attitudes and reactions of the other parties involved.