Major Depression Literature Review
Depression is one of the most debilitating and common mental illnesses. Those who experience major depression carry the largest burden of disability among mental and behavioral disorders. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, major depression has a 6.7% 12-month prevalence among adults in the U.S, an estimated 15.7 million adults 18 or older, which is exceptionally significant. In addition, major depression accounts for 3.7% of all U.S. disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and 8.3% of all U.S. years lived with disability (YLDs).[] The DSM-5 classifies major depression only when someone endorses five out of nine symptoms (depressed mood, anhedonia, changes in appetite: weight loss/gain, changes in sleep pattern: oversleeping
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Literature has supported that generally an individuals’ sense of self and relationships are intertwined due to their reciprocal, transactional nature. People’s interpersonal relationships become part of their self since they store mental representations of others alongside their self as memory (Swann…2010). Individuals come to know who they are within a social structure through interactions with others. They rely on feedback and information from others to form a basis of self-knowledge, as well as evaluate, maintain and regulate the self (self-comparison (Festinger, 1954), self-presentation (Tedeschi, 1981), self-verification (Swann, 1983)). The self is viewed as inseparable from its context and people view feedback that is consistent with existing self-views as more accurate and self-descriptive, regardless of whether this feedback is actually correct or whether it is positively or negatively charged (Swann et al., 1987). By nature, people have a need for independence and affiliation with others. One study proposed self-consistency as having internally stable and congruent self-views across relationships and social contexts. In the Western cultural model of self, the self is viewed as the center of awareness and as a distinct, coherent, and holistic entity separate and independent from other selves (Ho, 1995; Allen, 1997; Landrine, 1995). Consistency …show more content…
Episodes of major depression produce major changes in a person’s thought, behavior, emotions, and interpersonal behavior. We hypothesize that these major changes in interpersonal function, when occurring during adolescence and early adulthood, could interfere with forming a consistent view of self, or self-consistency. The goal of this study is to test history of major depressive episodes and self-consistency. We will characterize the onset and course of major depressive episodes, as the severity and constancy of major depression may influence the pernicious effects on forming a consistent sense of self. We also hypothesize that when a person has a clear and consistent sense of self during well periods, changes during the depressive episode may seem more alien, and so may be more likely to instill treatment seeking. As a secondary goal, we will examine how self-consistency is related to treatment-seeking. As this is a secondary goal, we will test it using a retrospective, cross-sectional design. Our hope is to demonstrate self-consistency with better measures, and with more attention to how fluctuations in the course of depression (versus chronic depression) influence
Literature has supported that generally an individuals’ sense of self and relationships are intertwined due to their reciprocal, transactional nature. People’s interpersonal relationships become part of their self since they store mental representations of others alongside their self as memory (Swann…2010). Individuals come to know who they are within a social structure through interactions with others. They rely on feedback and information from others to form a basis of self-knowledge, as well as evaluate, maintain and regulate the self (self-comparison (Festinger, 1954), self-presentation (Tedeschi, 1981), self-verification (Swann, 1983)). The self is viewed as inseparable from its context and people view feedback that is consistent with existing self-views as more accurate and self-descriptive, regardless of whether this feedback is actually correct or whether it is positively or negatively charged (Swann et al., 1987). By nature, people have a need for independence and affiliation with others. One study proposed self-consistency as having internally stable and congruent self-views across relationships and social contexts. In the Western cultural model of self, the self is viewed as the center of awareness and as a distinct, coherent, and holistic entity separate and independent from other selves (Ho, 1995; Allen, 1997; Landrine, 1995). Consistency …show more content…
Episodes of major depression produce major changes in a person’s thought, behavior, emotions, and interpersonal behavior. We hypothesize that these major changes in interpersonal function, when occurring during adolescence and early adulthood, could interfere with forming a consistent view of self, or self-consistency. The goal of this study is to test history of major depressive episodes and self-consistency. We will characterize the onset and course of major depressive episodes, as the severity and constancy of major depression may influence the pernicious effects on forming a consistent sense of self. We also hypothesize that when a person has a clear and consistent sense of self during well periods, changes during the depressive episode may seem more alien, and so may be more likely to instill treatment seeking. As a secondary goal, we will examine how self-consistency is related to treatment-seeking. As this is a secondary goal, we will test it using a retrospective, cross-sectional design. Our hope is to demonstrate self-consistency with better measures, and with more attention to how fluctuations in the course of depression (versus chronic depression) influence