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The effects of self-correction on cognitive distortions in depression

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Depression Research Unit, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Western Ontario, 363 Windermere Road, N6G 2K3, London, Ontario, Canada

    Keith S. Dobson & Brian F. Shaw

Authors
  1. Keith S. Dobson
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  2. Brian F. Shaw
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Additional information

This research was supported by grant number MA-6370 to Brian F. Shaw from the Medical Research Council of Canada and by grant number MH-35016-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors are indebted to W. E. Craighead, Bruce Leslie, and Deborah J. G. Dobson for their assistance with the project.

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Dobson, K.S., Shaw, B.F. The effects of self-correction on cognitive distortions in depression. Cogn Ther Res 5, 391–403 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173691

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