Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression

TLDR: In this article, the authors argue that vulnerability factors for depression can be logically divided into distal (more distant in time; typically endowed at birth, or due to early experience) and proximal (closer in time to the onset of depression; more likely recent experience) factors, and the review of the evidence is divided into this framework.

Abstract: RICK E. INGRAM, JEANNE MIRANDA, and ZINDEL V. SEGALCognitive Vulnerability to DepressionNew York: Guilford Press, 1998, 330 pages(ISBN 1-57230-3042, US$36.95, Hardcover)Reviewed by KEITH S. DOBSONCognitive Vulnerability to Depression is a multi-authored text that addresses conceptual issues related to the idea that the way in which individuals think makes them vulnerable to either the onset or maintenance of depression. Methodological considerations for testing cognitive models of depression are also extensively discussed. The authors argue that vulnerability factors for depression can be logically divided into distal (more distant in time; typically endowed at birth, or due to early experience) and proximal (closer in time to the onset of depression; more likely recent experience) factors, and the review of the evidence is divided into this framework.The authors maintain that cognition can be broken down into four aspects: structural, propositional (focusing on internal components of cognition), operational (how components or processes function) and products (the outputs of cognitive functions). They utilize the concept of cognitive schemas to organize their thesis, and make a convincing case that this concept can accommodate the critical components of cognition in depression mentioned above. The schema concept is also critical to the arguments they make that individuals develop, as a result of their experience, a latent vulnerability that can be activated with the presence of sufficient negative mood or experiential inputs. The schema concept also helps to frame the authors' discussion of relapse vulnerability. Finally, the ideas that cognitive schemas are structurally necessary, but that their content is shaped by early experiences (which are fundamentally interpersonal in nature, related to life support, attachment and belongingness, and nurturance), explains why the authors conclude the book in an integrative manner, by saying that cognition should not be examined in the absence of content, and that it is likely that our "final models" of cognition will incorporate both cognitive and interpersonal processes.This book achieves its goals well. The literature is meaningfully reviewed, with clear ideas about what may be areas for fruitful future work, and areas that are likely not to be as productive. The research cited is very appropriate and up-to-date. There are many excellent research ideas pressed between the covers of this book. It is notable in this latter regard, however, that the issue of depressive realism, which has been debated in the theory and empirical literature, figures not at all in the current volume.One of the potential difficulties in a multi-authored text is that of unevenness in the quality or style of writing. It is a pleasure that such a problem does not emerge in this text. The style of writing is consistently high and the transitions are very good, indicative of excellent editing. …