Many studies have demonstrated that most people believe that their lives follow a continuously improving trajectory where people 's evaluation of their past self includes more self-criticism than their evaluation of their present self and that their future self is evaluated even more positively than the present self (Kanten and Teigen, 2008; Grysman, A., Prabhakar, J., Anglin, S. M., & Hudson, J. A. 2015). Individuals’ belief in self improvement from the past to the present has been explained using the temporal self appraisal theory (Wilson and Ross 2001; Ross and Wilson 2002) which posits that due to a self enhancement bias individuals evaluate their past selves in a manner leading to feeling good about their present self. Regarding a belief
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In addition, due to high levels of hopelessness about the future found among depressed individuals (Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L.,1974) it would also be reasonable to hypothesis that depressed individuals view themselves as continuing to decline from their present self to their future …show more content…
When considering the varied perceptions of self trajectory over time in individuals with depressed mood it is important to contrast the question of how depressed individuals perceive their trajectory of self worth/self development over time with the degree to which they see themselves as the same person over time. This issue of how individuals view themselves as changing over time is related to the construct of continuous identity (CI; Parfit, 1971) which has been defined as a sense of persistence of personal identity over time. This theory is based on a view of personal identity that consists of overlapping temporal selves with greater or lesser distances between the difference temporal selves. The theory posits that there is variance from individual to individual in the degree to which they feel that their past and future selves at differing times are the same individuals as their current self (Parfit, 1971; Bartels and Urminsky, 2011). Based on this theory, several depressed individuals may all think of themselves as likely to deteriorate over time but have varying views of how much that future self is actually the same self as the current self. Diachronic disunity is characterized by a sense of alienation from one’s future and/or past self (van Gelder et al,. 2013) and levels of diachronic
In addition, due to high levels of hopelessness about the future found among depressed individuals (Beck, A. T., Weissman, A., Lester, D., & Trexler, L.,1974) it would also be reasonable to hypothesis that depressed individuals view themselves as continuing to decline from their present self to their future …show more content…
When considering the varied perceptions of self trajectory over time in individuals with depressed mood it is important to contrast the question of how depressed individuals perceive their trajectory of self worth/self development over time with the degree to which they see themselves as the same person over time. This issue of how individuals view themselves as changing over time is related to the construct of continuous identity (CI; Parfit, 1971) which has been defined as a sense of persistence of personal identity over time. This theory is based on a view of personal identity that consists of overlapping temporal selves with greater or lesser distances between the difference temporal selves. The theory posits that there is variance from individual to individual in the degree to which they feel that their past and future selves at differing times are the same individuals as their current self (Parfit, 1971; Bartels and Urminsky, 2011). Based on this theory, several depressed individuals may all think of themselves as likely to deteriorate over time but have varying views of how much that future self is actually the same self as the current self. Diachronic disunity is characterized by a sense of alienation from one’s future and/or past self (van Gelder et al,. 2013) and levels of diachronic