The hopelessness theory of depression: Attributional aspects

Psychological Review, 1989

We present a revision of the 1978 reformulated theory of helplessness and depression and call it the hopelessness theory of depression. Although the 1978 reformulation has generated a vast amount of empirical work on depression over the past 10 years and recently has been evaluated as a model of depression, we do not think that it presents a clearly articulated theory of depression. We build on the skeletal logic of the 1978 statement and (a) propose a hypothesized subtype of depressionhopelessness depression, (b) introduce hopelessness as a proximal sufficient cause of the symptoms of hopelessness depression, (c) deemphasize causal attributions because inferred negative consequences and inferred negative characteristics about the self are also postulated to contribute to the formation of hopelessness and, in turn, the symptoms of hopelessness depression, and (d) clarify the diathesisstress and causal mediation components implied, but not explicitly articulated, in the 1978 statement. We report promising findings for the hopelessness theory and outline the aspects that still need to be tested.

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1998

This study used a short-term prospective design in an un selected sam ple of un dergrad u ates to test five h ypo th eses derived from th e sym pto m com po n en t of th e hopelessn ess theory of depression (Abram son ‚ Metalsky‚ & Alloy‚ 1989). In con gruen ce with hopelessn ess theory‚ hopelessness was uniqu ely associated both con currently an d pro sp ectiv ely with sym ptom s o f d epressio n bu t n ot an xiety. Th e h yp oth esized hopelessn ess depression sym ptom s correlated with on e an other m ore highly than they correlated with other depressive sym ptom s not hypothesized to be part of hopelessn ess depressio n or with sym pto m s of oth er psych opath olo gy. Hopelessn ess pred icted prospectively fou r of the eight sym ptom s hypothesized to be part of the hopelessn ess depression sym ptom profile an d showed a trend (p < .05) to predict an additional two hopelessn ess depression sym ptom s. Hopelessness did not predict an y non hopelessn ess depression sym ptom s or an y sym ptom s of an xiety disorders (som atic an xiety‚ phobias‚ obsession s/com pu lsion s). In ad dition ‚ the attribu tion al diath esis-stress in teraction featured in the theory predicted hopelessn ess depression sym ptom s prospectively an d specifically ‚ an d was m ediated by hopelessn ess. However‚ at odd s with the theory‚ hopelessn ess failed to predict two of the sym ptom s (sadn ess‚ low energy) hypothesized to be part of hopelessn ess depression an d it did predict som e sym ptom s of oth er psychopathology‚ prim arily psychoticism ‚ and‚ m arginally‚ hostility and paran oia.

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2017

U.S. Veterans (n = 76; 67% from underrepresented groups) enrolled in a behavior activation group and found no effect of cognitive vulnerability on post-therapy depressive outcomes. The results of the three studies indicate that hopelessness theory's cognitive vulnerability construct can be reliably measured in diverse samples in real world clinical contexts and that it has the potential to be a useful predictor of clinical outcomes in the context of cognitively focused treatments.

Journal of Affective Disorders, 2018

Background: Hopelessness is a common experience of patients with depressive disorders (DD) and an important predictor of suicidal behaviour. However, stability and factors explaining state and trait variation of hopelessness in patients with DD over time are poorly known. Methods: Patients with DD (n = 406) from the Vantaa Depression Study and the Vantaa Primary Care Depression Study filled in the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Perceived Social Support Scale-Revised (PSSS-R), and Eysenck Personality Inventory-Q (EPI-Q) at baseline, at six and eighteen months, and at five years. We conducted a multilevel linear regression analyses predicting BHS with these covariates. Results: During the five-year follow-up half of the variance in BHS was attributable to between-patient variance (50.6%, CI = 41.2-61.5%), and the rest arose from within-patient variance and measurement errors. BDI and BAI explained 5.6% of within-patient and 28.4% of between-patient variance of BHS. High Neuroticism and low Extraversion explained 2.6% of the between-patient variance of BHS. PSSS-R explained 5% of between-patient variance and 1.7% of within-patient variance of BHS. Limitations: No treatment effects were controlled. Conclusions: Hopelessness varies markedly over time both within and between patients with depression; it is both state-and trait-related. Concurrent depressive and anxiety symptoms and low social support explain both state and trait variance, whereas high Neuroticism and low Extraversion explain only trait variance of hopelessness. These variations influence the utility of hopelessness as an indicator of suicide risk.

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1988

To determine the extent to which negativity about the future is specific to depression, the Hopelessness Scale (HS) scores of 199patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) were compared with those of 48 patients diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and 76 psychiatric patients with mixed nonaffective, nonanxiety disorders. As predicted by the cognitive model, the MDD patients had higher mean HS scores than either the GAD or control patients. In addition, HS scores were more highly correlated with clinician-rated and self-report measures of depression than with measures of anxiety. Further, the positive relationships between the HS and measures of anxiety dropped to nonsignificant levels after the corresponding measures of depression were controlled for, while the HS remained correlated with depression after controlling for level of anxiety. The results were

British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 2004

Objectives. This prospective study tested the integration of the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory of depression and activation hypothesis (i.e. depressogenic inferential styles are typically latent cognitive processes that must be primed in order to be accurately assessed). In order to test the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory, we used a short-term longitudinal design. In order to test the activation hypothesis, inferential styles were assessed both before and after a negative cognitive priming questionnaire. Methods. A group of 165 university students completed measures of inferential styles about the self, consequences, and causes before and after completing a negative cognitive priming questionnaire (Time 1). Participants also completed measures of depressive symptoms prior to completing the cognitive priming questionnaire and 5 weeks later (Time 2). Finally, negative events occurring between Time 1 and Time 2 were assessed. Results. Contrary to the diathesis-stress component of the hopelessness theory, none of the unprimed inferential styles interacted with negative events to predict increases in depressive symptoms. In line with the integration of the hopelessness theory and the activation hypothesis, however, each of the primed inferential styles interacted with negative events to predict increases in depressive symptoms even after controlling for the proportion of variance in depressive symptoms accounted for by the unprimed inferential style stress interactions. Individuals with depressogenic inferential styles are likely to show increases in depressive symptoms following the occurrence of negative events. At the www.bps.org.uk

European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience, 2002

s Abstract Helplessness and hopelessness are central aspects of cognitive-behavioural explanations for the development and persistence of depression. In this article a general overview concerning the evolution of those approaches to depression is provided.

2012

The hopelessness theory claims the existence of hopelessness depression, a subtype of depression which supposedly has a characteristic causal profile, a set of symptoms and a certain course. The study analyses from an experimental point of view the Hopelessness Depression Symptom Questionnaire (HDSQ; Metalsky & Joiner, 1997) on the Romanian population and it also establishes its psychometric parameters. The results of factorial analysis in the case of the 315 participants support the initial factors of the HDSQ but they also reflect a distinct symptom of hopelessness depression. Diathesis-stress results, explained by the means of structural equation modelling, confirm the theoretic hypotheses issued by Abramson, Metalsky, and Alloy (1989) regarding the onset of depression. We confirm the efficiency of the HDSQ as a clinical instrument for the evaluation of hopelessness depression and the hopelessness theory of depression.

BMJ open, 2014

Hopelessness is an important construct in psychosocial epidemiology, but there is great pressure on the length of questionnaire measures in large-scale population and clinical studies. We examined the validity and test-retest reliability of two brief measures of hopelessness, an existing negatively worded two-item measure of hopelessness (Brief-H-Neg) and a positively worded version of the same instrument (Brief-H-Pos). Cohort study. Control arm of the UK Collaborative Trial of Ovarian Cancer Screening. A non-clinical research-based sample of 5000 postmenopausal women selected from 56 512 participants. Spearman&#39;s rank correlation of brief measures of hopelessness with the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS). Spearman&#39;s rank correlation with the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and change in mean score on repeat testing. Two short hopelessness measures, a negatively worded brief measure of hopelessness (Brief-H-Neg) and a positively worded brief measure o...

Psihologija, 2005

The study tested reliability and construct validity of Serbian translation of Beck&#39;s Hopelessness scale on a sample of patients diagnosed as a depressive, anxious and anxious-depressive disorder. Scale was found to have a high degree of internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.91). Principal component analysis, with Scree-test as the criterion of extraction, provided single factor as the best solution. Hopelessness Scale highly correlated with symptoms of depression, low self-concept and depressive automatic thoughts which the authors interpreted as the confirmation of Beck&#39;s theory. The hypothesis that hopelessness is construct specific to depression and not to anxiety is, also, confirmed.