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Variability in lay perceptions of depression: A vignette study
Author(s) -
Heim Derek,
Smallwood Jonathan,
Davies John B.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
psychology and psychotherapy: theory, research and practice
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.102
H-Index - 62
eISSN - 2044-8341
pISSN - 1476-0835
DOI - 10.1348/147608305x25793
Subject(s) - vignette , psychology , referent , depression (economics) , perception , clinical psychology , likert scale , depressive symptoms , social perception , psychiatry , developmental psychology , social psychology , cognition , linguistics , philosophy , neuroscience , economics , macroeconomics
This paper describes a study investigating lay perceptions of depression in terms of perceived severity. Students ( N =128) were presented with vignettes describing individuals with symptoms of depression based on DSM‐IV. The descriptions were varied in terms of gender, social status, and a self‐referent manner of communicating depressive symptomatology. Participants were asked to rate the degree to which vignette characters were thought to be depressed on a Likert‐type scale. Results indicate that a non‐self‐referent style of communicating depressive symptoms by female vignette characters was seen as an indication of elevated levels of depression, and these findings are discussed with reference to the literature.