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Personality and Depression

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Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

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Introduction

Already in ancient times, the postulate of a strong association between personality characteristics and depression peaked thinkers’ curiosity. Its roots can be traced back to Hippocrates’ theory of melancholic humor, and it continued through Galen’s theory until the rise of psychological science in the twentieth century. Today, personality traits are often regarded as potential vulnerability factors that may contribute to the development of psychopathology, including depression. However, this is only one hypothesis regarding how personality and depression could be interlinked. In this chapter, first the concepts of depression and personality are explained, and cross-sectional evidence supporting the assumed connection between the two constructs is summarized. Thereafter, different ways how depression and personality could be interrelated are described. After that, empirical evidence from recent longitudinal studies that favor specific models is presented. Finally,...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Institute for Psychology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Tobias Krieger

  2. Universitaet Bern, Bern, Switzerland

    Madeleine Hänggli & Martin grosse Holtforth

  3. Psychologische Hochschule Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Johannes Zimmermann

Authors
  1. Tobias Krieger
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  2. Madeleine Hänggli
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  3. Martin grosse Holtforth
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  4. Johannes Zimmermann
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tobias Krieger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland

    Anna Czarna

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Krieger, T., Hänggli, M., grosse Holtforth, M., Zimmermann, J. (2018). Personality and Depression. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2106-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_2106-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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