Cognitive-personality characteristics as direct predictors of unipolar major depression

Increasing evidence indicates that multiple risk factors can contribute dir ectly to depression. The current work explores the direct relationships bet ween the cognitive-personality characteristics of sociotropy-autonomy and d epression in a sample of 43 patients with DSM-IV unipolar major depression and 43 nondepressed community controls. Controls were matched to cases on a ge, race, and sex, and all analyses controlled for the effects of adverse l ife events and socioeconomic status. Specific subscales of sociotropy (i.e. , concern about disapproval) and autonomy (i.e., need for control) were str ong predictors of depressive status independent of the occurrence of stress ful life events. Findings indicate that it remains useful to examine cognit ive-personality characteristics as direct predictors of depression, and tha t core features of these cognitive-personality styles are likely to provide a better measure of depressive vulnerability than are global indices.