Cognitive assessment of unipolar depression: measuring products, processes and structures

In this article we survey current and emerging approaches to the cognitive assessment of affective disorder. Our review begins with an evaluation of the role of cognition in prevailing multidimensional models of unipolar depression. Within this framework, we distinguish three classes of cognitive variables that are operative in depression, and review strategies for assessing them. First, we consider methods of measuring cognitive product variables in depression (e.g. automatic thoughts, attributions, negative self-evaluations). Next, we focus on the assessment of cognitive and social cognitive mechanisms (e.g. irrational thought processes, social comparison processes) thought to play a proximal role in the development and maintenance of depressive phenomenology. Third, we review strategies for measuring the content and organization of the knowledge structures (i.e. schemas) postulated to underlie both products and processes. We conclude with a discussion of general issues and future directions for research.