Lyn Y. Abramson

Learned Helplessness in Humans: Critique and Reformulation

The learned helplessness hypothesis is criticized and reformulated. The old hypothesis, when applied to learned helplessness in humans, has two major problems: (a) It does not distinguish between cases in which outcomes are uncontrollable for all people and cases in which they are uncontrollable only for some people (univervsal vs. personal helplessness), and (b) it does not explain when helplessness is general and when specific, or when chronic and when acute. A reformulation based on a revision of attribution theory is proposed to resolve these inadequacies. According to the reformulation, once people perceive noncontingency, they attribute their helplessness to a cause. This cause can be stable or unstable, global or specific, and internal or external. The attribution chosen influences whether expectation of future helplessness will be chronic or acute, broad or narrow, and whether helplessness will lower self-esteem or not. The implications of this reformulation of human helplessness for the learned helplessness model of depression are outlined.

Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression

Summary and Future Directions On the basis of the aforementioned studies, the hopelessnesstheory appears promising. However, further research is needed.For example, although powerful tests of the attributional diath-esis-stress component have been conducted, no one has exam-ined the cognitive diatheses of inferring negative consequencesor characteristics about the self or whether the cognitive stylediathesis-stress interaction predicts clinically significant de-pression. Moreover, it is crucial to determine if this interactionpredicts the development of the hypothesized symptoms ofhopelessness depression. More generally, an important short-coming of the prior work is that it has not focused on the symp-toms of hopelessness depression in particular and, instead, sim-ply has examined the symptoms of depression in general. Fu-ture investigators need to test more fine-grained predictionsabout the hypothesized symptoms of hopelessness depression.The issue of the stability of the cognitive diatheses has not beenresolved satisfactorily. We have only begun, in a preliminaryway, to investigate the issues of specific vulnerability and media-tional processes. Finally, further tests of the predictions aboutcourse, cure, and prevention are needed. We eagerly await thisresearch.Difficult methodological issues may arise in the search forhopelessness depression, however. For example, the hopeless-ness theory is silent about the time lag between formation ofhopelessness and onset of the symptoms of hopelessness depres-sion. If it is very short, then a major challenge will be to developmethods with sufficient temporal resolving power to determineif hopelessness indeed precedes the occurrence of the hypothe-sized symptoms of hopelessness depression (see Alloy, Hartlage,et al., 1988, for proposed methods for testing the hopelessnesstheory). The results of work to test the hopelessness theory willdetermine if the concept of hopelessness depression needs tobe revised. For example, perhaps the statement of the causalpathway is correc t bu culminate n a differen se f symp-toms than those currently hypothesized to compose hopeless-ness depression. In this case, the symptom—but not thecause—component of the hopelessness theory would need to bemodified.In discussing how to search for hopelessness depression, wenote the possibility that future work may not corroborate theexistence of hopelessness depression as a bona fide subtype withcharacteristic cause, symptoms, course, treatment, and preven-tion. Instead, the etiological chain featured in the hopelessnesstheory may be one of many pathways to a final common out-come of depression. In this case, it would be more compellingto speak of a hopelessness cause, as opposed to a hopelessnesssubtype, of depression.

The attributional Style Questionnaire

Of current interest are the causal attributions offered by depressives for the good and bad events in their lives. One important attributional account of depression is the reformulated learned helplessness model, which proposes that depressive symptoms are associated with an attributional style in which uncontrollable bad events are attributed to internal (versus external), stable (versus unstable), and global (versus specific) causes. We describe the Attributional Style Questionnaire, which measures individual differences in the use of these attributional dimensions. We report means, reliabilities, intercorrelations, and test-retest stabilities for a sample of 130 undergraduates. Evidence for the questionnaires validity is discussed. The Attributional Style Questionnaire promises to be a reliable and valid instrument.

Attributional style and depressive symptoms among children.

The reformulation of helplessness theory proposes that an insidious attributional style accompanies and predisposes depressive symptoms To date, all research investigating the reformulation has used adult subjects In the present study, we investigated predictions of the reformulation among 8-13-year-old children Children who attributed bad events to internal, stable, and global causes were more likely to report depressive symptoms than were children who attributed these events to external, unstable, and specific causes This depressive attributional style predicted depressive symptoms 6 months later, suggesting that it may be a risk factor for depression Finally, childrens style for bad events and their depressive symptoms converged with those of their mothers, but not with those of their fathers

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

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, Metalsky, & Alloy, (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 Becks 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.

Positive life events, attributional style, and hopefulness : testing a model of recovery from depression

A model of a recovery process from depression that is compatible with the hopelessness theory of depressive onset is proposed. This model predicts that depressives who have an enhancing attributional style for positive events (i.e., make global, stable attributions for such events) will be more likely to regain hopefulness and, thereby, recover from depression, when positive events occur. This prediction was tested by following a group of depressed college students longitudinally for 6 weeks. Although neither positive events alone nor attributional style alone predicted reduction in hopelessness, depressives who both showed the enhancing attributional style for positive events and experienced more positive events showed dramatic reductions in hopelessness which were accompanied by remission of depressive symptoms. Thus, attributional style for positive events may be a factor that enables some depressives to recover when positive events occur in their lives.

REMITTED DEPRESSION STUDIES AS TESTS OF THE COGNITIVE VULNERABILITY HYPOTHESES OF DEPRESSION ONSET: A CRITIQUE AND CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

Investigations of cognitive patterns among individuals who have recovered from a depressive episode (i.e., remitted depressives) have figured importantly in evaluations of the validity of the vulnerability hypotheses of the cognitive theories of depression. However, we suggest that remitted depression studies as typically conducted and interpreted are inadequate tests of the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression onset for four reasons: (1) remitted depression studies are based on the erroneous assumption that cognitive vulnerability should be an immutable trait; (2) remitted depression studies use a logically backward participant selection strategy in which participants are selected on the basis of the dependent variable (depression) and then compared on the independent variable (cognitive vulnerability), which is likely to result in heterogeneity of cognitive vulnerability among both the remitted depressed as well as the nondepressed groups given the causal relations specified in the cognitive theories of depression; (3) many remitted depression studies have ignored the possible activating role of stress in the cognitive vulnerability-stress theories, particularly Becks theory, and thus, may attempt to assess cognitive vulnerability at a time when it is not operative (i.e., priming hypothesis); and (4) remitted depression studies inappropriately use postmorbid participants to test causal hypotheses, and therefore, are ambiguous about whether negative cognitive styles observed in remitted depressed persons are vulnerabilities as opposed to consequences of depression (i.e., scar hypothesis). As a remedy, we advocate the use of a theory-guided behavioral high-risk strategy to more adequately test the cognitive vulnerability hypotheses of depression onset.

Measuring cognitive vulnerability to depression: Development and validation of the cognitive style questionnaire

The Cognitive Style Questionnaire (CSQ) measures the cognitive vulnerability factor featured in the hopelessness theory of depression. The CSQ has been used in over 30 published studies since its inception, yet detailed information about the psychometric and validity properties of this instrument has yet to be published. In this article, we describe the development of the CSQ and review reliability and validity evidence. Findings to date using college samples, indicate that the CSQ is a reliable measure of cognitive vulnerability with a high degree of construct validity.

Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression: Theory and Evidence

According to the cognitive vulnerability hypothesis of two major cognitive theories of depression, Beck’s (1967; 1987) theory and the hopelessness theory (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989), negative cognitive styles provide vulnerability to depression, particularly hopelessness depression (HD), when people encounter negative life events. The Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) Project is a two-site, prospective longitudinal study designed to test this hypothesis as well as the other etiological hypotheses of Beck’s and the hopelessness theories of depression. We present findings from the CVD Project suggesting that the hypothesized depressogenic cognitive styles do indeed confer vulnerability for clinically significant depressive disorders and suicidality. In addition, we present evidence about the information processing and personality correlates of these styles. Finally, we discuss preliminary findings about the developmental origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression.

Emotional Maltreatment from Parents, Verbal Peer Victimization, and Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression

Although a number of studies have examined possible developmental antecedents of cognitive vulnerability to depression, most have focused on parental variables. In contrast, the current studies examined the relation between reports by college students of peer victimization during childhood and cognitive vulnerability to depression, as defined by hopelessness (L. Y. Abramson, G. I. Metalsky, & L. B. Alloy, 1989) and Becks theories (A. T. Beck, 1967, 1987) of depression. Results from both studies supported the hypothesis that peer victimization contributes unique variance to the prediction of cognitive vulnerability beyond that accounted for by parent variables. The implications of these results for “third variable accounts” involving general parental factors (e.g., genetic transmission of cognitive vulnerability) of the relationship between peer victimization and cognitive vulnerability are discussed.