An experimental study on the automaticity of depressives' cognitive and behavioral characteristics shown in interpersonal interactions

本研究探讨认知负荷对抑郁症患者认知和行为的影响。具体而言，本研究考察了抑郁症患者的自我评价、自我呈现以及对他人评价的预测。这一结果支持了抑郁症患者的不良自我评价是通过控制性调节过程形成的观点;在自我呈现方面，认知负荷下，抑郁症患者的自我呈现变得更好，而非抑郁症患者的自我呈现变得更差。认知负荷的这种相反效应可以从抑郁症患者和非抑郁症患者自我呈现的目的不同来解释;对于他人对自我呈现的评价的预测，与此相反，无认知负荷的抑郁症患者和非抑郁症患者之间没有差异。此外，在认知负荷下，两组的预测都变得更有利。使用自尊水平而不是抑郁倾向的分析显示了不同的结果，特别是对他人对自己自我表现的评价的预测。这些差异是否是区分低自尊和抑郁的关键因素还有待进一步研究。

Present study examined the effects of cognitive load on cognition and behavior of depressive people. More specifically, this study examined self-evaluation, self-presentation, and predictions for other people's evaluations for one's own self-presentation.For self-evaluation, depressives' self-evaluation tended to become more favorable under cognitive load. This result supports the idea that unfavorable self-evaluation of depressives is formed through controlled regulatory processes.For self-presentation, under cognitive load, depressives' self-presentation became more favorable while non-depressives' self-presentation became less so. This opposite effect of cognitive load was interpreted according to the different aims of self-presentation of depressives and non-depressives.For predictions about other people's evaluations for one's own self-presentation, contrary to the prediction, there was no difference between depressives and non-depressives without cognitive load. Moreover, both groups' prediction became more favorable under cognitive load.Analyses using level of self-esteem instead of depressive tendency revealed different results especially for predictions about other people's evaluations for one's own self-presentation. Further investigation is needed to examine if these differences are critical factor for differentiation of low self-esteem and depression.