[Representations of causality and depression. A factorial approach to the resignation model in the depressed patient]

The present study investigates causal attributions for stressful life events within the context of Beck's cognitive theory of affective disorders and Seligman's learned helplessness model of depression. The aim was to assess the validity of the depressive attributional style proposed by Seligman, with a clinically depressed population for negative life events. This study presents a factor analysis of the causal attributions of depressed psychiatric in patients measured in relation to one negative life event per subject. The experimental procedure consisted in asking 71 ward depressed patients (51 females and 20 males) to answer 15 items along a seven point scale in order to assess the causes, consequences and control attributed. Statistical treatment using both multidimensional analyses (to describe the dimensions of causality) and univariate comparisons show: 1. The existence of a three dimensional solution, which is interpreted in terms of Seligman's reformulated helplessness model, and which confirms the notion of a "depressive attributional style". 2. A positive relationship between intensity of depression and the tendency to generalize the effects of negative life events (dimension of globality in Seligman's model and generalizability in Beck's). As this relationship is a function of the level of depression it is considered as a psychological state rather than as a personality trait. 3. Inter-sex differences with regard to the attribution of personal versus universal control, with female patients indicating more personal helplessness in relation to others. The results are discussed in relation to epidemiological data and personality theory.