Developmental Antecedents of Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression: Review of Findings From the Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Project

Abstract

In this article, we review findings from the Temple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) Project (Alloy & Abramson, 1999) regarding potential developmental antecedents of cognitive vulnerability to depression after first briefly summarizing the evidence from the project that negative cognitive styles, information processing, and rumination do, in fact, provide vulnerability to depression. Based on the project findings, we suggest that a continuum of negative emotional feedback, ranging from low emotional warmth/acceptance and negative inferential feedback at the milder end to emotional abuse at the more severe end, may play an important role in the development of cognitive vulnerability to depression and depression itself.