Toward an information-processing analysis of depression

This paper presents an analysis of depression based upon several standard information-processing concepts. According to this analysis, the initial experience of depression can be conceptualized as resulting from the activation of an affective structure referred to as a depression-emotion node. Once this unit is activated, depressive cognitions are proposed to recycle through the individual's cognitive networks, serving to maintain depressive affect. It is suggested that this depressive recycling process holds several cognitive and behavioral implications for the depressed individual. Potential mediating and exacerbating factors for this process are discussed, and the relationship of the present analysis to current theory and research in depression is considered.

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