INFERENCES ABOUT THE SELF, ATTRIBUTIONS, AND OVERGENERALIZATION AS PREDICTORS OF RECOVERY FROM DYSPHORIA

Based on a model of recovery from depression drawn from hopelessness t heory (Needles & Abramson, 1990), we expected that in the presence of favorable events, cognitive style would predict the development of hop e, and thus recovery from dysphoria. Among 91 subjects initially scori ng 9 or above on the Beck Depression Inventory, a stable, global attri butional style for positive events, in the presence of positive events , tended to predict recovery by a 3-week followup assessment. However, contrary to our prediction, inferring positive characteristics about the self from the occurrence of good events was associated with more s ubsequent depressive symptoms. An exploratory measure of overgeneraliz ation of negative events predicted more subsequent symptoms.