Cognitive aspects of depression: Stylistic or personal?

This study assessed the degree to which cognitive distortions such as rating biases and reduced variability are general as opposed to personal cognitive phenomena. The biases of both "self-" and "other-" ratings were examined in order to assess the generality of these phenomena. Experimental subjects were undergraduate student volunteers who scored above 12 on the Beck Depression Inventory, while control subjects were those scoring below 9. After completing the Zung Depression Scale (to confirm previous depression ratings) the subjects performed nine perceptual tasks and rated themselves on their performance, estimating how well "other" students would do on the same task. Results do not demonstrate any relationship between variability and depression. However, the dysphoric group provided lower self-ratings and higher "other"-ratings than did the control group. Implications for cognitive theories of depression are discussed.