Attributional and Irrational Cognitions,Depression and (Threat of) Job Redundancy

Abstract

The attributional reformulation of the learned helplessness model as well as the rational-emotive model make predictions about the nature of cognitions which are hypothesized to be related to depressive affect. In the present research for 27 (ex-)employees of a firm, who had recently been made redundant or lived with the threat of redundancy, whether attributional and irrational cognitions are related to depression was examined. For both types of cognitions, general and situation-specific, i.e., concerning the (threat of) job redundancy, beliefs were assessed. None of the attribution measures for bad events correlated significantly with depression. Both general and specific irrational beliefs were significantly associated with depression.