Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure and compare the response style on problem-solving task and subjective self-evaluation after the task performance in the depressive-obsessive group, nondepressive-obsessive group, depressive-nonobsessive group, and nondepressive-nonobsessive group. These groups were classified according to the prior studies about the relationship between depression and obsession. It was hypothesized that subjects in the nondepressive-obsessive group would regard their symptoms as ego-syntonic and have a relative confidence. On the contrary, subjects in the depressive-obsessive group would regard their symptoms as ego-dystonic, resist their symptoms, and have more disturbances in daily life. So they would have a negative self-concept and lack of confidence. Thus it was predicted that in the evaluator presence condition in which self-directed attention was induced, the depressive-obsessive group would show more lack of confidence and indecisiveness in task performance and subjective evaluation. In the nondepressive-obsessive group, it would show more confidence, less indecisveness, and overestimate their performance. The results were as follows. Subjects in the nondepressive-obsessive group showed more confidence and less indecisiveness in the evaluator presence condition than in the private task performance condition. And they overestimated their performance after they carried out their task in the evaluator presence condition. Subjects in the depressive-obsessive group showed the trend that indecisive task performance style appeared in the evaltuator presence condition more than in the private task performance condition. They overestimated their performance after carrying out their task in the private task performance condition. These results were discussed in terms of self-evaluation maintenance model, control theory, and motivation theory. In addition, the implications, therapeutic suggestions, the limitations of this study, and the directions of further research were discussed.