Abstract
The concepts of cognitive vulnerability and cognitive reactivity are central to cognitive models of depression. These concepts have been extensively examined using mood priming methodology. Research has largely examined cognitive reactivity in individuals theoretically vulnerable to depression and based on self-reported dysfunctional attitudes as a primary index of cognitive vulnerability. The current research was designed to expand the examination of cognitive reactivity through mood priming methodology with regard to assessment of cognitive reactivity and clinical populations examined. This study examined the specificity of cognitive reactivity in the form of self-reported automatic thoughts, dysfunctional attitudes, and rumination to individuals with a history of depression compared to a clinical control group of currently anxious participants and a control sample. The primary results indicated specificity in cognitive reactivity, in the form of increased dysfunctional attitudes and rumination for only the previously depressed participants. These results extend previous research by suggesting specificity of cognitive reactivity in depression compared not only to a nonclinical control sample, which is typically employed in mood priming research, but also compared to a clinical control population. These results are discussed in the context of cognitive models of depression, as are their implications for future theory and research.
Highlights
Since its earliest formulation, the cognitive model proposed that reactivity to stressful situations, through the activation of underlying cognitive vulnerability, is a causal factor for depression [1]
It was hypothesized that an increase in negative automatic thoughts and a decrease in positive automatic thoughts would be observed across participant groups following a mood induction procedure
The present study examined the specificity of cognitive reactivity to a depressive mood induction procedure (MIP) to individuals theoretically vulnerable to depression due to a history of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), compared to a clinical control group of participants with a current anxiety disorder, and a community control sample including individuals with no history of depression or current anxiety disorder diagnosis
Summary
Since its earliest formulation, the cognitive model proposed that reactivity to stressful situations, through the activation of underlying cognitive vulnerability, is a causal factor for depression [1]. Depressogenic beliefs and attitudes ( referred to as schemas) constitute the cognitive vulnerability to depression [2,3]. Cognitive reactivity refers to the proposition that this vulnerability remains latent until activated, but once activated it results in the information processing biases and cognitive products that typify depression [3]. A related tenet of the cognitive model of depression argues that there is a distinct cognitive profile for the content and orientation of schema, information processing biases, and cognitive products for different disorders [2]. Schemas are theoretically characterized by negative attitudes and beliefs, and the themes of loss and failure. Information processing is negatively biased in depression, at the expense of positive information processing, and cognitive products (thoughts) in depression center on these same themes
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