how do adolescents define depression? - cIRcle - University of ...

Chapter II: Literature Review
subthreshold or clinical criteria of depression. How adolescents define depression may
interconnect with their understanding and assessment of having the condition themselves. Self-
recognized depression may help construct conceptions of depression that feed upon and may
propagate depressive thinking. This thinking may be prompted by the adolescents' experiences
and relationships with others and influence their coping strategies and access to support. Self-
recognition can be a reality check, as the individual asks "What does this mean to me?" in
relation to the concept of "what depression means to someone else." What adolescents think of
as important can influence communication with them and service delivery.
In order to detect depression in the self, the individual needs to have established
conceptions of depression that apply to others and to self. The process of developing conceptions
that culminate in self-recognition of depression presupposes that the individual has an
understanding of others in comparison to the self This recognition of depression in the self may
precede or parallel the onset of depressive symptoms and observable associated behaviors. Self-
recognition of depression may have connections with social cognition and understanding of
emotions, because for an adolescent, others are social mirrors to compare with himself or herself
Adolescents identifying themselves as depressed may be aware of their loss of connectedness in
terms of emotional and social factors.
Self-recognition of depression may involve conscious attentiveness to conceptions of
depression and vulnerability or sensitivity to depression. This vulnerability or sensitivity may be
connected to Piaget's construct of equilibration versus disequilibration. Equilibration, a condition
towards which the body strives, is the state of balance between assimilation and accommodation.
In assimilation, dramatic experiences are integrated into the existing developmental schemas or
incorporated within an object in the existing structure. In accommodation, each new life situation
creates the opportunity for a developmental spurt, a reorganization of a cognitive and affective
schema. In essence, accommodation is the organism's ability to adapt to the world by changing
its internal structure or schema (Noam et al., 1995). Disequilibration is the state of imbalance
between assimilation and accommodation (Noam et al., 1995). Adolescents may have the
abilities to conceptualize conflicts and incongruities between their inner thoughts and actions
(Selman, 1980) and their interactions.
Damon and Hart (1988) suggest that self-understanding is part of a conceptual system
integrating thoughts and attitudes about oneself They maintain that self-understanding is an
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