Stress Generation: A Special Section

摘要

We are pleased to present a special section on Stress Generation and Depression. Ham-men (1991) used the term "stress generation" to focus on the tendency of people witha history of depression to have stressful lives, notably including an increased incidenceof acute stressors to which they have contributed at least in part, such as interpersonalevents, and specifically, conflict events. In the original study, women with histories ofunipolar depression had significantly more such events over a one-year follow-up pe-riod than did comparison groups of medically ill, bipolar, or well women. The implica-tions of stress generation are clear: depression researchers need to focus not just on theeffects of stress on depression, but also on the effects of people on stress occurrence,with the grim prospect of continuing, bidirectional patterns of stress and depression.In the ensuing years, there have been many studies confirming this maladaptivepattern. The current special section arose from a symposium presented at the Associa-tion for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies in 2009, which reflected some of the newdirections of research in this area. We would like to thank John Riskind for his interestin and support of stress generation research and for proposing this special topics issue.important information to be learned about the pivotal actions that create pathways to adverse life contexts, or the life circumstances that shape and result in limited options and resources, as well as in individual characteristics, that create broad contexts that themselves promote stress generation over a lifetime and perhaps across generations