Stable trait components of hopelessness: Baseline and sensitivity to depression.

Young, Michael A., Fogg, Louis F., Scheftner, William, Fawcett, Jan, Akiskal, Hagop, Maser, Jack·1996·Journal of Abnormal Psychology
DOI 10.1037//0021-843x.105.2.155

Abstract

Hopelessness (H) plays an important theoretical and practical role in depression. The authors hypothesized that a patient's H is comprised of (a) a baseline level of H when not depressed and (b) an increment in H related to the severity of depression at the time and the person's rate of increase in H as a function of severity of depression (sensitivity). Baseline and sensitivity are explanatory stable traits; H and depression are observed, time-varying states. The corresponding statistical model described well the longitudinal data of 316 participants. Baseline and sensitivity were uncorrelated and correlated with different clinical and demographic variables. Baseline predicted a future suicide attempt; sensitivity and H when depressed did not. It may be useful to ask "How hopeless is this person when not depressed and how much more hopeless is he or she when depressed?", rather than simply "How hopeless is this depressed person?"

Cites (4)

  1. Learned helplessness in humans: Critique and reformulation.
    Abramson, Lyn Y., Seligman, Martin E., Teasdale, John D. · 1978 · Journal of Abnormal Psychology
  2. The measurement of pessimism: the hopelessness scale
    Beck, Aaron T., Weissman, Arlene, Lester, David, Trexler, Larry · 1974 · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
  3. Temperament, personality, and the mood and anxiety disorders.
    Clark, Lee Anna, Watson, David, Mineka, Susan · 1994 · Journal of Abnormal Psychology
  4. Relationship between hopelessness and ultimate suicide: a replication with psychiatric outpatients
    1990 · American Journal of Psychiatry

Show all 4 references

Cited by (25)

  1. Risk factors for suicidal thoughts and behaviors: A meta-analysis of 50 years of research
    Franklin, Joseph C., Ribeiro, Jessica D., Fox, Kathryn R., Bentley, Kate H., Kleiman, Evan M., Huang, Xieyining, Musacchio, Katherine M., Jaroszewski, Adam C., Chang, Bernard P., Nock, Matthew K. · 2017 · Psychological Bulletin
  2. Risk factors for suicide in psychiatric outpatients: A 20-year prospective study.
    Brown, Gregory K., Beck, Aaron T., Steer, Robert A., Grisham, Jessica R. · 2000 · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
  3. The psychology of suicidal behaviour
    O'Connor, Rory C, Nock, Matthew K · 2014 · The Lancet Psychiatry
  4. Cognitive Therapy for the Prevention of Suicide Attempts: A Randomized Controlled Trial
    Brown, Gregory K., Ten Have, Thomas, Henriques, Gregg R., Xie, Sharon X., Hollander, Judd E., Beck, Aaron T. · 2005 · JAMA
  5. A cognitive model of suicidal behavior: theory and treatment
    Wenzel, Amy, Beck, Aaron T. · 2008 · Applied and Preventive Psychology

See all 158

How to cite

Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.

This page
CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Stable trait components of hopelessness: Baseline and sensitivity to depression. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1037//0021-843x.105.2.155
The paper
Young, M. A., Fogg, L. F., Scheftner, W., Fawcett, J., Akiskal, H., & Maser, J. (1996). Stable trait components of hopelessness: Baseline and sensitivity to depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-843x.105.2.155

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.