Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol. 29, No. 6, December 2005 ( C  2006), pp. 747–768 DOI: 10.1007/s10608-005-4290-7 Cognitive Vulnerability, Lifetime Risk, and the Recurrence of Major Depression in Graduate Students Myriam Mongrain 1,2 and Susan Blackburn 1 The main purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of cognitive risk variables for previous episodes of major depression and for the recurrence of the disorder in a sample of university graduate students (n = 97). Participants were di- agnosed with at least one prior episode of major depression and were assessed again 16 months later (n = 77). Consistent with previous findings (Alloy et al., 2000. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 403–418), cognitive measures including dysfunctional attitudes and a negative attributional style were associated with a greater number of previous episodes of depression, controlling for mood, neuroticism, rumination, so- ciotropy, and autonomy. Cognitive vulnerability in the achievement domain as well as neuroticism and sociotropy were uniquely related to a greater number of previous episodes of depression. Negative attributions and autonomy predicted the recurrence of the disorder, controlling for past history of depression and all other variables. These findings suggest that the autonomous personality style and negative attributions are particularly pernicious for the recurrence of depression in graduate students. The cog- nitive variables were not related to anxiety diagnoses, but did predict Axis 2 disorders. KEY WORDS: depression; attributions; dysfunctional attitudes; rumination; sociotropy; autonomy; personality disorders. The cognitive model has been a central focus of psychological research on de- pression for the past two decades (see Abramson, Alloy, Hankin, Haeffel, MacCoon et al., 2002). This model posits that individuals with maladaptive cognitive patterns will be at an increased risk for depression when presented with a negative stressor (see Beck, 1967, 1987; Abramson, Metalsky, & Alloy, 1989; Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978). Many variants of the cognitive model have been proposed and reworked in an attempt to isolate those factors that contribute to the onset, mainte- nance, remittance, and relapse of major depression (see Ingram, Miranda, & Segal, 1998). Beck’s (1967, 1987) and the hopelessness theory of depression (Abramson 1 Department of Psychology, York University, Toronto. 2 Correspondence should be directed to Dr. Myriam Mongrain, Department of Psychology, York Uni- versity, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M3K 1P3; e-mail: mongrain@yorku.ca. 747 0147-5916/05/1200-0747/0 C  2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.