Invited Essay
Depressogenic cognitive styles: predictive validity, information processing and personality characteristics, and developmental origins

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Abstract

Two of the major cognitive theories of depression, the theory of Beck [Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: clinical, experimental and theoretical aspects. New York: Harper & Row. and Beck, A. T. (1987) Cognitive models of depression. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy: an International Quarterly, 1, 5-37] and the hopelessness theory [Abramson et al., (1989) Hopelessness depression: a theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358-372], include the hypothesis that particular negative cognitive styles increase individuals' likelihood of developing episodes of depression, in particular, a cognitively mediated subtype of depression, when they encounter negative life events. The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) project is a two-site, prospective longitudinal study designed to test this cognitive vulnerability hypothesis, as well as the other etiological hypotheses of Beck's and the hopelessness theories of depression. In this article, based on CVD project findings to date, we review evidence that the hypothesized depressogenic cognitive styles do indeed confer vulnerability for clinically significant depressive disorders and suicidality. In addition, we present evidence regarding moderators of these depressogenic cognitive styles, the information processing and personality correlates of these styles and the possible developmental antecedents of these styles. We end with a consideration of future research directions and the clinical implications of cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Section snippets

Cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression onset

Individuals vary in their responses to stressful life events. Some may develop severe or long-lasting depression, whereas others don't become depressed at all or only suffer mild, short-lived dysphoria. Investigators have attempted to understand such individual differences in the response to stress in terms of both biological and psychological processes. From the cognitive perspective, the meaning or interpretation people give to their experiences influences whether or not they will become

Testing cognitive vulnerability hypotheses: the behavioral high-risk design

A powerful strategy for testing the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of hopelessness and Beck's theories is the `behavioral high-risk design' (e.g. Depue et al., 1981; Alloy, Lipman, & Abramson, 1992). Similar to the genetic high-risk paradigm, the behavioral high-risk design involves studying individuals who do not currently have the disorder of interest but who are hypothesized to be at high or low risk for developing the disorder. However, in the behavioral high-risk design, individuals

The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) project

The ongoing Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) project is a collaborative, 2-site study that uses a prospective behavioral high-risk design to test the cognitive vulnerability and other etiological hypotheses of hopelessness and Beck's theories of depression for both depressive symptoms and clinically significant depressive episodes. In this article, we review some of the initial findings from the CVD project

Do depressogenic cognitive styles predict depression and suicidality?

The behavioral high-risk design of the CVD project allowed us to conduct both retrospective and prospective tests of the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses. In this section, we review some of the project's initial findings on the predictive validity of the hypothesized negative cognitive styles for depressive disorders and suicidality.

Characteristics of cognitively vulnerable individuals

Given that depressogenic cognitive styles predict lifetime history and prospective incidence of depressive disorders and suicidality, it is important to more fully characterize the personalities of cognitively vulnerable individuals. As part of the CVD project, during the time 1 assessment at the beginning of the prospective follow-up phase, we examined the information processing and personality correlates of cognitive vulnerability and invulnerability.

Developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression

If depressogenic cognitive styles do confer vulnerability for depression and suicidality, as indicated by the CVD project findings, then it becomes important to understand the origins of these cognitive styles. What are the developmental antecedents of cognitive vulnerability versus invulnerability to depression? As part of the CVD project, we have directly studied 320 of the parents of the cognitively HR and LR participants with respect to the parents' cognitive styles, parenting behaviors,

Directions for future research and clinical implications of the CVD project findings

In this article, we have reviewed promising evidence from the CVD project and related studies indicating that the negative inferential styles and dysfunctional attitudes featured in hopelessness and Beck's theories of depression, alone and in combination with negative self-referent information processing and rumination, confer vulnerability to suicidality and clinically significant depressive disorders, particularly, the subtype of hopelessness depression. We have also presented preliminary

Acknowledgements

The research reviewed in this article was supported by National Institute of Mental Health grants MH48216 to L.B.A. and MH43866 to L.Y.A. We would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to the CVD project: Sogoli Akhavan, Michelle Armstrong, Monica Calkins, Mark Cenite, Alexandra Chiara, Judith Cronholm, Rayna Dombro, Ilene Dyller, Kimberly Eberbach, Erika Francis, Teresa Gannon, Nancy Just, Ray Kim, Christine Klitz, Joanna Lapkin, Alan Lipman, Gary Marshall, Laura

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