Diathesis stress component
Individuals who exhibit the hypothesized depressogenic attributional style should be more likely than individuals who do not to attribute any particular negative event to a stable, global cause and view the event as very important, thereby incrementing the likelihood of becoming hopeless and, in turn, developing the symptoms of hopelessness depression. However, in the presence of positive life events or in the absence of negative life events, people who exhibit the hypothesized depressogenic attributional style should be no more likely to develop hopelessness, and therefore the symptoms of hopelessness depression, than people who do not exhibit this attributional style. This aspect of the theory is conceptualized usefully as a diathesisstress component (Metalsky, Abramson, Seligman, Semmel, & Peterson, 1982). That is, the hypothesized depressogenic attributional style (the diathesis) is a distal contributory cause of the symptoms of hopelessness depression that operates in the presence, but not in the absence, of negative life events (the stress; see also Alloy, Kayne, Romer, & Crocker, 1988; Metalsky, Halberstadt, & Abramson, 1987). The logic of the diathesis-stress component implies that a depressogenic attributional style in a particular content domain (e.g., for interpersonal-related events) provides "specific vulnerability" (cf. Beck, 1967) to the symptoms of hopelessness depression when an individual is confronted with negative life events in that same content domain (e.g., social rejection). This specific vulnerability hypothesis requires that there be a match between the content areas of an individual's depressogenic attributional style and the negative life events he or she encounters for the attributional diathesis-stress interaction to predict future symptoms of hopelessness depression ( (Abramson, Metalsky, and Alloy 1989, 362)
Individuals who exhibit the hypothesized depressogenic attributional style should be more likely than individuals who do not to attribute any particular negative event to a stable, global cause and view the event as very important, thereby incrementing the likelihood of becoming hopeless and, in turn, developing the symptoms of hopelessness depression. However, in the presence of positive life events or in the absence of negative life events, people who exhibit the hypothesized depressogenic attributional style should be no more likely to develop hopelessness, and therefore the symptoms of hopelessness depression, than people who do not exhibit this attributional style. This aspect of the theory is conceptualized usefully as a diathesisstress component (Metalsky, Abramson, Seligman, Semmel, & Peterson, 1982). That is, the hypothesized depressogenic attributional style (the diathesis) is a distal contributory cause of the symptoms of hopelessness depression that operates in the presence, but not in the absence, of negative life events (the stress; see also Alloy, Kayne, Romer, & Crocker, 1988; Metalsky, Halberstadt, & Abramson, 1987). The logic of the diathesis-stress component implies that a depressogenic attributional style in a particular content domain (e.g., for interpersonal-related events) provides "specific vulnerability" (cf. Beck, 1967) to the symptoms of hopelessness depression when an individual is confronted with negative life events in that same content domain (e.g., social rejection). This specific vulnerability hypothesis requires that there be a match between the content areas of an individual's depressogenic attributional style and the negative life events he or she encounters for the attributional diathesis-stress interaction to predict future symptoms of hopelessness depression ( (Abramson, Metalsky, and Alloy 1989, 362)