An Investigation of Sense of Agency in Depression

A feeling of control over our actions and their consequences forms a fundamental aspect of human consciousness and is foundational to the human experience. Yet this sense of agency is not impervious to distortion. Indeed, aberrations in sense of agency have been observed amongst a number neurological and psychiatric conditions including Schizophrenia, OCD and autism (Blakemore et al., 2000; Graham-Schmidt et al., 2018 Moore, 2018). However, whether such differences in sense of agency exist amongst those with depression is yet to be empirically explored. As depression has long been characterised by feelings of helplessness and hopelessness over the outcomes in one's life (Peterson & Seligman, 1984; Seligman, 1989), there is a strong theoretical rationale to investigate sense of agency within this population. The current research project will therefore pursue this line of research to understand whether depressive symptomatology, both at a clinical level and across the healthy continuum is associated with differences in sense of agency.