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Implicit and explicit self-esteem in currently depressed individuals with and without suicidal ideation.

Franck E, De Raedt R, Dereu M, Van den Abbeele D

Department of Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B 9000 Ghent, Belgium. erik.franck@ugent.be

In the present study, we have further explored implicit self-esteem in currently depressed individuals. Since suicidal ideation is associated with lower self-esteem in depressed individuals, we measured both implicit and explicit self-esteem in a population of currently depressed (CD) individuals, with and without suicidal ideation (SI), and in a group of non-depressed controls (ND). The results indicate that only CD individuals with SI show a discrepancy between their implicit and explicit self-esteem: that is, they exhibit high implicit and low explicit self-esteem. CD individuals without SI exhibit both low implicit and low explicit self-esteem; and ND controls exhibit both normal implicit and normal explicit self-esteem. These results provide new insights in the study of implicit self-esteem and the combination of implicit and explicit self-esteem in depression.

Published 6 December 2006 in J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry, 38(1): 75-85.
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