Many diathesis-stress models have been proposed in which cognitive
processes
of various types are presumed to represent vulnerabilities to
development
of depressive symptoms. This study tested three potential
vulnerabilities
as prospective predictors of such symptoms: the holding of
especially
high standards, the tendency to be self-critical after failure, and the
tendency to generalize from a single failure to the broader sense of
self-worth.
At the start of a semester, college students completed a measure of
these
cognitive tendencies and a measure of depressive symptoms. Six
weeks
later they completed the same measure of depressive symptoms and a
brief
measure of intervening life events. Hierarchical regression
analysis
yielded evidence that Generalization interacted with adverse events to
predict subsequent depressive symptoms. Self-Criticism also
tended
to predict later symptoms, but only if the symptoms were present
initially.
High Standards had no adverse effect.
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The measure of generalization used in this study can be obtained
from
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