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Cited by 105Mental Health Research TopicsAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesMental Health via Writing

The lay assessment of subclinical depression in daily life.

Mehl, Matthias R.·2006·Psychological Assessment
DOI 10.1037/1040-3590.18.3.340
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Abstract

This study examined how laypersons assess subclinical depression in others on the basis of information about their daily lives. For 2 days, 96 participants were tracked with the Electronically Activated Recorder, a naturalistic observation method that samples ambient sounds from participants' momentary environments. Judges rated participants' levels of depression after listening to the sampled ambient sounds. Participants' depressive symptoms were assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory. Overall, judges showed little accuracy at determining participants' levels of depressive symptoms from the ambient sounds. Exploratory analyses, however, revealed that judges were more accurate among moderately and severely depressed participants, presumably because the cues judges used to assess depression (e.g., spending time alone, not socializing, not laughing) discriminated successfully only at high levels of subclinical depression.

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Crossref · 10.1037/1040-3590.18.3.340

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  • More first-person singular pronoun use in trauma narratives may indicate unmitigated self-immersion, which may hamper emotion regulation and has been associated with greater impairment of mental and social functioning.

    “Finally, more first-person singular pronoun use in trauma narratives predicted later PTSD and may indicate unmitigated self-immersion which may hamper emotion regulation and has been associated with greater impairment of mental and social functioning (9, 26).”

    From Early Linguistic Markers of Trauma-Specific Processing Predict Post-trauma Adjustment (2018) · cites this paper as [26]

  • First-person singular pronoun use has emerged as a predictor of depression in prior research.

    “Finally, the use of first-person singular pronouns (“I,” “me.” “my”), a proposed measure of self-immersed processing (24, 25) has emerged as a predictor of depression (9, 26, 27) and general psychopathology (28) in prior research.”

    From Early Linguistic Markers of Trauma-Specific Processing Predict Post-trauma Adjustment (2018) · cites this paper as [26]

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Authors
Mehl, M. R.
Affiliations
University of Arizona (US)
Corresponding author
Mehl, Matthias R.
ORCID
Mehl, Matthias R.
Venue
Psychological Assessment
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2006
Volume
18
Issue
3
Pages
340-345
ISSN
  • 1040-3590 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-134X
DOI
10.1037/1040-3590.18.3.340
OpenAlex
W2119084793
Cited by
105
References
34
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 9
FWCI
7.57
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Assessment (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH64527-01A1; MH 52391)
  • National Science Foundation (0422924)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Mental Health Research Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health via Writing
Keywords
subthreshold depression, social judgment, environmental sounds, naturalistic observation, observer accuracy, depressive symptoms, social cues, everyday life
MeSH terms
Acoustics, Activities of Daily Living, Adolescent, Cues, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Judgment, Male, Peer Group, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychometrics, Severity of Illness Index, Social Behavior, Social Environment, Students, Reproducibility of Results

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