POINTING THE FINGER AT DEPRESSION

In 1989, days before the 6.9 earthquake hit San Francisco, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, who worked in the psychology department of Stanford University, handed out a questionnaire to 200 students. Nolen-Hoeksema, a researcher into predictors of depression in children and adolescents, wanted to find out how much her Stanford students thought. Did they ruminate a lot? Did they tend to overthink things?

The earthquake that hit downtown San Francisco lasted just 15 seconds, but it was enough time to destroy bridges, buildings, and freeways;