Temporal self-, reflected appraisal differs between people with depression, euthymic mood

Key takeaways:

• Self- and reflected appraisals differed over time between people with depression and people with euthymic mood.
• The results indicate people’s alignment of self-perception and others’ perception of them.

Temporal self-appraisals and reflected appraisals were not similar in people with depression, but were similar in people with euthymic mood, according to data published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Yosef Sokol, PhD, a clinical assistant professor in the school of health sciences at Touro University in New York, and colleagues recruited 252 adults with either depression (n = 76) or euthymic mood (n = 176) to complete the Temporal Self-Appraisal Me/Not Me (TSA) task and the Temporal Reflected Appraisal Me/Not Me (TRA) task.

Both tasks listed 10 positive and 10 negative words. For each word, participants indicated whether their past, present and future selves aligned with the descriptors. The TSA was related to the participants’ perceptions of themselves, and the TRA was related to how they believed someone close to them perceived them. Alignments were rated on a scale of one to six.

In the group with depression, mean scores on the TSA decreased from past to present and increased from present to future, forming a v-shaped trajectory. On the TRA, others’ perception of participants’ present selves did not significantly decrease from the perception of the past selves.

“This was an unexpected finding, as we had hypothesized that ‘past’ and ‘present’ TSA and TRA appraisals would be similar and ‘future’ would show a discrepancy,” Sokol and colleagues wrote.

The scores on the TSA and TRA for people with depression indicate that “this group believes that other people perceive them as doing much better than they believe they are, in particular with regard to their present state,” according to the researchers.

For people with euthymic mood, participants’ mean scores increased similarly and steadily from past to future on both the TRA and the TSA. Unlike the depression group, the euthymic group had no significant differences in TSA and TRA appraisals for their present self.

“These nuances have significance in conceptualizing the identity component of depression and relevant clinical intervention,” Sokol and colleagues wrote. “Our study highlights the importance of examining self-appraisal as a vehicle toward developing a more accurate model of specific forms of psychopathology.”