The role of attributional style, dysfunctional attitudes, and negative life events on depression in college students

Two major cognitive theories, Beck's cognitive theory (1967) and Seligman's reformulated learned helplessness theory (1978), have dominated depression research over the last fifteen years. Both of these theories propose a diathesis-stress model in which significant life events are imparted by specific cognitive styles; This study incorporated the major tenets of both theories to examine the role of dysfunctional attitudes, attributional style, and negative life events on Beck Depression Inventory scores in college students. It was hypothesized that the latter two components would interact with negative life events to predict initial and future depression scores; Ninety-eight introductory psychology students completed a series of questionnaires at four separate time periods. Trends were obtained for both attributional style and dysfunctional attitudes to interact with negative events to predict initial depression scores. Significant interactions were obtained in all three prospective time periods. The findings of this investigation lend support to both Beck's cognitive theory and Seligman's reformulated learned helplessness theory.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (MA)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Psychology

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Year

1993

Author dc:creator

• Frantom, Linda V

Statement dc:rights

• IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/rtds/349

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:oasis.library.unlv.edu:rtds-1348