I studied psych in college a few years back and read about a variety of studies on how individuals with slight-moderate depression respond to certain stimuli. One of the most interesting studies (unrelated to the topic) had to deal with individuals looking into a mirror after failing a task. Individuals with >= slight depression would look themselves in the eyes, while happily ignorant individuals would avoid eye contact with themselves. They attributed this with a depressed person's desire to figure out what is wrong with themselves and internalize the failure, where as the happy people would avoid internalizing the failure.
> They attributed this with a depressed person's desire to figure out what is wrong with themselves and internalize the failure, where as the happy people would avoid internalizing the failure.
I've also read that depressed people tend to have a more accurate picture of reality. Basically, happy people are walking Dunning-Kruger cases waiting to happen?
I believe I know the study you are referring to and you are sort of right. on a scale of accuracy, slightly depressed people are pretty accurate in self assessments, happy people tend to over exaggerate their abilities, and moderately-severely depressed individuals rate their abilities lower than their actual level. So if the person's average ability was a 5/10, happy people tended to rate themselves a 6/10 and moderately depressed people a 4/10 on average iirc.
Edit: My favorite example of Dunning-Kruger happens to be found in religion. The people that know God the most tend to talk about how little they know God, where as the proselytizers that claim the most to know God, really have no clue about the teachings of christ, mohammed, etc.
