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Contributions of the Cognitive Style Questionnaire and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale to Measuring Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression

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Abstract

The first objective of this study was to separate the contributions of the Cognitive Style Questionnaire (CSQ) and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) to maladaptive cognitive patterns in their relations to symptoms of depression and their potential developmental origins: emotional maltreatment, parents’ typical feedback styles, and parents’ dysfunctional attitudes regarding their offspring. Other objectives were to examine these relations in the context of symptoms of anxiety and to learn whether selected aspects of the Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Project (CVD Project; Alloy, & Abramson, 1999) would generalize to a distinctive sample (n = 98). The same relations between the DAS and the CSQ and depression and developmental origins emerged as in the CVD Project,  but relations with the DAS were somewhat more robust.

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Notes

  1. For a review of possible antecedents of cognitive vulnerability to depression, see Rose and Abramson (1992).

  2. As with depression, we use the generic term “anxiety” to apply to both diagnoses and symptoms of anxiety. We specify diagnoses and/or symptoms as required by the context.

  3. This selection provides the strongest test of the hypothesis that cognitive vulnerability is associated with depression as measured by the BDI. It also provides comparability with the CVD Project in the degree of cognitive vulnerability in participants.

  4. Data in all multiple regression analyses are as independent as data from the same respondents can be. All multiple regression analyses reported in this study were conducted on scores from the same respondents, namely offsprings; no data from either mothers or fathers were included in these analyses.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Colin Duggan, Gina Insulato, Joe Michael, and Rich Martielli for their invaluable help with conducting this study, and Jillon Vander Wal for her careful, close reading of the manuscript. We would also like to thank anonymous reviewers for their contributions to the final form of this article through their thoughtful, informed comments.

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Correspondence to Michael J. Ross.

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We use the generic term “depression” to apply to both diagnoses and symptoms of depression. We specify diagnoses and/or symptoms as required by the context.

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Oliver, J.M., Murphy, S.L., Ferland, D.R. et al. Contributions of the Cognitive Style Questionnaire and the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale to Measuring Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression. Cogn Ther Res 31, 51–69 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-006-9067-0

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