Depressive symptoms and bias in perceived social competence among young adults

Abstract

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.

Positively Biased Self-Perceptions: Who Has Them and What are Their Effects?

“…In fact, contrary to this hypothesis, positive bias was marginally related to higher levels of depressive symptoms but this trend was eliminated when we controlled for the degree to which children were socially accepted by peers. Past research that has suggested a protective link between bias and depressive symptoms [6,25] used bias as a continuous measure, and thus included children who held negative bias. Given that children who hold negative bias are at greater risk for elevated depressive symptoms [26], it may be the case that the inverse relationship between bias and depressive symptoms was carried by the negatively biased children having such high depression levels and that depression levels of positively biased children may not have differed much from their peers whose bias scores fell in the typical range.…”

“…In the adult literature, Whitton et al [6] found that more negative bias was associated with elevated depressive symptoms while more positive bias was associated with lower depressive symptoms. With respect to children, one study found evidence of a bi-directional relationship between bias and depressive symptoms such that a decrease in positive bias predicted an increase in depressive symptoms and vice versa [23].…”

“…Similarly, the negative relationship between bias and depressive symptoms [6] may be artificially created due to the fact that children who have overly negative self-perceptions tend to have high levels of depressive symptoms [26] rather than overly positive self-perceptions serving as a protective factor. If positive bias confers some protection to depression, then one would expect children who hold positive bias would report fewer depressive symptoms relative to children with realistic (i.e., unbiased) self-perceptions.…”

“…There is substantial evidence to suggest that holding positive bias past an age when it would be considered developmentally appropriate puts children at risk for poor socio-emotional functioning with respect to aggression [3,4]. Conversely, there is evidence to suggest that holding positive bias may, in fact, be a protective factor against the internalizing symptoms of depression [5][6][7]. The present study aims to clarify the extent to which positive bias is related to aggressive and depressive outcomes.…”

The Calculation of Discrepancy Scores in the Context of Biased Self-Perceptions of Acceptance

“…An association between the DIF score and an outcome variable may be driven by a strong association between only one of the component variables and that outcome variable, rather than the difference between component variables. The study by De Los Reyes and Kazdin (2004) is widely cited as justification for the use of DIF for the calculation of a bias (Diamantopoulou et al 2008;Whitton et al 2008). However, informant discrepancies, as examined in the De Los Reyes and Kazdin (2004) study, and biased self-perceptions are theoretically different constructs.…”