A TEST OF THE DEPRESSIVE REALISM HYPOTHESIS IN CLINICALLY DEPRESSED SUBJECTS

Although the phenomenon of depressive realism has profound implication s for the conceptualization of depression, the majority of studies hav e been conducted on analogue samples, thereby limiting the utility of these studies as investigations of clinical depression. The current st udy examined depressive realism in a noncontingent situation in sample s of 15 clinically depressed, 15 remitted, and 15 never depressed fema les. Using a computerized version of the Alloy and Abramson (1979) jud gment of noncontingency task, it was predicted that currently depresse d subjects would demonstrate depressive realism, brat that the other t wo groups would show comparable nonrealistic and positively biased dis tortions The results provided limited support for the hypotheses. The nature and implications of the results are discussed in fight of the d epressive realism literature, and suggestions for future research are provided.