CONCEPTUALIZATION AND ASSESSMENT OF PERSONALITY-FACTORS IN DEPRESSION

Research that relates personality to depression is one of the dominant themes in the clinical literature. The current paper examines this re search from a critical perspective. It is argued that existing researc h is limited by (i) a failure to adopt a broad conceptual approach to the study of personality and depression; and (ii) the use of personali ty measures with questionable psychometric properties. Our observation s lead us to suggest that greater adherence to established methodology and conceptual developments in the personality field will result in s ubstantial improvements in research on personality and depression, and may ultimately provide a more accurate appraisal of the role of perso nality factors in depression. In addition to examining important issue s, key directions for future research are discussed.