Lyn Yvonne Abramson

As a clinical psychologist, her main areas of research interest have been exploring vulnerability to major depressive disorder and psychobiological and cognitive approaches to depression, bipolar disorder, and eating disorders. She was the senior author of the paper "Learned Helplessness in Humans: Critique and Reformulation" published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1978, proposing a link between a particular explanatory style and depression.

With her co-authors William T. L. Cox, Patricia Devine, and Steven D. Hollon, she proposed the integrated perspective on prejudice and depression, which combines cognitive theories of depression with cognitive theories of prejudice.[1] Lyn and her coauthors propose that many cases of depression may be caused by prejudice from the self or from another person.[1] "This depression caused by prejudice – which the researchers call deprejudice — can occur at many levels. In the classic case, prejudice causes depression at the societal level (e.g., Nazis’ prejudice causing Jews’ depression), but this causal chain can also occur at the interpersonal level (e.g., an abuser's prejudice causing an abusee's depression), or even at the intrapersonal level, within a single person (e.g., a man's prejudice against himself causing his depression)."[2]

Along with her frequent collaborator Lauren Alloy, Abramson was awarded the James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award for 2008–2009 by the Association for Psychological Science.[3] She is on the Institute for Scientific Information list of highly cited researchers.[4]

Abramson, L. Y., Editor (1988). Social cognition and clinical psychology: A synthesis. New York: Guilford.

• Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., Hankin, B. L., Haeffel, G. J., Gibb, B. E., & MacCoon, D. G. (2002). Cognitive vulnerability-stress models of depression in a self-regulatory and psychobiological context. In I.H. Gotlib & C.L. Hammen (Eds.), Handbook of depression. New York: Guilford
• Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., & Panzarella, C. C. (2002). Depression. In Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. London: Macmillan.
• Abramson, L. Y., Bardone, A. M., Vohs, K. D., Joiner, T. E., & Heatherton, T. F. (2002). The Paradox of perfectionism and binge eating: Toward a resolution. In L.B. Alloy and J.H. Riskind (Eds.), Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
• Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (In Press). Cyclothymic personality. (2002) In W.E. Craighead and C.B. Nemeroff (Eds.), Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. New York: Wiley & Sons, Inc.
• Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Safford, S. M., & Gibb, B. E. (2002) The Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression (CVD) Project: Current findings and future directions. In L.B. Alloy and J.H. Riskind (Eds.), Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum.
• Spasojevic, J., Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., MacCoon, D., & Robinson, M. S. (In Press). Reactive rumination: Consequences, mechanisms, and developmental antecedents. In C. Papageorgiou and A. Wells (Eds.), Depressive rumination: Nature, theory, and treatment. New York: Wiley. (2002)
• Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., Hankin, B. L., Clements, C. M., Zhu, L., Hogan, M. E., & Whitehouse, W. G. (2000). Optimistic cognitive styles and invulnerability to depression. In J. Gillham (Ed.), The science of optimism and hope (pp. 75–98). Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation
• Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., Hogan, M. E., Whitehouse, W. G., Gibb, B. E., Hankin, B. L., & Cornette, M. M. (2000). The hopelessness theory of suicidality. In T.E. Joiner and M.D. Rudd (Eds.), Suicide science: Expanding boundaries (pp. 17–32). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishing
• Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (2000). Cyclothymic personality. In W.E. Craighead and C.B. Nemeroff (Eds.), The Corsini Encyclopedia of psychology and neuroscience. (3rd edition, Vol. 1, pp. 417–418). New York: Wiley & Sons.
• Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., & Chiara, A. M. (2000). On the mechanisms by which optimism promotes positive mental and physical health: A commentary on Aspinwall. In J. Gillham (Ed.), The science of optimism and hope (pp. 201–212). Philadelphia: Templeton Foundation
• Cornette, M. M., Abramson, L. Y., & Bardone, A. M. (2000). Toward an integrated theory of suicidal behaviors: Merging the hopelessness, self-discrepancy, and escape theories. In T.E. Joiner and M.D. Rudd (Eds.), Suicide science: Expanding boundaries (pp. 43–66). Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishing
• Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Raniere, D., & Dyller, I. (1999). Research methods in adult psychopathology. In P.C. Kendall, J.N. Butcher, & G.N. Holmbeck (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in clinical psychology (2nd edition, pp. 466–498). New York: Wiley
• Gotlib, I. H., & Abramson, L. Y. (1999). Attributional theories of emotion. In T. Dagleish & M. Power (Eds.), The handbook of cognition and emotion (pp. 613–636). Chichester, England: Wiley
• Panzarella, C., Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., & Klein, K. (1999). Cognitive contributions to mental illness and mental health. In F.T. Durso, R.S., Nickerson, R.W. Schvaneveldt, S.T. Dumais, & M.T.H. Chi (Eds.), Handbook of applied cognition (pp. 725–755). New York: Wiley
• Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., & Metalsky, G. I. (1995). Hopelessness depression. In G. Buchanan and M.E.P. Seligman (Eds.), Explanatory style. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
• Abramon, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1993). Hopelessness. In C.G. Costello (Ed.), Symptoms of depression. New York: Wiley
• Rose, D. T., & Abramson, L. Y. (1992). Developmental predictors of depressive cognitive style: Research and theory. In D. Cicchetti and S. Toth (Eds.), Rochester Symposium on Developmental Psychopathology, Vol. IV. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
• Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (1990). Search for the "Negative Cognition" subtype of depression. In C.D. McCann and N.S. Endler (Eds.), Depression: New directions in theory, research, and practice. Toronto: Wall and Thompson
• Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., & Metalsky, G. I. (1990). The hopelessness theory of depression: Current status and future directions. In N. Stein (Ed.), University of Chicago Symposium on Emotion. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
• Alloy, L. B., Albright, J. S., Abramson, L. Y., & Dykman, B. M. (1990). Depressive realism and nondepressive optimistic illusions: The role of the self. In R.E. Ingram (Ed.), Contemporary psychological approaches to depression: Treatment, research, and theory. New York: Plenum
• Abramson, L. Y., Alloy, L. B., & Metalsky, G. I. (1988). The cognitive diathesis-stress theories of depression: Toward an adequate evaluation of the theories' validities. In L.B. Alloy (Ed.), Cognitive processes in depression. New York: Guilford
• Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1988). The hopelessness theory of depression: Does the research test the theory? In L.Y. Abramson (Ed.), Social cognition and clinical psychology: A synthesis. New York: Guilford
• Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1988). Depressive realism: Four theoretical perspectives. In L.B. Alloy (Ed.), Cognitive processes in depression. New York: Guilford
• Alloy, L. B., Hartlage, S., & Abramson, L. Y. (1988). Testing the cognitive diathesis-stress theories of depression: Issues of research design, conceptualization, and assessment. In L.B. Alloy (Ed.), Cognitive processes in depression. New York: Guilford
• Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., & Kossman, D. (1985). The judgment of predictability in depressed and nondepressed college students. In J.B. Overmier and F.R. Brush (Eds.), Affect, conditioning, cognition: Essays on the determinants of behavior. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
• Halberstadt, L. J., Andrews, D., Metalsky, G. I., & Abramson, L. Y. (1984). Helplessness, hopelessness, and depression: A review of progress and future directions. In N.S. Endler and *J. Hunt (Eds.), Personality and behavior disorders. New York: Wiley
• Abramson, L. Y., & Martin, D. J. (1981). Depression and the causal inference process. In J. Harvey, W. Ickes, and R. Kidd (Eds.), New directions in attribution research. Vol. III. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
• Beach, S., Abramson, L. Y., & Levine, F. (1981). The attributional reformulation of learned helplessness: Therapeutic implications. In H. Glazer and J. Clarkin (Eds.), Depression: Behavioral and directive intervention strategies. New York: Garland
• Abramson, L. Y., & Alloy, L. B. (1980). The judgment of contingency: Errors and their implications. In J. Singer and A. Baum (Eds.), Advances in environmental psychology. Vol. II. New York: Erlbaum
• Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1980). The cognitive component of human helplessness and depression: A critical analysis. In J. Garber and M.E.P. Seligman (Eds.), Human helplessness. New York: Academic Press
• Garber, J., Abramson, L. Y., & Miller, S. (1980). The relationship between depression and anxiety. In J. Garber and M.E.P. Seligman (Eds.), Human helplessness. New York: Academic Press
• Metalsky, G. I., & Abramson, L. Y. (1980). Attributional styles: Toward a framework for conceptualization and assessment. In P.C. Kendall and S.D. Hollon (Eds.), Cognitive-behavioral interventions: Assessment methods. New York: Academic Press
• Abramson, L. Y., & Seligman, M. E. P. (1977). Modeling psychopathology in the laboratory: History and rationale. In J. Maser and M.E.P. Seligman (Eds.), Psychopathology: Experimental models. San Francisco: Freeman

• Depressive realism

• Professor Lyn Abramson homepage at University of Wisconsin–Madison official website