Perceptions of the competent but depressed.

Abstract

Accurately recognizing and remembering the depressive symptoms of other people can be crucial in helping those suffering from depression. Yet, lay theories about depression might interfere with accurate perception or recollection of depression in others. The current study examined whether laypersons would misremember depressive symptoms in highly competent people as being less severe than they actually are. Participants first read a target vignette about a character displaying depressive symptoms, whereas the level of competency of the target character varied across different conditions. Then, participants read a foil vignette describing a character with similar depressive symptoms, which was intended to elicit memory errors for the target vignette. When the foil vignette described that the depressive symptoms were eventually overcome, participants were more likely to false-alarm the recovery as the competent character's than as the less competent character's (Experiment 1a). Conversely, when the foil vignette's depressive symptoms were described to be highly severe, participants were less likely to false-alarm them as the competent character's symptoms than as the less competent character's symptoms (Experiment 2a). This phenomenon appears to be unique to laypeople's perception of depression, as the same pattern of results was not obtained when the participants were mental health clinicians (Experiments 1b and 2b) or when laypeople participants read about symptoms of physical disorders or other mental disorders (Experiment 3). Taken together, the current study presents novel findings suggesting that competent people's depression is underdetected by laypeople. The implications and the limitations of the study are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).