The perils of aiming too high: Discrepancy between goals and performance in individuals with depressive symptoms.

Background And Objectives: Negative evaluation processes play a pivotal role in the development and maintenance of depressive symptoms. However, it remains to be understood, whether evaluation processes in depression are impaired by maladaptive goal setting.

Method: In a non-clinical sample (N = 50) of individuals with high (BDI-II-Score: 13-29) and low (BDI-II-Score: 0-3) levels of depressive symptoms goal setting prior to working on a cognitive task was measured.