EVALUATING THE HOPELESSNESS MODEL OF DEPRESSION - DIATHESIS STRESS AND SYMPTOM COMPONENTS

The hopelessness model of depression posits that latent attributional diatheses combine with stressors to produce a specific subtype of depr ession characterized by a specific set of symptoms. Associations betwe en attributional diathesis, stress, and symptoms were examined to test the prediction that hopelessness depressions are characterized by a s pecific symptom profile. Fifty-seven depressed outpatients were catego rized into sub groups on the basis of whether or not they met the crit eria of L. Y. Abramson, L. B. Alloy, and G. I. Metalsky's (1988) hopel essness depression, defined as a match in content domain between attri butional diathesis and negative stressor. Support for hopelessness dep ression was mixed. The hopelessness subtype differed from other major depressions with respect to symptom profile. However, the differences in symptomatology were not wholly consistent with the predictions of t he hopelessness model.