The effects of self-correction on cognitive distortions in depression

Abstract

Past research has demonstrated that depressed individuals tend to distort their recall of positive feedback in a negative fashion. In the current study an attempt was made to replicate the finding and then to stop this negative distortion through a self-correction (reality-testing) procedure. Groups of depressed and nondepressed college students were randomly assigned to high positive (HP) or low positive (LP) feedback conditions. In the first half of the study, there was a replication of the cognitive distortion of HP feedback by the depressed group. The reality-testing procedure invoked in the second half of the study, however, made no impact on the cognitive distortions made by the depressed group under HP feedback conditions. Under conditions of LP feedback, the reality-testing procedure had the paradoxical effect of increasing the distortions shown by the depressed group. The implications of this study for therapy were elaborated upon and the utility of reality testing, as an isolated treatment component, was called into question.