Faculty

Related Links
Lab Website
KU Clinical Program

Research Interests
My research program focuses mainly on examining the cognitive causes, correlates, and origins of depression. Understanding anxiety-linked processes has also been the aim of some of my research. The current focus of much of my research program is on understanding the cognitive features of high-risk individuals. This research primarily examines the cognitive mechanisms of risk in adults, but also assesses processes linked to the possible developmental origins of cognitive risk. Specific projects have assessed information processing under conditions thought to elicit vulnerability, and have also examined the early experiences of vulnerable individuals that might predispose them to risk for later depression. For example, we have examined how problems in parental bonding and attachment are related to dysfunctional cognition in depression risk, and have also assessed dysfunctional information processing in high-risk children under affect-linked conditions. In general, this research has suggested that some of the cognitive mechanisms seen in adult depression are strongly linked to the experience of stress, and can be seen in children as young as 8 years old. The prevention of depression and mechanisms linking depression risk to health problems are also areas that I am beginning to explore.

Selected Publications
Ingram, R. E., Trenary, L., Odom. M., Berry, L., & Nelson, T. (2006). Cognitive, affective, and social mechanisms in depression risk: Cognition, hostility, and coping. Cognition and Emotion.

Scher, C. D., Ingram, R. E., & Segal, Z. V. (2005). Cognitive reactivity and vulnerability: Empirical evaluation of construct activation and cognitive diathesis in unipolar depression. Clinical Psychology Review, 25, 487-510.

Ingram, R. E., Bailey, K., & Siegle, G. J. (2004). Emotional information processing and disrupted parental bonding: Cognitive specificity and avoidance. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 18, 53-65.

Ingram, R. E. (2003). Origins of cognitive vulnerability to depression. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 27, 77-88.

Ingram, R. E. & Siegle, G. J. (2002). Methodological issues in depression research: Not your father's Oldsmobile. In I. Gotlib & C. Hammen (Eds.), Handbook of depression (3rd Ed.). New York: Guilford Press.

Ingram, R. E., & Price, J. (2001). Vulnerability to Psychopathology: Risk Across the Lifespan. New York: Guilford Press.

Ingram, R. E. & Ritter, J. (2000). Vulnerability to depression: Cognitive reactivity and parental bonding in high-risk individuals. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 109, 588-596.