{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T17:22:36Z","timestamp":1786123356195,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":45,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1786060800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Psychiatry"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is consistently associated with low self-esteem; however, how self-evaluative beliefs are updated in response to environmental feedback in MDD remains poorly understood. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that low self-esteem in MDD reflects dynamic instability driven by altered processing of social-evaluative information, rather than a simple static deficit.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>The study enrolled 60 patients with MDD and 30 healthy control participants. All participants completed a Social Comparison\u2013Based Performance Task in which experimentally manipulated positive and negative performance feedback, presented relative to others, was used to modulate perceived social rank. Trial-by-trial changes in performance expectations following feedback were modeled computationally to derive sensitivity coefficients for positive (k_positive) and negative (k_negative) feedback.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Relative to healthy controls, the MDD group exhibited significantly lower baseline self-esteem, as measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), as well as lower initial performance expectations at task onset (p &amp;lt; 0.001). Computational modeling revealed that patients with MDD exhibited significantly greater sensitivity of performance expectation updating to both positive (p &amp;lt; 0.001, r = \u22120.45) and negative (p &amp;lt; 0.001, r = \u22120.53) feedback compared with healthy controls.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Limitations<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Study limitations include the lack of control for psychotropic medications and the recruitment of a sample restricted to outpatients with moderate symptom severity.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusions<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Low self-esteem in MDD is better characterized by instability in self-related belief dynamics rather than a simple static deficit. Therapeutic interventions may therefore benefit from targeting heightened sensitivity to environmental feedback and promoting self-esteem stability, rather than focusing solely on increasing self-esteem levels.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpsyt.2026.1887088","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T14:15:46Z","timestamp":1786112146000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Self-esteem instability in major depressive disorder: a computational analysis of expectation updating in response to performance feedback"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"17","author":[{"given":"Nilay","family":"Bilgin","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"SoCAT Lab, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]},{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, Bornova Turkan Ozilhan State Hospital","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Cemre","family":"Candemir","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SoCAT Lab, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]},{"name":"Faculty of Computer sciences, International Computer Institute, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Kaya","family":"Oguz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SoCAT Lab, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]},{"name":"Department of Computer Engineering, Izmir Economy University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Erkin Can","family":"Bilgin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Yigit","family":"Erdogan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SoCAT Lab, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]},{"name":"Faculty of Health Sciences, Department of Neuroscience, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mehmet Cagdas","family":"Eker","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SoCAT Lab, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]},{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Ali Saffet","family":"Gonul","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"SoCAT Lab, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]},{"name":"Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Ege University","place":["Izmir, T\u00fcrkiye"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]]},"reference":[{"key":"B1","volume-title":"Depression: Clinical, Experimental, and Theoretical Aspects","author":"Beck","year":"1967"},{"key":"B2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/0021-843X.102.1.101","article-title":"Depressive reactions to failure in a naturalistic setting: A test of the hopelessness and self-esteem theories of depression","volume":"102","author":"Metalsky","year":"1993","journal-title":"J Abnormal Psychol"},{"key":"B3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1037\/a0028931","article-title":"Does low self-esteem predict depression and anxiety? 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