Hopelessness: The role of depression, future directed thinking and cognitive vulnerability

Abstract

Previous research has suggested that parasuicides are impaired in their ability to generate positive future experiences. This study aimed to look at the relationship between future experiences, cognitive vulnerability and hopelessness in parasuicides and matched hospital controls. Parasuicides ( N = 20) and matched hospital controls ( N = 20) were assessed the day following an episode of deliberate self-harm on measures of hopelessness, depression, anxiety, cognitive vulnerability and future directed thinking. The parasuicides differed from hospital controls on measures of depression, hopelessness and negative cognitive style in the predicted direction. Future positive thinking, depression and negative cognitive style explained 70.5% of the hopelessness variance. Future positive thinking was not correlated with either depression or negative cognitive style, whereas negative cognitive style was correlated with depression and hopelessness. Future directed thinking contributes to hopelessness independently of depression and does not seem to be associated with cognitive vulnerability.