Egocentrism in sub-clinical depression |
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Authors: | Thorsten M. Erle Niklas Barth Sascha Topolinski |
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Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, University of Cologne, Richard-Strauss-Stra?e 2, 50931 K?ln, Germany;2. Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany |
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Abstract: | Depression is marked by rigid thinking and the inability to generate different and more positive views on the self. The current study conceptualises this a perspective-taking deficit, which is defined as a deficit in the ability to overcome one’s egocentrism. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals with depression are impaired in Theory of Mind reasoning and empathy – two social cognitions that involve cognitive and affective perspective-taking. Here, it was investigated whether these deficits generalise to visuo-spatial perspective-taking. To test this, a convenience sample (N?=?268; n?=?62 high depressive symptoms; n?=?206 healthy control participants) completed a test-battery including measures of cognitive and visuo-spatial perspective-taking and closely matched cognitive and visuo-spatial control tasks. The results showed that individuals exhibiting high levels of depressive symptoms were specifically impaired on both perspective-taking tasks but performed equally well on the control tasks. Interventions to combat rigid thinking in depression are discussed. |
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Keywords: | Depression perspective-taking empathy theory of mind grounded cognition |
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