PRIMING IRRATIONAL BELIEFS IN RECOVERED-DEPRESSED PEOPLE

Major depression has been linked with endorsement of irrational belief s in cross-sectional research, consistent with the rational emotive be havior therapy (REBT) model. In this study, the authors extended prior research by using multiple measures of irrationality and by comparing never-depressed (ND) controls with people who had recovered from majo r depression. Contrary to the REBT model, the recovered-depressed (RD) group did not significantly exceed the ND group in irrational beliefs before, during, or after exposure to simulated stressful situations. However, associations between irrationality and negative mood, and to a lesser extent between situation-specific irrationality and personali ty vulnerabilities, were obtained in the RD group but not in the ND gr oup. These findings are consistent with the possibility that RD person s on average may be especially susceptible to having irrationality pri med by negative mood states or by the important setbacks that can lead to such mood states.