Cognitive Vulnerability and Unipolar Depression

Abstract

Maladaptive cognitive styles, including dysfunctional attitudes about our self-worth, the tendency to make negative inferences about the causes and consequences of negative events, and the tendency to ruminate about our sad mood, have been hypothesized to provide vulnerability to depression when individuals experience stressful life events. This chapter presents an overview of the three main cognitive vulnerability theories of depression, Beck’s Cognitive Theory, the Hopelessness Theory, and Response Styles Theory, which feature these three proposed cognitive vulnerabilities, respectively. The chapter describes each of these cognitive vulnerabilities, their measurement, and the types of research designs that have been employed to test the cognitive vulnerability theories. It also reviews the empirical evidence for each of these three forms of cognitive vulnerability to depression. Finally, the chapter highlights directions for further research.

Attenuated intrinsic connectivity within cognitive control network among individuals with remitted depression: Temporal stability and association with negative cognitive styles

“…Consistent with this possibility, one study found attenuated connectivity within the CCN among adolescent girls at high risk due to having a parental history of depression, although this study did not evaluate cognitive vulnerability features (Clasen et al, 2013). Given that aberrant CCN functioning may underlie cognitive factors that are known to confer risk for MDD onset or relapse (e.g., Abela & Hankin, 2011; Alloy et al, 2006; Langenecker et al, 2007a, 2014; Stange et al, 2014, 2016; for a review, see Alloy et al, 2016), longitudinal clinical staging studies are needed to determine whether deficits in CCN connectivity confer similar risk, may represent an early scar of illness, or a combination thereof (Grierson et al, 2016; Peters et al, 2016). To this end, recent studies have demonstrated that greater CCN task-based activation (including dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and inferior parietal lobule) during inhibitory control predicted a greater likelihood of responding to antidepressant treatment for MDD (Gyurak et al, 2016; Langenecker et al, 2007a).…”

“…These characteristics include rumination (the tendency to repetitively think through the causes and consequences of one’s sad mood; Nolen-Hoeksema, Wisco, & Lyubomirsky, 2008; Watkins, 2008), pessimistic attributional style (the tendency to attribute negative events to causes that are internal, stable, and global; Seligman et al, 1979), negative automatic thoughts (which occur following the activation of negative schemas; Beck, 2008), and impairments in cognitive control (Langenecker et al, 2014). These factors have been established as stable, trait-like vulnerabilities to depression (e.g., Abela & Hankin, 2011; Alloy et al, 2006, 2016; Nolen-Hoeksema et al, 2008; Stange et al, 2014, 2016; Nolen-Hoeksema et al, 2008) and have been hypothesized as related to attenuated patterns of task-based activation within the cognitive control regions (Beck, 2008; Disner et al, 2011; Koster et al, 2011; Ochsner et al, 2004) although it has not often been tested empirically (Seidel et al, 2012). Finally, planned post-hoc analyses evaluated models by which attenuated connectivity might mediate associations between diagnostic group and cognitive risk characteristics.…”

Perseverate or decenter? Differential effects of metacognition on the relationship between parasympathetic inflexibility and symptoms of depression in a multi-wave study

“…It is associated with tremendous impairment and considerable comorbidity with other psychiatric conditions, resulting in major personal, economic, and societal costs (Kessler et al, 2006; Kessler & Wang, 2009). Given these debilitating effects, research has aimed to identify possible mechanisms and risk factors for MDD that might serve as targets for prevention or treatment (Alloy et al, 2017). Broadly, MDD is associated with a loss of biological and behavioral flexibility (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010; Stange, Alloy, & Fresco, in press).…”

Contributions of fixed mindsets and hopelessness to anxiety and depressive symptoms: A commonality analysis approach

“…This overlap makes it difficult to disentangle each factor's independent versus shared links with clinical outcomes. To clarify the potentially independent role of mindsets, we examined independent and shared contributions of two types of mindsets (of emotion and anxiety) to anxiety and depression symptoms, versus the independent contributions of hopelessness-an established risk factor for internalizing psychopathology (Alloy et al, 2016;Miranda and Mennin, 2007) that is conceptually similar to fixed mindsets. Indeed, measures of mindsets and hopelessness are both derived from learned helplessness theory (Dweck, 2017(Dweck, , 1975; therefore, directly assessing the unique and shared contributions of these constructs is all the more relevant.…”