Hopelessness Depression: An Empirical Search For a Theory-Based Subtype

Abstract

present the hopelessness theory of depression (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989) a revision of the 1978 reformulated theory of helplessness and depression (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978) (from the chapter) this theory is a complement to clinical and taxometric approaches and represents a theory-based approach to the classification of a subset of depressive disorders that is process-oriented rather than symptom-oriented describe the hypothesized cause, symptoms, course, therapy, and prevention of hopelessness depression as well as its relation to other types of depression and "nondepression" discuss how to search for hopelessness depression to see if it exists in nature and conforms to its theoretical description because the hopelessness theory is new, the evidence about its validity is not yet in / however, we have conducted a number of studies to test it and will report them (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved)