Abstract
Research on cognitive models of depression has frequently neglected either the relations between different levels of cognitive-personality variables, the interaction of person and event factors, or both. We evaluated the utility of multivariate, interactional representations of the models of Beck, and of Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale, for predicting depressive symptoms in a sample of 83 undergraduates. Beck's model was able to account for an estimated 32% of population variance in depressive symptoms, and the reformulated helplessness model for 19% In both cases, these figures are higher than those found in studies that represented the models more simply. Although depressive symptoms were associated with both person and event variables, the hypothesized person-event interaction effects were not found. The strongest correlates of depressive symptoms were perceptions of upsetting real events. Some of these event perceptions were, in turn, associated with the frequency of negative events, suggesting a need for cognitive theories of depression to incorporate a greater emphasis on the objective role of life events.
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Robins, C.J., Block, P. Cognitive theories of depression viewed from a diathesis-stress perspective: Evaluations of the models of Beck and of Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale. Cogn Ther Res 13, 297–313 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173475
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01173475