3. The cognitive explanation of mental illness Flashcards
Cognitive Approach (3 things)
- Concerned with processes of thinking, attention and perception that underlie abnormal behaviour.
- The cognitive explanation addresses symptoms and causes of mental disorder through examining irrational or maladaptive beliefs.
- Essentially the cognitive explanation relies on the idea that the cognitions of a person with a mental illness are somehow faulty; it is the way in which they perceive and think about situations that causes the difficulty, rather than the situation itself.
Evaluation of Beck’s Theory - Nature/nurture - S:
In the nature-nurture debate, cognitive psychologists take an interactionist position, believing that our behaviour is influenced by learning and experience (nurture) but also by our brains’ innate capacities as information processors (nature).
Evaluation of Beck’s Theory - Reductionism - W:
It does not explain all aspects of depression. The theory explains the basic symptoms of depression however it is a complex disorder with a range of symptoms, not all of which can be explained. There could be better explanations, the biological approach to understanding mental disorders suggests that genes and neurotransmitters may cause depression
Evaluation of Beck’s Theory - Individual/situation - W:
Looks at the individual.
This approach suggests that the reason why some has an abnormality is because of the way that they think; it blames the person’s thoughts and not their biology/ their environment. It may be that their biochemistry or their interactions in the family in childhood have had an effect on their disorder but these are overlooked and the person is blamed. This can be difficult to accept for the patient, but more importantly something that is having an actual effect in the environment may be ignored. Therefore the person may be being blamed for something that is not actually entirely their own fault
Evaluation of Beck’s Theory - Validity - S:
The most powerful support for the validity of the theory must be that it has led to the most successful treatments for depression. CBT in general has proved to be most effective in treating a variety of disorders including depression. For these to be so widely adopted and to be so successful, surely their underlying theory must have more than an element of validity.
Evaluation of Beck’s Theory - Ethics - S&W:
One strength is that the cognitive approach suggests that the client is responsible for their own thinking and therefore their depression. Whilst this could be seen as unethical, as it places more blame onto the individual, it also can be seen as an advantage as it means the individual has the power to change their thinking and therefore get rid of their illness
Evaluation of Beck’s Theory - Useful - S:
It has practical application in CBT Beck’s cognitive explanation forms the basis of cognitive-behavioural therapy. All cognitive aspects of depression can be challenged in CBT
Evaluation of Beck’s Theory - Scientific
The cognitive explanation of faulty thinking can be seen to be falsifiable as it can be assessed experimentally by asking about symptoms of depression and assessing faulty thinking, which Beck did, and found that the faulty thinking was more likely to be found in patients with depression than in people without that illness. However it could also be palliative, people who suffer from depression have faulty thoughts but their faulty thoughts may not necessarily be the cause of their disorder. The faulty thoughts may be an effect rather than a cause of mental illness making it hard to establish cause and effect
Outline the cognitive explanation of mental illness (5 marks) (model answer)
The emphasis of the cognitive approach is how thinking shapes our behaviour. The approach focuses on how irrational thinking leads to a mental disorder. Because depression is characterised by negative irrational thinking, cognitive explanations are wholly appropriate.
Beck is a cognitive psychologist who studied depression, he suggests that depressed individuals feel as they do because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretations of the world and they lack a perceived sense of control. He believes that the reason why people feel depressed is because of the cognitive triad. He says that there are three forms of negative thinking and people who are depressed usually show all three. These are; negative thoughts about the self (I am boring/undesirable/plain), negative thoughts about the world (I can understand why people don’t like me, even my boy/girlfriend left me), negative thoughts about the future (I will always be on my own). These can affect the way that a depressed person perceives the world, remembers information and attempts to solve problems. If they constantly think in these ways it will make them obsessed with negative thoughts and lead to depression.
Compare a cognitive explanation with one other explanation of mental illness [10] (model answer)
The Cognitive explanation of mental illness provides an individual explanation (Something about the person is used to explain behaviour) where as the behaviourist explanation focuses on a situational explanation (Something about the situation is used to explain behaviour).
The Cognitive explanation suggests that someone suffers from mental illness because of the way they think. Beck believed that people suffer from depression because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretation of the world, due to negative schemas they over-generalise and make sweeping conclusions about their self worth. Therefor an issue with the individual rather than the situation.
The Behaviourist perspective believes all behaviour is learnt and there for mental illnesses such as phobias are a consequence of the situation, experience they have. For example via the use of classical conditioning an negative reaction/feelings can be transferred onto new stimulus e.g. Watson and Rayner exposed little Albert to a loud noise that made him cry (the response)at the same time as a rat. After repeat exposure the loud noise was stopped and the reactionwas transferred to the white rat, causing anxiety (phobia) at the sight of the rat.
Both the Cognitive explanation and the Behaviourist explanation are useful due to their practical application for treatment
The Cognitive explanation suggests that mental illnesses such as depression is caused by faulty thought processes, maladaptive thought processeses which originate from childhood. This idea has led to the development of therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) which is a talking therapy that aims to change the way you think and has proved to be an effective in treating a variety of disorders such as depression.
The Behaviourist perspective however, focuses on the idea that if behaviours are learnt then they can be unlearnt and has produced treatment such as Systematic desensitisation (SD). SD is used to treat phobias, it aims to replace faulty associations between the conditioned stimulus and conditioned response that has resulted in a phobic response. It aims to replace the maladaptive response to a situation (fear) with a more appropriate response (relaxation) by getting participants to imagine situations whilst remaining calm.
Both the Cognitive explanation and the Behaviourist explanation can be considered as reductionist (over-simplify human behaviour, ignoring other variables that may be contributing to the mental illness) in their approach to mental illness.
The Cognitive explanation simply suggests that mental illness is caused by problems with the way someone thinks, however it is a complex disorder with a range of explanations, not all can be explained by this theory. For example, it doesn’t consider the genetic factors or the role of neurotransmitters that have been linked to causing depression.
The Behaviourist explanation focuses purely on the idea that behaviours/mental illness is learnt from the environment, it doesn’t consider other explanations for mental illnesses (such as phobias) where genetics or evolutionary explanations may shed light on the cause. There is research to show that phobias can be inherited from our parents so therefore there is more than one explanation – estimated that 65% of relatives share a phobia.
Cognitive Explanation - Beck Depression
Cognitive area views behaviours/disorders as being due to dysfunctional thinking/thought processes
2 key causes of depression:
1. Cognitive distortions – our perceptions are inaccurate due to negative thinking
Over generalisation
Viewing one unfortunate event as part of a never ending defeat or struggle
Filtering
Giving greater consideration and focus to negative aspects, while ignoring or downplaying positive ones
Catastrophisation
Making a mountain out of a mole hill; feeling that a situation/outcome is or will be far worse that it actually is or turns out to be.
2. The negative Triad – negative beliefs about self, world and future
Possible Interventions:
- Cognitive restructuring challenging and changing dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs.
Cognitive Explanation - Evaluation (2S, 2W)
Strengths
- Useful applications as cognitions can be changed allowing cognitive therapy to treat disorders
- Supports Free will as people can change their thinking
Weaknesses:
- Hard to objectively measure cognitions - unscientific
- Reductionist as it ignores biology and environmental factors
