L8 Depressive Realism Flashcards
Describe Seligmann and Maiers (1967) learned helplessness experiment, and what were the findings?
Essentially 3 main groups - group who experienced no shock, group who learned they could escape shock, and group who learned shock was inescapable - this was first phase.
Second phase was test - presented with shock and measure escape rate of all 3 groups, wehre escape was possible. The learnt escape group has highest escape rate, followed by no shock group who learnt fairly quickly. However inescapable group had very low escape rate, and often did not try. This is an example of learned helplessness
What disorder do animals with learned helplessness exhibit similar symptoms to?
A Anxiety
B OCD
C Depression
D Addiction
C Depression
Seligman argued that ______________ __________________ could be used as a model for depression, where depressed people believe they have no power over ___________ in the world, and there is an independence between their __________ and world _____________.
Learned helplessness as a model for depression - depressed people believe they have little control over outcomes in the world.
An expectancy of independence between their actions and world outcomes
High contingency in fear conditioning is when ______________________________.
Low contingency in fear conditioning is when __________________________________.
High contingency - shock never delivered in absence of tone. Therefore tone is a good predictor of shock.
Low contingency = shock delivered with tone and without tone, therefore tone is not a very good signal predictor of shock.
Suppression ratio= _______________/____________________
What suppression ratio responses indicate low/high fear.
No of responses when US signal presented (tone CS)/ no of responses when US signal presented + no of responses prior to US signal (tone CS)
0.5 = low fear 0.0 = complete fear
Allan defined contingency as the ___________________________________________ minus the ________________________.
probability of outcome given response minus probability of outcome given no response.
What is the equation for contingency, defined by Allan?
a/a+b - c/c+d
What do contingencies (Delta P) of 1, 0, and -1 indicate?
1 = highest contingency, and CS is good predictor
0 = zero contingency, CS does not predict Us at all
-1 = Negative contingency, CS predicts absence of US
How did Alloy and Abramson define depressive realism (vs non depressive delusion)?
Non depressive people have a generalized expectation about control, which may interfere with their judgements of non-contingencies
Depressive people do not have this expectation of control, so their judgements of non contingencies meet reality
What was the design of the experiment by Alloy and Abramson, showing depressive realism?
Had 64 participants divided into 2 groups using BDI - depressed and non depressed group.
Participants had to observe a box with a light bulb, and they could press a button. the button had zero contingency with light bulb, and did not turn it on, light bulb would turn on by experimenters. Therefore delta p always 0.
However experimenters manipulated outcome density, so further divided into 2 groups - one had high outcome density, so more lightbulb presentations, and one group had low outcome density.
Participants asked to rate how much control they had over the light, from 0-100.
In the depressive realism experiment by Alloy and Abramson, what were the findings on high vs low outcome density in depressed vs non depressed group?
Non depressive group - when outcome desnity was low, had low ratings of control, however increasing outcome density lead to higher ratings of control over light , despite no changes in contingency.
Depressive group - no difference in control ratings when manipulating outcome density, believed no control regardless of how much light appeared. This indicated Depressive realism.
Alloy and Abramson argued a theory for their findings in the depressive realism experiment, based on ____________. They argued that depressed people have ____ self esteem, which they may desire to __________, whereas non depressed people have a _________ self esteem. Non depressed people may engage in self esteem _________ behaviours, such as distorting ___________ in an optimistic way.
A theory of motivation behind Depressive realism.
Depressed people - low self esteem, and look to preserve it, not enhance, due to lack of motivation.
Non depressed people have higher self esteem, and look to boost it, therefore engage in motivating self esteem enhancement behaviours, such as distorting reality in an optimistic way.
There were to main replications of the Alloy and Abramson depressive realism experiment, one which replicated findings by Vazquez et al, and one which failed to by Bryson et al, describe both experiments and what did they find?
Vazquez et al - used a smaller simple of only 16, and only women - gender differences? Found depressed group had no differences in belief about outcome control when outcome density differed, whereas non depressed group did.
Bryson et al - used same size sample. Found neither depressed nor non depressed group showed illusion of control belief, when outcome density increased. However slightly larger change for women in non depressed group. Perhaps suggests women more susceptible to illusions of control?
In a meta analysis into Depressive realism studies, what were the main 3 problems with studies that were found by Moore and Fresco?
1 Lack of a gold standard of an objective reality to compare against i.e - what is a real/proper belief, one that depressed or non depressed people have
2 Inadequate measure/assessment of depression - self report measure, not clinical interview - how do we know if depressed group is actually depressed
3 Lack of external validity - studies involved lights/button pressing, not reflective of irl task
In their meta analysis into depressive realism, Moore and Fresco found only ___ studies used treatment seeking samples. Depressive realism effects were found in groups regardless of an __________ _________ comparison. Studies which used self report were ________ likely to find depressive realism effect compared to _________ assessments. Finally, ___________ sizes did not differ for studies which had high or low ____________ validity.
Only 11 studies used depressive groups seeking treatment
Depressive realism found regardless of objective reality comparison
Studies which used self report more likely to find DR effect vs clinical assessments
Effect sizes did not differ for high vs low external validity groups.
What can be concluded from Moore and Fresco’s meta anlysis of Depressive Realism studies?
A Depressed people always show depressive Realism effects, which need to be studied further.
B Depressive realism effects were only found in samples with high external validity, proper clinical assessments of depression, and studies which used a standard objective reality
C Depressive realism effects were found in some samples, and not in others, so it is better to look at what mediates judgements of control in 0 contingency conditions, and how this relates to depression.
D Once studies had been reviewed at properly, it was concluded that it is likely that depressive realism does not exist at all.
C
What are the main 2 mediators of depressive realism effect, which may be the cause of the difference in depressed vs non depressed participants?
Responding
Inter-trial-interval
What is one major criticism of depressive realism tasks which a participant must assess their control over the outcome of a light turning on?
Lacks statistical validity, as in real life people may be tasked with responding to maximise a reward and not examine statistical relationships.
Perhaps a reason for depressive realism findings is that depressed people are generally less _____________. This may mediate findings rather than _________ of ____________.
depressive people generally less responsive - this may mediate findings rather than judgements of control
How did Matute show differences in responding may mediate depressive realism findings, in her experimental design, and what was found?
Had 2 different tasks - one group avoided a uncomfortable noise and had to escape it, another group had to press a space bear to make a beep.
Within each group, one group were tasked to respond only on 50% of trials (analytic) and one group could respond freely (naturalistic, with the goal of obtaining the outcome (escape or noise).
Found analytic group had much less ratings of control compared to naturalistic group. Therefore judgements of control may be mediated by amount of responding, where depressed people responded less.
It was found that in depressive realism study set up, there was a negative correlation between ________ and ____________________ of responding. However it was also found that there was a positive correlation between _____________ of ____________- and _______________ of responding.
Negative correlation between BDI scores and probability of responding, showing more depressed people respond less
Positive correlation between probability of responding and judgement of control
Upon carrying out a __________ analysis, it was found that correlations between _____ scores and ___________ of control vanished, when ____________ of responding was manipulated. This got rid of the ___________ ___________ effect showing that _____________ of responding is the likely cause of ____________ of control, and depressed people on average respond _________
Mediation analysis showed that manipualting rpobability of responding, regardless of depressive symptoms and BDI scores, lead to differences in judgements of control. This got rid of depressive realism effect, and responding is the key variable, where depressed people less repsonsive.
Blanco et al’s findings may have clinical implications, where boosting ________________ in depressed people may induce ___________ yet ___________ optimistic beliefs.
Boosting responding may induce illusory optimistic, yet healthy beliefs
In older depressive realism studies, what length of inter-trial-interval was used ?
A 3s
B 5s
C 14s
D 1 minute
C 14s
Allan and Jenkins found that reducing the ______ lead to a reduced effect of ___________ ________ bias.
Reducing ITI to 3s lead to reduced outcome density bias (reduced depressive realism effect)
How did Msetfi et al study the effect of altering ISI on outcome density bias (judgement of control belief) in depressed vs non depressed participants, and what was found?
Had 8 different groups (2x2x2).
Half of partricipants were depressed vs non depressed, half had low outcome density, half had high, and half had small ITI of 3s, half had large ITI of 15s.
Tested how these manipulations would effect judgements of control, and found that only in nondepressed sample, high outcome densities caused illusion of control belief, when ITI were longer. No effect of illusory belief due to altering outcome densities, when ITI were small
What is a likely explanation for differences in ITI affecting beliefs about judgements of control in outcome of density alterations, in depressed vs non depressed participants?
In non depressed group, they take into account ITI factors, therefore when outcome density is high, they notice large ITI, and conclude that they are in control over outcome, and contingency value calculations increase. However reduce ITI to 3s, the effect disappears.
Depressed people ignore/dont take into account ITI, therefore no effect of outcome density increase, when ITI are high. Perhaps depressed people do not used potential information given in high ITIs, such as context and background, and are more distracted. Therefore less likely to influence beliefs of control
Which aspect (sqaure) of the contingency calculation, does altering inter trial intervals effect?
A Probability of response and outcome
B Probability of no response and outcome
C Proabability of response and no outcome
D Probability of no response and no outcome
D Large ITIs means more time where there is no response and no outcome, increasing this value. This may effect contingency calculations, with a large increase in high outcome density conditions, at least in non depressed people who take ITI into account.
Depressive realism effects and other findings, may show that depressed people are worse at taking into account
A Context
B Inter trial interval time
C Counter information
D Both A and B
D both A and B
Our mood may be related to how we judge the relationships between our actions and their outcomes
In low moods, zero contingencies may be judged____________________________.
And in high moods, zero contingencies may be judged _____________________.
Low moods - accurate judging of zero contingencies
High moods - optimistic judging of zero contingencies
