Emotion recognition in depression: An investigation of performance and response confidence in adult female patients with depression

TY - JOUR

T1 - Emotion recognition in depression: An investigation of performance and response confidence in adult female patients with depression

AU - Fieker, Martina

AU - Moritz, Steffen

AU - Köther, Ulf

AU - Jelinek, Lena

N1 - Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

PY - 2016/8/30

Y1 - 2016/8/30

N2 - Abnormalities in emotion recognition are frequently reported in depression. However, emotion recognition is not compromised in some studies, and confidence judgments, which are essential for social interaction, have not been considered to date. Due to the high prevalence rate of depression in women, and sex differences in emotion recognition, the aim of the present study was to investigate emotion recognition and confidence judgments in women with depression. A sample of female patients with depressive disorders (n=45) was compared with female healthy controls (n=30) in their ability to correctly identify facial emotion expressions along with confidence judgments. Groups performed similarly on emotional face recognition and showed no difference regarding confidence ratings. A negative correlation between self-assessed depression and response confidence was found. While some limitations of the study must be taken in consideration (e.g., small number of items per emotion category, low severity of depression), abnormalities in emotion recognition do not seem to be a major feature of depression. As self-assessed depression is accompanied by low response confidence for emotional faces, it is crucial to further examine the role of confidence judgments in emotion recognition, as underconfidence may foster interpersonal insecurity in depression.

AB - Abnormalities in emotion recognition are frequently reported in depression. However, emotion recognition is not compromised in some studies, and confidence judgments, which are essential for social interaction, have not been considered to date. Due to the high prevalence rate of depression in women, and sex differences in emotion recognition, the aim of the present study was to investigate emotion recognition and confidence judgments in women with depression. A sample of female patients with depressive disorders (n=45) was compared with female healthy controls (n=30) in their ability to correctly identify facial emotion expressions along with confidence judgments. Groups performed similarly on emotional face recognition and showed no difference regarding confidence ratings. A negative correlation between self-assessed depression and response confidence was found. While some limitations of the study must be taken in consideration (e.g., small number of items per emotion category, low severity of depression), abnormalities in emotion recognition do not seem to be a major feature of depression. As self-assessed depression is accompanied by low response confidence for emotional faces, it is crucial to further examine the role of confidence judgments in emotion recognition, as underconfidence may foster interpersonal insecurity in depression.

U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2016.05.037

DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2016.05.037

M3 - SCORING: Journal article

C2 - 27294796

VL - 242

SP - 226

EP - 232

JO - PSYCHIAT RES

JF - PSYCHIAT RES

SN - 0165-1781

ER -