Related Experiment Videos
Depressive self-presentation: beyond self-handicapping
1Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Columbus 43210.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|May 1, 1990
Summary
Depressed individuals strategically fail tasks when future performance is expected, aiming to protect self-esteem. This self-presentation, however, increases their negative affect and discomfort.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
- Social Psychology
Background:
- Depression is often associated with protective self-presentation styles.
- The goal of this style may be to avoid future performance demands and potential self-esteem losses.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine if depressed individuals exhibit a protective self-presentation style.
- To investigate if this style involves strategic failure to avoid future performance and esteem threats.
Main Methods:
- Depressed and nondepressed participants performed a visual-motor task.
- Participants were assigned to conditions with or without the expectation of future performance based on success.
Main Results:
- Depressed participants strategically failed the task more often than nondepressed participants when future performance was expected.
- This strategic failure in depressed individuals was linked to increased negative affect and discomfort.
Conclusions:
- Depression is associated with a self-presentation strategy involving strategic failure to mitigate self-esteem threats.
- This self-handicapping behavior comes at the cost of increased negative emotional experiences.