Behavioural Explanations Of Depression - Lewinsohn Flashcards
What would be a classical conditioning explanation of depression?
It would suggest that we make associations between events or circumstances and mood change, and this leads to learned behaviour which is then diagnosed as depression
What is the behavioural explanation for depression?
The behaviours shown by individuals suffering from depression are learnt through either conditioning or imitation
How would operant conditioning explain depression?
It would suggest that a lack of positive reinforcement is directly linked with depression
Who argues that depression occurs as a consequence of learned helplessness?
Seligman
What was the aim of Lewinsohn’s study?
To compare the amount of ‘positive reinforcement’ received by depressed and non-depressed participants
What was the duration of Lewinsohn’s study?
It was a longitudinal study over 30 days
What did participants have to complete during the study?
A self-report of pleasant activities on the pleasant events schedule and a self-rating of depression using the depression adjective checklist
How was positive reinforcement operationalised?
It was operationalised as taking part in pleasant activities
Describe the sample of Lewinsohn’s study
30 participants who were diagnosed with depression, a disorder other than depression and a ‘normal’ control group was used
What was the design?
Independent measures
What experimental method did Lewinsohn’s study use?
A quasi experiment
What were participants asked to do on a daily basis?
Check their mood using the depression adjective checklist which included emotions such as happy and active, and the participants ticked the ones they felt best represented their mood on that day
How many activities did the pleasant activities scale consist of that participants were asked to complete?
320
How were the activities in the pleasant activities checklist rated?
They were rated twice on a scale of 3, once for pleasantness and once for frequency
What was there a significant positive correlation between?
Mood ratings and pleasant activities