PubMed · 7242752
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1980. Cognitive processes.. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7242752/
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For 21 days, 123 undergraduates provided measures of their self-esteem, anxiety, causal uncertainty, perceived control over outcomes, and the three constructs comprising A. T. Beck's (1972) cognitive triad. Factor analyses of measures of the mean level and day-to-day instability of these constructs produced 2 factors, level of well-being and day-to-day instability of well-being. Participants also provided 4 measures of risk for depression over 2 1/2 months. For participants who were not at risk for depression, level of day-to-day well-being was negatively related to risk for depression, and this effect was not moderated by day-to-day instability. In contrast, for participants who were classified as at-risk for depression, day-to-day instability of well-being moderated the strength of the negative relationship between level of well-being and risk for depression. The relationship between level of well-being and depression was stronger for participants who were more unstable.
Attempts to predict depression from a strictly cognitive perspective have met with limited success. A goal-orientation model is proposed that integrates motivational and cognitive factors in attempting to explain and predict depression. The model proposes that people differ in their goal orientation, with some people being more validation seeking (VS) and others being more growth seeking (GS). The model predicts that compared with GS persons, VS persons will show greater anxiety in anticipation of a stressful event and greater self-esteem loss, task disengagement, and depression after a negative event. A goal-orientation measure was developed (Study 1), and the predictive validity of the model was tested (Studies 2-5). Findings suggest that the explanatory and predictive power of the cognitive theories can be enhanced, and the arsenal of the cognitive therapist enlarged, by integrating motivational and cognitive approaches to depression.