The History and Development of the Hopelessness Depression Theory

The hopelessness theory of depression, mainly contributed by Martin Seligman, theorizes that the cause of depression is due to a belief that one has no control over the outcomes of their life, leaving them hopeless. “Learned helplessness” or “hopelessness” is a key phenomenon that helped Martin Seligman develop the theory of hopelessness depression. The current literature review traces the history of learned helplessness, from the first findings of evidence of the phenomenon to the development of the hopelessness depression theory

Spirituality moderates hopelessness, depression, and suicidal behavior among Malaysian adolescents

Suicide is an important public health problem for adolescents, and it is essential to increase our knowledge concerning the etiology of suicide among adolescent students. Therefore, this study was designed to examine the associations between hopelessness, depression, spirituality, and suicidal behavior, and to examine spirituality as a moderator between hopelessness, depression, and suicidal behavior among 1376 Malaysian adolescent students. The participants completed measures of depression, hopelessness, daily spiritual experience, and suicidal behavior. Structural equation modeling indicated that adolescent students high in hopelessness and depression, but also high in spirituality, had less suicidal behavior than others. These findings reinforce the importance of spirituality as a protective factor against hopelessness, depression, and suicidal behavior among Malaysian adolescent students

A test of the integration of the hopelessness and response styles theories of depression in middle adolescence.

The current study examined several theories of depression in a sample of middle adolescents. At Time 1, 367 ninth graders completed measures assessing depressogenic inferential styles, the tendency to ruminate in response to depressed mood, and depressive symptoms. Six weeks later, participants completed measures assessing negative events and depressive symptoms. In line with the hopelessness theory, a depressogenic weakest link interacted with negative events to predict increases in hopelessness depression symptoms but not in more general depressive symptoms. Further, providing partial support for the response styles theory, the tendency to ruminate in response to depressed mood predicted increases in hopelessness depression symptoms but not in more general depressive symptoms. Contrary to the integrative theory, the relationship between a depressogenic weakest link and increases in hopelessness depression symptoms following negative events was not moderated by a ruminative response style

Toward an understanding of the cognitive etiology of depressive reactions to life stressors: An evaluation of the hopelessness theory of depression

Abramson, Metalsky, and Alloy\u27s (1989) theory of hopelessness depression is the most recent model of depression to emerge from the learned helplessness tradition (Seligman, 1975). Hopelessness theory describes an etiological pathway by which a unique subtype of depression--hopelessness depression--is believed to emerge. The most proximal cause of hopelessness depression is the formation of a hopelessness expectancy. Experiencing a significant life stressor and either making stable and global causal attributions, anticipating adverse consequences, or inferring derogatory self-attributes is thought to contribute to hopelessness. In turn, generalized tendencies to make stable and global causal attributions, expect negative consequences, or perceive personal deficiencies in response to life stress purportedly increase the likelihood of making hopelessness-inducing inferences, and thus increase the risk of hopelessness and depressive symptoms. The present research sought to (a) provide a comprehensive assessment of the proposed etiological pathway and (b) evaluate the competing predictions made by the hopelessness model and its most immediate theoretical precursor, the reformulated theory of learned helplessness depression (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978). In a two-wave panel design, college undergraduates $(N=247)$ completed measures assessing the constructs of both models. Higher levels of dysfunctional cognitive styles and event-based inferences predicted increases in depressive symptoms only among subjects who experienced an upsetting interpersonal stressor that was also perceived as uncontrollable. Little support was obtained for the hypothesis that hopelessness mediates associations between depressive symptoms and either maladaptive cognitive styles or event-inferences. Consistent with the postulates of hopelessness theory, dysfunctional cognition appeared to render individuals vulnerable to depressive symptomatology in the face of life stress. However, the present findings call into question hopelessness theory\u27s elimination of control perceptions in its etiological pathway. Continued study of the control construct is encouraged as are future tests of hopelessness theory that use more sophisticated assessments of life stress and fine-grained measures of hopelessness expectancies

Daily stress and coping styles in adolescent hopelessness depression: Moderating effects of gender.

The hopelessness depression (HD) theory assumes a number of contributing factors to the development of hope- lessness expectations and HD symptoms. However, little research has been conducted in order to examine gen- der differences in the relationship of these factors with HD. This study explored the relationship of daily stress and coping styles with HD in adolescents and analysed the moderating effects of gender. Secondary students (N = 480; aged 13–17) completed the Hopelessness Scale, the Hopelessness Depression Symptoms Question- naire, the Problem Questionnaire and the Coping Across Situations Questionnaire. Using hierarchical regression analyses, results showed a moderating effect of gender on the relationship between daily stress and hopelessness expectations, which revealed a significant effect for boys despite the fact that girls experienced more daily stress than boys. Regarding coping styles, results showed that the avoidant coping style predicted HD independently of gender and, interestingly, a moderating effect of gender for the active and internal coping styles. While the active coping style showed a protective effect for HD symptoms in girls, the internal coping style played an analogous role in boys, suggesting that girls would benefit from being more action-prone and boys from being more reflection-prone in order to prevent HD

Relationship between attributional dimensions, negative life events and depression: A “hopelessness” model test

Teorija beznadnosti noviji je kognitivni model koji objašnjava nastanak depresije, prema kojoj neadaptivni način atribuiranja događaja u interakciji sa stresom dovodi do razvoja i pojačavanja depresivnih simptoma. Također se pretpostavlja da su načini atribuiranja događaja i njihova interakcija sa stresom bolje povezani sa specifičnom konstelacijom simptoma depresije beznadnosti, nego s općim simptomima depresije. Cilj je istraživanja bio provjeriti etiološke postavke teorije beznadnosti u objašnjenju depresivnosti kod populacije mlađih i srednjih adolescenata. Sudionici su bili 419 učenika sedmih i osmih razreda osnovne škole, te prvih, drugih i trećih razreda srednje škole. Rezultati su pokazali da je smještanje uzroka negativnih događaja na atribucijskim dimenzijama povezano sa simptomima depresivnosti i depresije beznadnosti, ali da nakon kontrole samopoštovanja stabilnost, internalnost i globalnost uzroka negativnih događaja predviđaju samo simptome depresije beznadnosti, dok nemaju efekata na opće simptome depresivnosti. Također, interakcije stabilnosti, internalnosti i globalnosti uzroka negativnih događaja s frekvencijom negativnih događaja predviđaju simptome depresije beznadnosti, ali ne i opće simptome depresivnosti. Nadalje, nije pronađeno dovoljno dokaza u prilog pretpostavci da beznadnost djeluje kao medijator u povezanosti interakcije negativnih atribucija i stresa sa simptomima depresije beznadnosti.The “hopelessness” theory is a recent cognitive model of depression, according to which maladaptive attributional patterns in interaction with stress lead to the development and aggravation of depressive symptoms. It also suggests that attributional patterns and their interaction with stress are closely related to the specific constellation of symptoms, called “hopelessness depression”, than to general depressive symptoms. The purpose of this study was to test the etiological predictions of the “hopelessness depression” theory on a sample of early to middle adolescents. The sample consisted of 419 students attending 7th and 8th grade of primary school, and 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade of high school. The results showed that attributional dimensions for negative events are related to symptoms of both depression and “hopelessness depression”, but after the effect of self-esteem was partialed out, stability, internality and globality of causes for negative events predicted only symptoms of “hopelessness depression”, while having no effect on general depressive symptoms. Also, interaction of stability, internality and globality of causes with negative events predicted only symptoms of “hopelessness depression”, and not general depressive symptoms. The results did not support the assumption that “hopelessness” is a mediator in the association between negative attributions – stress interaction and “hopelessness depression” symptoms

Hopelessness Depression as a Predictive Risk Factor for Recidivism and Survival Time Among Juvenile Offenders

In the United States, there is a high incidence of recidivism among juvenile offenders with mental health disorders. This is a critical social issue facing the public and the Department of Juvenile Justice Administration today. However, research is not clear on the role of psychological factors in recidivism frequency and survival time. The purpose of this study was to examine whether hopelessness depression, as measured by suicidal-ideation, depression-anxiety, anger-irritation, and alcohol-drug use, and offense type, were predictors of recidivism frequency and survival time when controlling for age, gender, and race. The total sample consisted of archival data from 404 juvenile offenders between the ages 13 and 19, who were detainees in the Juvenile Detention facility between January 1, 2009, and December 31, 2012. Data consisted of scores from the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument, which is part of the standard intake screening at time of booking. A hierarchical regression analysis indicated a collective significant predictive relationship between age, gender, race, suicidal-ideation, depression-anxiety, anger-irritation, alcohol-drug-use, and recidivism frequency and survival time. Posthoc analyses of variance indicated statistically significant differences in alcohol-drug-use and anger-irritation levels between races. However, the multiple linear regression indicated that suicidal-ideation and depression-anxiety did not significantly predict either recidivism frequency or survival time. Results could enable juvenile justice staff to detect hopelessness depression among juvenile reoffenders at an earlier stage and offer better treatment aimed at reducing future occurrences of youth recidivism, thereby benefitting individuals as well as society