The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf]

Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by whatshisface on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @01:42PM (#13117127)

Curiously, overestimating leads to the correct behavior here: since attempting to control the ball has no cost, the only bad outcome would be deciding to not control it when you could have done so. This can be avoided by always attempting to control it. I wonder if the result of the study would persist if inaction was sometimes the right choice?

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by samirillian on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @01:50PM (#13117182)

Gets back to the distinction between life as puzzle and life as game. Depressives may be better puzzle solvers, but optimists play the game better.

Edit - or the distinction between the picture-theory of language and the tool-theory. Depressives draw a more accurate picture but optimists make better use of the "tools"

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by mamon on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:22PM (#13117469)

Which is why the optimal strategy is to be optimist most of the time, but fall into depressive mood when we encounter a lot of obstacles. Use that depressive time to assess your situation and then start changing it, fueled by your normal optimism.

The issue is, if the obstacles we encounter are too many then we remain in low mood for too long, and that state becomes permament. Early in human evolution, when we were all living at savanah all the dangers and obstacles were short-term. This is entirely different in civilized society.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by dfischer on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:28PM (#13117516)

Wow I really enjoyed reading your first paragraph. Thanks.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by thesimpsons1022 on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:47PM (#13117674)

do you know that depression is a real disease and not some frame of mind you can choose to be in or excuse at will? i get the point of your post but the terminology is really wrong.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by striking on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:57PM (#13117754)

From Wikipedia:

> A DSM diagnosis distinguishes an episode (or 'state') of depression from the habitual (or 'trait') depressive symptoms someone can experience as part of their personality.

Depressive mood != depressive disorder. The terminology isn't wrong.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by thesimpsons1022 on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @06:27PM (#13119183)

perhaps. but the original article was talking about actual depressed people.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by samirillian on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @03:11PM (#13117859)

Fair point. The research was already mixing philosophy with psychology, so I just ran with it.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by dgreensp on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @11:40PM (#13120517)

I read "optimal strategy" as slightly tongue-in-cheek, considering we don't have direct control over our moods.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by samstave on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:43PM (#13117642)

I don't mean this as a joke, I believe myself to be a deeply depressed optimist.

I have really bad depression, but I look forward to being able to make it ok. My kids keep me going

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by netten on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @11:18PM (#13120426)

its an everyday struggle, but noting down the things which i am thankful for, such as wife, kid, some particular incident which could have been much worse but ended being manageable etc. has helped me a lot. It's a slow process though.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by zznneezznnee on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @05:00PM (#13118701)

This dichotomy of depressives vs. optimists seems flawed to me. My optimism is often what creates the unmet expectations which lead to depression.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by razakel on Wednesday December 07, 2016 @05:07AM (#13121560)

>This dichotomy of depressives vs. optimists seems flawed to me. My optimism is often what creates the unmet expectations which lead to depression.

An optimist will be continually disappointed.

A pessimist either has the satisfaction of being right, or will be pleasantly surprised.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by istorical on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:36PM (#13117585)

What can I search to read more about picture theory of language vs tool theory? It sounds really interesting but when I google I only get results about picture theory of lang.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by lagrange123 on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @02:40PM (#13117616)

Read Wittgenstein. Or, don't read Wittgenstein, but read about Wittgenstein. Wittgenstein pioneered the picture theory of language--i.e. the idea that language represents the world. He later gave up on this idea and began to think about language as a tool. He coined the term "language-game". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language-game_(philosophy)

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by Florin_Andrei on Tuesday December 06, 2016 @03:00PM (#13117780)

> Or, don't read Wittgenstein, but read about Wittgenstein.

I laughed, but there's some truth in that.

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by gragas on Wednesday December 07, 2016 @01:37AM (#13120889)

Yeah, [citation definitely needed]

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Re:The sad truth about depressive realism (2006) [pdf] by nandemo on Wednesday December 07, 2016 @05:44AM (#13121680)

There isn't a single "correct" behaviour here.

The only thing that can be said to be correct/incorrect is the answer to the question: "was your control actually affecting the outcome?".

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