Assessing personality: effects of the depressive state on trait measurement

Abstract

The influence of the clinically depressed state on personality assessment was evaluated by comparing self-report personality inventories of patients while clinically depressed and at follow-up 1 yr later. Two groups from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-Clinical Research Branch Collaborative Program on the Psychobiology of Depression: Clinical Studies, patients whose symptoms had completely remitted and those who had not recovered. The clinically depressed state strongly influenced assessment of emotional strength, interpersonal dependency and extroversion. Assessment of rigidity, level of activity and dominance did not change after symptomatic recovery.