Implicit but not explicit self-esteem predicts future depressive symptomatology

doi:10.1016/j.brat.2007.01.008

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Volume 45, Issue 10, October 2007, Pages 2448-2455

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2007.01.008 Get rights and content

Abstract

To date, research on the predictive validity of implicit self-esteem for depressive relapse is very sparse. In the present study, we assessed implicit self-esteem using the Name Letter Preference Task and explicit self-esteem using the Rosenberg self-esteem scale in a group of currently depressed patients, formerly depressed individuals, and never depressed controls. In addition, we examined the predictive validity of explicit, implicit, and the interaction of explicit and implicit self-esteem in predicting future symptoms of depression in formerly depressed individuals and never depressed controls. The results showed that currently depressed individuals reported a lower explicit self-esteem as compared to formerly depressed individuals and never depressed controls. In line with previous research, all groups showed a positive implicit self-esteem not different from each other. Furthermore, after controlling for initial depressive symptomatology, implicit but not explicit self-esteem significantly predicted depressive symptoms at six months follow-up. Although implicit self-esteem assessed with the Name Letter Preference Test was not different between formerly depressed individuals and never depressed controls, the findings suggest it is an interesting variable in the study of vulnerability for depression relapse.

Section snippets

Participants

One hundred and twelve participants were initially tested. Of these, 17 participants were excluded because they either did not meet the inclusion criteria or because of missing data. The currently depressed individuals (N=28, CD) were recruited from different psychiatric hospitals in Belgium. All patients were assessed with the MINI international neuropsychiatric interview and were diagnosed as meeting diagnostic DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder (M.I.N.I.; Sheehan et al., 1998).

Descriptives

Means and standard deviations for each demographic variable are presented in Table 1. A oneway ANOVA revealed marginal significant age differences between the three groups, F(2, 94)=2.8, p=.07. Furthermore, we also observed significant differences in the ratio of men and women in each group, χ² (2, N=95)=6.6, p=.04. Consequently, in all analyses, we first controlled for age and sex. Because we found no main or interaction effects with sex or age (F<1), all reported analyses were subsequently

Discussion

In the present study, we measured implicit self-esteem using the NLPT in currently depressed individuals, formerly depressed individuals, and never depressed controls. The results demonstrated that after controlling for initial depressive symptoms, implicit self-esteem outperformed explicit self-esteem in predicting depressive symptomatology at 6 months follow-up. Furthermore, the results indicated that higher levels of implicit self-esteem were associated with higher levels of depressive

Acknowledgements

The authors express their thanks to Dr. Marie-Jeanne Van Biesen of the Psychiatric Hospital Sint-Hieronymus at Sint-Niklaas and Kris van den Broeck of the general hospital KLINA at Brasschaat. The research in this paper was made possible by Grant (G.0188.03) of the Fund for Scientific Research (Flanders, Belgium).

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Self-esteem is an important psychological concept that can be measured explicitly (reflective processing) and implicitly (associative processing). The current study examined 1) the association between childhood trauma (CT) and both explicit and implicit self-esteem, and 2) whether self-esteem mediated the association between CT and depression/anxiety.
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Participants with CT reported lower explicit (but not lower implicit) self-esteem compared to those without CT (p < .001, partial η² = 0.06). All CT types were associated with lower explicit self-esteem (p = .05 for sexual abuse, p < .001 for other CT types), while only emotional neglect significantly associated with lower implicit self-esteem after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics (p = .03). Explicit self-esteem mediated the relationship between CT and depression/anxiety symptoms (proportion mediated = 48–77 %).
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An important aspect of implicit self-esteem is the positivity of peoples spontaneous affective reactions to the self. In this study, we developed and validated a physiology-based measure that captures such positive reactions. We presented participants (N = 256) self-related stimuli (i.e., pictures of themselves) and used electromyography (EMG) to record changes in facial muscular activity that are indicative of subtle smiling. EMG responses were on average positive, which matches with previous research findings on positively biased self-evaluations. Individual differences in EMG responses were moderately reliable and positively associated with explicit self-esteem and self- and peer-rated likability (but not consistently with measures of well-being and agentic behavior). The relations between the EMG responses and likability indicators largely held when we controlled for explicit self-esteem, indicating that the novel measure possessed incremental validity over self-reports. The results thus indicated that the EMG approach might be fruitful for the assessment of implicit self-esteem.
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Explicit self-esteem is thought to arise through deliberate conscious processing of self-relevant information and is theorized to emerge from a system that is controlled, effortful, and directed by rule-based learning (Haeffel et al., 2007). Implicit self-esteem is considered “the introspectively unidentified … effect of the self-attitude on evaluation of self-associated and self-dissociated objects” (Greenwald & Banaji, 1995, p. 11) that arises from intuitive processing affective experiences (for alternative theoretical conceptions and measurement approaches regarding implicit self-esteem, such as using the name letter effect, see Franck, De Raedt, & De Houwer, 2007, and Krizan, 2008). Because implicit and explicit self-esteem are posited to reflect different underlying processes, discrepancies between the two can develop.
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Although research has shown that depressed people have lower explicit self-associations than healthy controls, results regarding implicit self-associations have yielded controversial results. Some studies found that healthy controls have higher levels of implicit self-associations than people with a current depression (Risch et al., 2010) or remitted depressed people (Meites, Deveney, Steele, Holmes, & Pizzagalli, 2008), while others failed to replicate these findings (Franck, De Raedt, & De Houwer, 2007; Lemmens et al., 2014; Smeijers et al., 2017). When analyzing the effects of implicit negative self-views, controlling for explicit self-views, some studies found significant relationships with depressives symptoms (Franck et al., 2007), while others failed to do so (Haeffel, Voelz, & Joiner, 2007; Lemmens et al., 2014).
This paper examines the discrepancy between implicit and explicit negative self-associations (NSA) after cognitive psychotherapy for depression as a predictor of long-term outcome.
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While the role of explicit self-esteem (ESE) in depression has been well established, the relationship between implicit self-esteem (ISE) and depression is more uncertain. Recently, it has been suggested that a simultaneous consideration of both ESE and ISE may provide a more comprehensive understanding of the development and maintenance of depression than considering either ESE or ISE in isolation. The present paper tested whether the absolute discrepancy between ESE and ISE and the direction of the discrepancy are important factors to consider in relation to depressive symptoms.
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Shorter communicationImplicit but not explicit self-esteem predicts future depressive symptomatology

Abstract

Section snippets

Participants

Descriptives

Discussion

Acknowledgements

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

Behaviour Research and Therapy

European Psychiatry

Advances in Behavior Research and Therapy

Prevalence of mental disorders in Europe: Results from the European Study of the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD) project

Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia

Double dissociation between implicit and explicit personality self-concept: The case of shy behaviour

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Cognitive therapy of depression

Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory

Stalking the perfect measure of implicit self-esteem: The blind men and the elephant revisited?

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Scientific foundations of cognitive theory and therapy for depression

Implicit self-attitudes predict spontaneous affect in daily life

Emotion

Mini-compendium van beoordelingsschalen in de psychiatrie

The extrinsic affective Simon task

Experimental Psychology

Variability in automatic activation as an unobtrusive measure of racial attitudes: A bona fide pipeline?

Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

Associative and propositional processes in evaluation: An integrative review of implicit and explicit attitude change

Psychological Bulletin

Mood-induced changes on the implicit association test in recovered depressed patients

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Self-verification in clinical depression: The desire for negative evaluation

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Shorter communication
Implicit but not explicit self-esteem predicts future depressive symptomatology