The vulnerability of the depressed to life events: sadder and tougher

One of the greatest difficulties with research on the relationship between life events and health outcome, concerns the measurement of life events. Simple scales which involve preset prompted questions for endorsement fail to provide an indication of personal meanings and contexts. Semi-structured interviews which include contexts as part of the weighting involve subjective elements. More needs to be known about cognitive factors which influence personal meanings. The mildly depressed appear vulnerable to life events. Understanding of vulnerability is currently limited. The clues to the transmission of vulnerability lie with cognitive psychology. This article explores cognitive factors in depression as important determinants of the reaction to life events and explores the evidence which contradicts the view of depression as driven by pessimistic beliefs about the world. A new methodology for measuring life events is evolved as a consequence.