Negative Cognitive Style and Cortisol Reactivity to a Laboratory Stressor: a Preliminary Study

According to the hopelessness theory of depression, some individuals have a cognitive vulnerability (i.e., negative cognitive style) that interacts with stressful life events to produce depression. A negative cognitive style is associated with a maladaptive cognitive response to stress (i.e., increased negative attributions); however, no study has assessed whether this cognitive vulnerability is also associated with a maladaptive endocrine (e.g., cortisol) response to stress. If shown to be related, individual differences in cognitive style may potentially explain why the literature on the association between cortisol stress reactivity and depression is mixed, as cortisol responses to stress may vary as a function of attributional style. The aim of the present study was to provide a preliminary test of whether cognitive vulnerability was related to cortisol reactivity to an acute laboratory stressor among a sample of young adults (n = 20; M-age = 23.1 years; 10 females). Negative cognitive style and depressive symptoms were assessed via the Cognitive Style Questionnaire and the Patient Health Questionnaire, respectively. All participants also completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Salivary cortisol was collected before, during, and after the TSST. Results showed a significant association between negative cognitive style and cortisol stress reactivity, such that a greater negative cognitive style was related to a larger cortisol response to the TSST. Post hoc analyses revealed that this association was moderated by gender (i.e., effect observed in males only). Cortisol responses to the TSST, in general, were lower among females, but this relationship was not moderated by cognitive style. These findings may be related to underlying gender differences in stress vulnerability, which may have clinical implications for understanding the interactive effect of cognitive and neuroendocrine processes on vulnerability and resiliency to depression.