Glossary / Lexicon

Depressive Realism refers to the tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self -serving biases judgments, attributions and predictions. It has been nicknamed the "sadder-but-wiser effect". Depressive realists tend to see things for what they are (normal people tend to view the world through rose-colored glasses). Hence, depressed people see the world glumly.

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Other /More definition:
Depressive realism refers to a phenomenon whereby depressed people make more realistic judgments as to whether they can control actually uncontrollable events than do non-depressed people, who exhibit an illusion of control over the same events. Depressive realism is the the tendency of mildly depressed people to make accurate rather than self-serving judgments, attributions, and predictions.