Temporal self appraisal and continuous identity: Associations with depression and hopelessness

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• 作者：Yosef Sokol^a ; Mark Serper^a ; ^b ; ^{Mark.Serper@Hofstra.edu}
• 关键词：Major depression ; Hopelessness ; Continuous identity ; Self-appraisal ; Concepts of self ; Cognitive therapy
• 刊名：Journal of Affective Disorders
• 出版年：2017
• 出版时间：15 January 2017
• 年：2017
• 卷：208
• 期：Complete
• 页码：503-511
• 全文大小：451 K
• 卷排序：208

文摘

While depressed individuals suffer from low self-esteem and self-worth, less is known about how they view their past and future selves (temporal self-appraisal) and the degree of perceived unity of the self over time (continuous identity). Euthymic individuals typically report an improved self from the past to the present and from the present to the future and have high levels of continuous identity (CI). In Study 1, we found that, unlike euthymic individuals, subjects with depressed mood, not only see their past-selves as elevated compared to their present-selves but also perceived their future- selves to be significantly elevated relative to their current selves. In Study 2, we replicate these findings and also included a measure of CI and severity of hopelessness to determine the relationship between pessimism about the future to temporal self-appraisal and continuous identity. We found both CI and temporal self-appraisal are strongly related to depressed mood. Lack of continuous identity from present self to future self was a strong predictor of depressed mood, indicating that depressed people feel dissociated or alienated from their future self. These results suggest that depressed people, even when feeling hopeless about future external events, intuitively sense that there is some room for personal growth despite their negative views of the self, the world, and future.