Depressive Disorder

The impairment of the social cognitive in a depressed patient has hampered their ability to accurately understand social information; this affects the ability of both the emotional theory of mind and the cognitive theory of mind to be identified, perceived, and interpreted. The study presents the impact of major depressive disorder on social cognitive function by highlighting the key topics that will be discussed. It includes a problem statement that highlights the main topic of the work.It goes further to provide the background of the information to assist in the better understanding of the topic. The paper provides in-depth findings that have been made on the topic; this helps to fathom the relationship between the mental disorder and the performance of the social cognitive. Also, it goes further to discuss the findings mentioned above. The paper concludes by providing a summary of the discussion.

Introduction

An individual with a stable mental health is expected to freely socialize and relate well with others. Prevalently, psychologists have continuously pointed out that proper communication, ability to interpret emotions and having a positive perception are all features of a well-functioning brain. Social cognition plays a significant role in assisting individuals to process information, store them and apply the stored information to help in the social interactions. The cognitive, therefore, plays an essential role in the successful interpersonal functioning of people. The psychiatrists and psychologists have noted that stress-related issues have an adverse impact on the functionality of the social cognitive process. The researchers in the field of psychology have argued that the mental disorder majorly attributed to depression and stress has a direct impact on the outlined functions of the social cognition. Most of the patients suffering from the major depressive disorder have been noted to have a poor social interaction, inability to communicate effectively, having a challenge to correctly interpret the social information, and avoidance of competition. The findings mentioned above, explicitly indicate that the major depressive disorder affects the functioning of the social cognition. The paper seeks to provide an in-depth review of the relationship between the social cognition and the major depressive disorder.

Problem Statement

The correct interpretation of the social information would play a significant role in the effective and the efficient interpersonal interaction. Individuals with a well-functioning social cognition would have an effective theory of mind, proper use of the speech and body language, having an admirable facial expression to allow them to socialize and interact with others. However, when the social cognitive is affected, it cannot function effectively to discharge the outline roles. On the other hand, most of the patient suffering from the major depressive disorder has register symptoms that clearly relate to the dysfunction of the social cognition (Weightman & Baune, 2014). For instance, the MDD patients have an altered interpretation of the social information. A point to note is that the correlation between the functioning of the social cognition and the major depressive disorder would assist in addressing the challenges that affect the performance of the social cognition. Also, a better understanding of the nature and function of the social cognition in the said order is vital as it assists in characterizing the phenotype-causing the disease and also explains the ineffective social function observed in depression. Above all, the improvement in the performance of the social cognition may become a major target for the treatment for depression (Weightman & Baune, 2014).

Background Information

In the human body, the social cognition plays a significant role in the processing, storing and applying the processed and stored social information to permit individuals to be successful undergoes the interpersonal interactions. In this respect, the social cognition comprises the perception, identification and the interpretation of an important social function. Psychologists have therefore pointed out that the individuals with a well-functioning social cognitive should be in a better position to correctly interpret the social information which in turn permits them in their social interaction (Weightman & Baune, 2014). The patient suffering from the ailments such as the schizophrenia and autism have been continually observed to suffer from the social cognitive impairment. The diseases mentioned above, have therefore been classified to have a greater impact on the functionality of the social cognition. A point to note is that effect of the depression on the functioning of the social cognitive has not been adequately understood. Despite this, the psychiatrist has realized that the impairment of the social cognition may be observed in the patient suffering from the major depressive disorder (Weightman & Baune, 2014). However, the patient suffering from MDD have been noted to be less severely impaired in social cognition in comparison to the patients with schizophrenia or autism.

Methodology

In order to investigate the correlation between the performance of the social cognition and the major depressive disorder, an electronic search strategy was carried out with the primary aim of identifying the published studies that have investigated the relationship between the two discussed variables (Weightman & Baune, 2014). For reliability, accuracy, and authenticity, peer-reviewed journal articles were identified and retrieved from the database of PsycINFO, Medline, and Medline. Importantly to point out is that the collection of the articles mentioned above was between periods of ten years; this was to assist in accessing the latest information on the discussed topic. In the achievement its primary objective, the study focuses on social cognitive of the participants who were depressed and those who were not depressed (Weightman & Baune, 2014).

Major Findings

How Facial affects Recognition

The findings of the investigation conducted to determine how the major depressive disorder affect the facial recognition revealed that depressive persons had negative interpretations as compared to the healthy controls. However, through the study, the said findings were not consistence. Other studies revealed a slightly similar results; they indicated that patient with MDD was recognized to be significantly more likely to interpret a neutral stimulus as being sad which should not be the case (Gollan et al., 2008). In support of this finding, a case-control study was carried out by Gollan et al. (2008). The participants used in their study comprises of 36 and 66 participants respectively. From their research, they found out that the depressed participants recognized or identified the neutral expressions as sad as compared to the non-depresses counterparts (Gollan et al., 2008).

Apart from the findings of the previously mentioned authors, other authors have also reported similar findings on the discussed topic that clearly indicate that patients suffering from the major depressive disorder have deficits for the expression of sadness and fear. The study carried out by Anderson (2011) indicates that patients suffering from the depression had indicated a bias identification towards the negative expressions. They exaggerated facial expressions such as anger and sadness. On the same note, it was also found that the depressed patient had a challenge in the positive interpretation of the expression. The studied conducted by Csukly et al. (2011) revealed that patient with the MDD was likely to interpret happiness for sadness. However, this was not possible for those who were not depressed. The observation of their control experiment indicated that they were able to interpret the emotions correctly (Csukly, 2011).

Affective Theory of Mind

The affective theory of mind connotes to the ability to read and understand the emotional state of others. The research carried out by most of the authors have revealed that the patients who are suffering from the major depressive disorder had completely lacked the skills to interpret the affective mental state depicted in the several cropped images of the eyes. However, the control experiment with the individuals who were not suffering from the mental depression indicated that they were able to interpret the affective state of mind (Weightman & Baune, 2014). Although, other separate findings have noted that the depressed patients are more accurate in the identification of a negative emotional state. More findings have revealed that the depressed group evinced less perceptual reasoning for the affective theory of mind other than the cognitive constitute of the theory of mind. Comparatively, the patients who are not depressed had a more and accurate perceptual reasoning (Gollan et al., 2008).

Cognitive Theory of Mind

Cognitive theory of mind is the ability of a person to effectively interpret the beliefs and intentions. Most of the researchers have pointed out that patients suffering from the major depressive disorder have often found a challenge in the correct interpretation of the intentions. Darcet et al. (2016 ) carried out a control experiment in investigating the cognitive theory of mind of the depressed patients, in his findings; he noted that the depressed individual had an impaired on the cognitive theory of mind, making them not to able to interpret questions relating to social interactions. Important to note is that the further studies conducted by researchers have found that patients suffering from the major depressive disorder usually indicate a poor emotional awareness of what other people were thinking, however, they were able to interpret their emotional state of mind correctly (Darcet et al. 2016). On the other hand, those who were not suffering from the mental depression were able to interpret what others were thinking.

Discussion

From the findings, it is evident that major depressive disorder plays a critical role in the performance of the social cognitive. The incorrect interpretation of the emotions by the impaired social cognitive is a clear indication that the mental depression affects its functionality. In this respect, the mental depression has the ability to influence the thoughts, thinking, and attitude of an individual. Important to note is that major depressive disorder majorly affects the emotional state as compared to its impact on the cognitive skills of interpretations of beliefs and intentions (Weightman & Baune, 2014). Notably, the individuals who suffered from depression were able to correctly interpret their own emotion state of mind. This is an indication that the mentioned disorder has the ability to create deficits in the social cognition that largely affect the facial affect recognition and the affective theory of mind but has less effect on the cognitive theory of mind.

Prevalently, the patients suffering from the major depressive disorder were noted to have a challenge in the interpretation of the social information which them to have a difficulty in the social interactions. The primary cause of this can be attributed deficits caused to the social cognitive by the mental depression, making it be completely unable to interpret the mental states and emotional stimuli (Gollan et al., 2008). Important to note is that the performance of the social cognitive in depression may affect the development of the mental disorder leading to a dysfunction of the social cognition. It is, therefore, evident that the major depressive disorder affects the functionality of the social cognition.

Conclusion

From the conclusion, it is clear that the mental depression has an impact on the functioning of the social cognitive. Most of the patients who are suffering from the major depressive disorder have had difficulty in the interpretation of the social information, making them be unable to social interact with others. On a similar note, the depressed individuals had a challenge in the negative interpretation as compared to those who do not suffer from the mentioned disorder. Their biased interpretation of neutral stimulus as being sad is a clear indication that the mental depression affects the performance of the social cognition. Additionally, the inability of the depressed individual to lack the skills of interpreting the affective mental stated is a further evidence on how the major depressive disorder affect the social cognition. Above all, the poor emotional awareness of the depressed patients is another evident of the impact of the major depressive disorder on the social cognition.

References

Anderson, I. M., Shippen, C., Juhasz, G., Chase, D., Thomas, E., Downey, D., ... & Deakin, J. W. (2011). State-dependent alteration in face emotion recognition in depression. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 198(4), 302-308.

Csukly, G., Telek, R., Filipovits, D., Takács, B., Unoka, Z., & Simon, L. (2011). What is the relationship between the recognition of emotions and core beliefs: Associations between the recognition of emotions in facial expressions and the maladaptive schemas in depressed patients. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 42(1), 129-137.

Darcet, F., Gardier, A. M., Gaillard, R., David, D. J., & Guilloux, J. P. (2016). Cognitive dysfunction in major depressive disorder. A translational review in animal models of the disease. Pharmaceuticals, 9(1), 9.

Gollan, J. K., Pane, H. T., McCloskey, M. S., & Coccaro, E. F. (2008). Identifying differences in biased affective information processing in major depression. Psychiatry research, 159(1), 18-24.

Weightman, M. J., Air, T. M., & Baune, B. T. (2014). A review of the role of social cognition in major depressive disorder. Frontiers in psychiatry, 5, 179.