ABSTRACT
Objective: To explore the relationship between self-esteem (explicit and implicit) and depression. Method: 70 depressive subjects were sampled from 3067 freshmen according to the results of SDS (self-rating depression scale),45 normal persons were collected as control. Both groups received IAT(implicit association test), which was designed to measure implicit self-esteem and explicit self-esteem. Result: The explicit self-esteem of the depressive subjects was significantly lower than that of normal control. For implicit self-esteem, the two groups had no difference. In depressive subjects, their score of implicit self-esteem was higher than that of explicit, while in normal control the relation was reverse. Conclusion: Depression lowers the explicit self-esteem, but not the implicit one. The discrepancy between implicit and explicit self-esteem was different between depressive subject and normal control.