Thoughts about depressive realism

I haven't seen much theoretical discussion following Beck and Haaga's 1995 article. However, I do have a few thoughts.

First, there is room for some significant methodological criticism of the "depressive realism" literature. Most of the research which supports the hypothesis that non-depressed individuals have an unrealistic positive bias and that depressed individuals have more realistic perceptions is based on the performance of non-clinical samples on a few specific tasks. I haven't followed this literature for the last few years but the last time I looked, the research actually showed that both non-depressed and mildly depressed college students have fairly accurate perceptions in most situations that were studied but that there are a few specific tasks on which non-depressed subjects show a positive bias. This is a long way from showing that clinically depressed individuals perceeive reality more realistically that non-depressed individuals do.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if non-depressed individuals manifested a mild positive bias in their thinking but it is clear that clinically depressed show a strong negative bias in their perception of self, day-to-day experience, and their future. Some Cognitive theorists, including myself, have talked as though a completely realistic, objective perception of reality is healthiest. There is some evidence that a mild positive bias, i.e. a hopeful and optimistic outlook, may actually have substantial benefits (see the volume on Optimism recommended a few posts earlier in this forum).

At the moment, I'd be inclined to argue that only this minor adjustment in Cognitive theory is needed and I'd be inclined to point to my chapter in the Optimism book as a way of addressing this issue in both theory and practice.

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