On Seeing Clearly and Thriving: Interpersonal Perspicacity as Adaptive (Not Depressive) Realism (Or Where Three Theories Meet)

2006/05/01 by Thomas E. Joiner, Janet A. Kistner, Nadia E. Stellrecht +1 · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Optimism, Hope, and Well-being #Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction #Psychology #Thriving #Distress #Mental health #Depressive symptoms #Interpersonal communication #Interpersonal relationship #Social psychology #Self #Realism #Developmental psychology #Clinical psychology #Cognition #Psychotherapist #Psychiatry

paper · doi:10.1521/jscp.2006.25.5.542

openalex publication_date 2006/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/26

Abstract

Does realism characterize good mental health or maladjustment? In this paper, it is argued that illusory views of social reality, even if self–enhancing, represent a feature of mental distress (not health). Two studies of unselected undergraduates and their same–sex roommates were reported. In Study 1, 466 undergraduates completed a measure of depressive symptoms, and provided global self–ratings; their roommates provided ratings of them. A curvilinear relation between self–other discrepancies and depressive symptoms was detected, in which discrepancies of any kind (even if self–enhancing) were associated with higher depressive symptoms. Using a similar design, Study 2 (N = 143) replicated this finding and extended it to other symptoms and to longitudinal analyses. It is concluded that illusory views of interpersonal reality (even if self–enhancing), far from bolstering adjustment, represent a pattern of attitudes that typifies maladjustment.

Citations

• Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression.
• Accuracy and bias in self-perception: Individual differences in self-enhancement and the role of narcissism.
• Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: Twenty-five years of evaluation
• Do positive illusions foster mental health? An examination of the Taylor and Brown formulation.
• Evaluations of Self and Others: Self-Enhancement Biases in Social Judgments
• Illusion and well-being: A social psychological perspective on mental health.
• An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: Psychometric properties.
• Self-esteem and perceptions of conveyed impressions: Is negative affectivity associated with greater realism?

Cited by

• Positive illusions [wikipedia]