4.3.2 Cognitive explanations of depression Flashcards
What does the cognitive approach focus on?
The cognitive approach to explaining depression looks at our ‘mental processes’ (thoughts, attention, perceptions) and how they affect our behaviour.
What is beck’s negative triad?
Aaron Beck (1967) explains depression as a vulnerability that can be caused by the person’s cognition (the way they think) and their negative schemas.
What 3 parts of cognitive vulnerability did beck suggest?
/Faulty information processing
/Negative self-schema
/The negative triad
Explain faulty information processing?
When depressed the person tends to ignore the positives in their lives and only focus on the negatives. The depressed person will blow small problems out of proportion. These cognitive biases cause the depressed person to constantly see themselves as worthless and useless.
Explain negative self-schemas?
A schema is a shortcut that acts as a mental framework for the individual. A self-schema is the framework of information they have about themselves. When depressed, the person will have a negative self-schema, which means they interpret all of the information about or around themselves negatively.
Explain the negative triad?
Beck suggests that a depressed person has three elements of negative thinking and these are called the negative triad:
/Negative view of the self: I am worthless/ unimportant/ useless/ a waste of time
/Negative view of the world: Everyone is against me
/Negative view of the future: I am never going to amount to anything
Strengths of Beck’s negative triad?
Personal life events are taken into account and are recognised as a starting point for the person’s depression.
Joseph Cohen et al. (2019) supported Beck’s findings, they tracked 473 adolescents, ensuring they measured their cognitive vulnerability regularly and found that those who had shown cognitive vulnerability predicted depression later on.
Real-world applications: Due to the findings of both Beck and following psychologists, it has allowed psychologists and therapists to understand cognitive vulnerability and apply it in treatments such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).
Limitations of Beck’s negative triad?
It does not explain the symptoms of depression, such as why different depressed people may experience different feelings, E.g. Feeling extreme anger, hallucinations, or extreme exhaustion.
Not all irrational thoughts are irrational: Alloy & Abrahamson (1979) found that depressed people had the ‘Sadder but Wiser effect’ where they gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of disaster than those not depressed.
Explain Ellis’s ABC model?
Albert Ellis (1962) had a slightly different view to Beck and suggested depression is caused by irrational thoughts and that rational thoughts cause good mental health.
What are the 3 points in the ABC model?
A: Activating event
B: Beliefs
C: Consequences
Explain activating events?
A: Activating event. This is a negative event that triggers the irrational thoughts, E.g. Losing your job.
Explain beliefs?
B: Beliefs. The thoughts which the person associates with the event, and why it happened: These can be either rational (healthy), E.g. I didn’t really like the job anyway and wanted a new one, or irrational (unhealthy), E.g. I am so useless, I will never get another job as I do not deserve one.
Explain consequences?
C: Consequences. Rational beliefs lead to health consequences (new job or job searching), Irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy consequences (believing you will never deserve another job, which leads to depression).
Strengths of Ellis’s ABC model?
REBT (a form of CBT) led by Ellis following the ABC model has been successful in treating depression and changing thought patterns.
David et al. (2018) stated that REBT can both change negative beliefs and change the symptoms of depression.
It lays the responsibility with the individual and allows them the power to change the way things are.
Limitations of Ellis’s ABC model?
Not all irrational thoughts are irrational, Alloy and Abrahmson (1979) found that depressed had the ‘Sadder but Wiser effect’ where they gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of disaster than those not depressed.
It does not explain all of the symptoms of depression, such as behaviours that differ, E.g. Extreme anger or exhaustion.
It gives responsibility completely to the individual suffering with depression, which in turn could be seen to be blaming them.
