Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol. 18, No. 6, 1994 Inferences About the Self, Attributions, and Overgeneralization as Predictors of Recovery from Dysphoria I Ruth E. Edelman, 2 Anthony H. Ahrens, and David A. F. Haaga The American University Based on a model of recovery from depression drawn from hopelessness theory (Needles & Abramson, 1990), we expected that in the presence of favorable events, cognitive style would predict the development of hope, and thus recovery from dysphoria. Among 91 subjects initially scoring 9 or above on the Beck Depression Inventory, a stable, global attributional style for positive events, in the presence of positive events, tended to predict recovery by a 3-week followup assessment. However, contrary to our prediction, inferring positive characteristics about the self from the occurrence of good events was associated with more subsequent depressive symptoms. An exploratory measure of overgeneralization of negative events predicted more subsequent symptoms. KEY WORDS: hopelessness theory; overgeneralization; dysphoria; recovery processes. According to hopelessness theory (Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989), there are three distinct cognitive diatheses for hopelessness depression. People who tend to (a) attribute negative events to stable and global causes, or (b) make negative inferences about themselves when negative events tThis paper was based on the masters thesis of Ruth Edelman under the direction of Anthony Ahrens at The American University. Many thanks to Dianne L. Chambless and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on previous drafts of this manuscript, to Douglas Needles and Lyn Abramson for consultations about their procedures, and to Martin Edelman, Christopher McMahon, Walter Goldstein, Steven Livingston, Michael Malbin, and Bruce Miroff for their assistance in data collection. This research was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health grant 1 R03 MH47003-01A1 to Anthony H. Ahrens. 2Address all correspondence to Anthony Ahrens, Department of Psychology, The American University, 4400 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20016. 551 0147-5916/94/1200-0551507.00/0 9 1994PlenumPublishing Corporation