Life events and hopelessness depression: The influence of affective experience.

Lihua Zhou,Jian Chen

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187898

Lihua Zhou, Jian Chen

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0187898

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Abstract

This study explored the association of the affective experience (AE) of life events on hopelessness depression (HD). Undergraduates (N = 301) participating in a 12-week prospective study completed measures of HD, cognitive style, and psychological stress. The results indicate AE is an underlying mechanism influencing the longitudinal link between life events and HD. Negative life events with clear negative AE directly promoted the development of HD. Positive life events with clear positive AE directly impeded the development of HD. Neutral life events with mixed AE directly and interacting with negative cognitive style promoted the development of HD. The results should increase understanding of the hopelessness theory of depression, and suggest that neutral life events should be important elements in depression therapy.

Highlights

Hopelessness theory and hopelessness depressionBased on learned helplessness theory of depression, researchers [1] proposed hopelessness theory of depression to illustrate some risk factors and the influence mechanism of these risk factors on hopelessness depression (HD)
The hopelessness theory predicts that the relationship of Negative life events (NLEs) and HD is moderated by negative cognitive style
The present study makes the affective experiences of life events clearer and distinctly different from each other by classifying life events as positive life events (PLEs), NLEs, and neutral life events (NeuLEs)

Summary

Introduction

Hopelessness theory and hopelessness depressionBased on learned helplessness theory of depression, researchers [1] proposed hopelessness theory of depression to illustrate some risk factors and the influence mechanism of these risk factors on hopelessness depression (HD). NLEs directly set the etiology chain in motion, and combining with negative cognitive style increase the risk of hopelessness, which in turn, causes HD. The mechanism of these risk factors is called cognitive vulnerability-stress model of HD, which is the core hypothesis of hopelessness theory. Needles and Abramson believe that the etiological chain applies to the recovery pathway of HD, and they proposed a recovery model of HD based on the cognitive vulnerability-stress model [4]. They hypothesize that positive life events (PLEs)

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