Symptoms of depression and the discrepancy between implicit and explicit self-esteem

Abstract

Background and objectives: 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.

Methods: 87 university students from the northeastern U.S. were recruited for the present study. The Beck Depression Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and Implicit Association Test were used to assess participants' severity of depressive symptoms, explicit self-esteem, and implicit self-esteem, respectively.

Results: Results revealed a negative association between ESE and symptoms of depression. In addition, a positive relationship was found between the degree of discrepancy between ISE and ESE and depression. However, this relationship was only found among participants with higher ISE than ESE (i.e., damaged self-esteem), but not among participants with higher ESE than ISE (i.e., defensive or fragile self-esteem).

Conclusions: While damaged self-esteem may be a meaningful marker of depressive symptoms, it should be noted that the association between symptoms of depression and the interaction of ISE and ESE may be driven primarily by the strong link between ESE and depression. As prior studies of ESE and ISE have not looked, specifically, at the relative contributions of both constructs, this issue needs further investigation in future research.

Keywords: Damaged self-esteem; Defensive self-esteem; Depression; Explicit self-esteem; Implicit self-esteem; Self-esteem discrepancy.