Depressogenic Cognitive Styles: Predictive Validity, Information Processing and Personality Characteristics, and Developmental Origins

2 major cognitive theories of depression include the hypothesis that particular negative cognitive styles increase individuals’ liklihood of developing episodes of depression, in particular, a cognitively mediated subtype of depression, when they encounter negative life events. The authors review evidence that the hypothesized depressogenic cognitive styles do indeed confer vulnerability for clinically significant depressive disorders & suicidality. (114 refs)