Cognitive Reactivity, Suicidal Ideation and Future Fluency: Preliminary Investigation of a Differential Activation Theory of Hopelessness/Suicidality

The authors investigated whether the re-emergence of hopeless/suicidal cognitions over time can be explained within a differential activation framework. 2 studies, 146 & 136 participants respectively, showed that individuals who reported suicide ideation when depressed in the past had higher scores on the hopelessness/suicidality subscale of a measure assessing cognitive reactivity to low mood. Study 3, with 32 participants, demonstrated that self-reports on this subscale predicted changes in generativity for positive future events, an experimental measure of processes underlying hopelessness/suicidality, following sad mood induction. (68 refs.)