CentralNotice Depressive realism From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation , search Depressive realism is the hypothesis developed by Alloy and Abramson [ 1 ] that depressed individuals make more realistic inferences than non-depressed individuals. Although depressed individuals are thought to have a negative cognitive bias that results in recurrent, negative automatic thoughts, maladaptive behaviors, and dysfunctional world beliefs, [ 2 ] [ 3 ] [ 4 ] depressive realism argues not only that this negativity may reflect a more accurate appraisal of the world but also that non-depressed individuals’ appraisals are positively biased. [ 5 ] This theory remains very controversial as it brings into question the mechanism of change that cognitive behavioral therapy for depression purports to target. [ 6 ] While the evidence currently supports the validity of depre...