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What is the self?
Published in Tamara Ownsworth, Self-Identity after Brain Injury, 2014
Traditional cognitive theories propose that underlying schemas or core beliefs can account for different emotional states and behavioural reactions that people may experience in the same situation (see Beck, 1967; Ellis, 1962; Lazarus, 1966; Markus, 1977). According to Beck's cognitive theory, throughout our lives we develop schemas, or fundamental beliefs and generalisations about the world, other people and ourselves (self-schemas). Early harmful experiences in life (e.g., loss or rejection in relationships) and other stressful life events contribute to negative self-schemas, which may reflect fear of loss, rejection, failure and threats to one's safety. Individuals with a particularly strong desire for close and supportive relationships (i.e., sociotrophy) and those who excessively strive for personal achievement and independence (i.e., autonomy) may be more vulnerable to psychological distress if threat is posed to these core life dimensions (Eisenstadt, Leippe, & Rivers, 2002). Individuals with a negative ‘cognitive triad’ (or pessimistic views of self, the world and the future) have characteristically unhelpful thinking styles and sequences, which serve as interpretive filters in daily life. Unlike the self-enhancing thinking styles of individuals without depression, depressed individuals tend to have more realistic self-appraisal of their abilities and the outcome of events (i.e., depressive realism), or alternatively perceive threat, failure or problems when there is little evidence of these (Beck, 1967).
Depression
Published in Silvia Bonino, Coping with Chronic Illness, 2020
For these reasons, if the more severe form is excluded, the so-called major depression, which seems to have the main cause of its onset in biological dysfunctions, depression, in disease as well as in health, must be experienced as a moment that has something to tell us and teach us. It is therefore a matter of accepting the oscillations of our mood not only as one of the many limits of our imperfect human condition, but also as defense mechanisms useful for development, through suffering and the temporary withdrawal from action. Let us not forget that immobility, catatonia and the “death reflex” are widespread defense mechanisms throughout the animal kingdom, when action, both in the form of struggle and flight, would be too dangerous. Depression, with its baggage of negative and distorted interpretations, altered mood, passivity and physical malaise, is certainly a dangerous defensive mechanism that presents many risks, but which can also be useful if transitory and not very marked. Under these conditions, depression can become an opportunity for growth: because it allows you to see reality with lucid clarity, not to give in to self-deception and delusions of omnipotence, to withdraw for a moment from the world to think and not act immediately. In fact, it should be remembered that in mild depression, and limited to this, the person’s assessments are not at all unrealistic, but rather more objective, to the point that we speak of “depressive realism.” On the contrary, the evaluations of the so-called normal people, and even more of the euphoric ones, are altered in an illusory positive sense. This finding confirms that a temporary phase of mild negative mood can be useful for the patient to observe his condition with greater clarity for objectivity, and to plan actions useful for his well-being and development.
Questioning Assumptions About Vulnerability in Psychiatric Patients
Published in AJOB Neuroscience, 2018
Melissa D. McCradden, Michael D. Cusimano
Patients with treatment-resistant depression, however, do not generally tend to be a worryingly hopeful group. However, some authors (Coulter 2013) have suggested that the existence of a mental illness in a potential participant necessarily entails that they are vulnerable. We feel Lawrence and colleagues’ (2019) results somewhat undermine this notion, as they document the thoughtful and skeptical approach the patients took to approaching the decision of participating in an invasive and novel option for potentially treating their depression. In support of this idea, it has been noted that in certain circumstances, a “depressive realism” exists where depressed individuals may perform more accurate appraisals than nondepressed individuals (Moore and Fresco 2012). This by no means suggests that depressed patients may more accurately weight the pros and cons of research participation than nondepressed individuals; it merely supports the notion that the consent of patients desperate for relief from depressive symptoms is not necessarily coercive (Christopher et al. 2011). Further, treatment-resistant patients have had the experience of repeated interactions with the health care system and health care professionals, and with the promise and peril of the “trial and error” approach to psychotropic medications that must, at times, be undertaken. They are arguably more acutely aware than many other patient groups of the mismatch between their own hope for therapeutic benefit and the chances of receiving that benefit.
The Boredom Prone Personality: A Multitrait-Multimethod Approach
Published in Journal of Personality Assessment, 2023
Amber A. Fultz, Jill A. Brown, Frank J. Bernieri
Seib and Vodanovich (1998) proposed a different reason for the negative relationship between boredom and well-being. They claim that people high in boredom are relatively more aware of their negative emotional states compared to their positive emotional states. From this perspective, boredom prone individuals may simply be more accurate self-perceivers. Such a process resonates with the depressive realism phenomena discussed by Alloy and Abramson (1988). Whether or not boredom proneness is due to greater self-consciousness and awareness or to its inherent aversiveness will be questions for future research.
Body image, depression and eating behaviour: a comparative study in eating disordered women and healthy controls
Published in Psychiatry and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2019
F. Elif Ergüney Okumuş, H. Özlem Sertel Berk, Başak Yücel
One other important result from our study is that the body image distortion scores differed between the two groups, as expected. Nevertheless, when considered as a categorical variable, actual estimators were more common in patients with EDs than healthy controls. Overestimation was also more common in EDG whereas healthy women tended to underestimate their body size. Body image distortion is an important diagnosis criterion for ED, with previous studies demonstrating that ED patients (especially AN) seriously overestimate their weight by up to 70% [10]. However, studies comparing body image distortion in ED and controls have provided inconsistent evidence. Some have found no difference [43,44] whereas others reported that ED patients overestimate their weight compared to controls [45–47]. Other studies report that healthy controls mostly overestimate themselves [48]. In addition, Lindholm and Wilson [49] report quite similar results to our findings, highlighting that EDs patients estimate their body size more accurately than controls. A more recent study conducted in Turkey with 333 women [50] demonstrated that healthy women underestimate their body size. Consequently, as Dolan, Birtchnell and Lacey [51] and Hsu and Sobkiewicz [52] conclude, “body image distortion and body dissatisfaction are not specific for women with ED.” Although they are necessary components in the development and maintenance of EDs, such disturbances are somewhat normal in young women [14]. Nevertheless, it is important to bear in mind again that these findings may also be an artefact of the measures used to assess body image or due to sample characteristics in this study. There has been a debate in the literature regarding how the way body image is measured can directly affect the results [53,54]. On the other hand, underestimation of body size can also be a protective factor for healthy women. As noted in Beck’s [55] depression theory, normal people tend to perceive situations more positively then they actually are whereas depressive people have more realistic perceptions. This bias in perception is called “depressive realism” and is supposed to protect healthy people from depressive symptoms. It can therefore also be assumed that body image distortion in healthy women may protect them from disordered eating behaviour in contrast to ED patients, who have a more realistic body perception.