Cognitive Apporach To Expalining Depression

Question 1

Beck: Automatic Faulty Information Processing (in the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey, butane in my veins and I’m out to cut the junkie)

Answer 1

Overgeneralization: holding extreme beliefs on the basis of a single incident
and applying it to a different or dissimilar and inappropriate situation.
- Absolutist thinking: an “all-or-nothing”, “good or bad”, and “either-or”
approach to viewing the world.
- Catastrophising: where a minor setback becomes exaggerated and viewed as
disastrous.
People with depression attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignores positives and tend towards black ad white thinking. This is automatic and can produce cognitive biases.

Question 2

Beck: negative schemas

Answer 2

A schema is a cognitive framework or mental representations of knowledge which helps us interpret the world.
These provide a negative framework for interpreting future events pessimistically.
Therefore, adults with depression tend to have negative thoughts/biases towards
themselves.
- Examples include:
- an ineptness schema, which makes sufferers expect to fail.
- a self‐blame schema that makes them feel responsible for any misfortunes.
- a negative self‐evaluation schema that constantly reminds them of their
worthlessnes

Question 3

Beck: negative triad
(FORCES OF EVIL IN A BOZO NIGHTMARE BAN ALL THE MUSIC WITH A PHONEY GASCHAMBER)

Answer 3

Negative views about the world – creates the impression there is no hope anywhere.
- Negative views about the future – reduces any hopelessness and enhances depression.
- Negative views about oneself – enhances existing depressive feelings because they conform the existing emotions of low self-esteem.

Question 4

Ellis’s ABC model

Answer 4

developed to explain response to negative events – how people react differently to stress and adversity. Ellis suggested it is through irrational thinking. The model provides the sequences of the process:
A- The Activating event: an adversity or event to which there is a reaction.
B- The Belief or explanation about why the situation occurred.
C- The Consequence – the feelings and behaviour the belief now causes. In
essence the external event is “blamed” for the unhappiness being experienced.

Question 5

Ellis - mustabatory thinking

Answer 5

Ellis argues that the source of irrational beliefs lies in mustabatory thinking – thinking that certain ideas or assumptions must be true In order for an individual to be happy. Ellis identified the three most important irrational beliefs:
- I must be approved of or accepted by people I find important.
- I must do well or very well, or I am worthless.
- The world must give me happiness, or I will die.
An individual who holds such expectations is bound to be disappointed and is at risk of becoming depressed. In order to treat depression which arises out of negative thinking, such irrational thoughts need to be challenged and turned into more positive beliefs.

Question 6

A strength of the cognitive explanation of depression is that negative manipulation of cognition can exacerbate symptom

Answer 6

Boury et al (2001) found that patients with depression were more likely to misinterpret information negatively (cognitive bias) and feel hopeless about their future (cognitive triad).
E: This demonstrates the presence of altered cognitive processing in depression, which is also supported by Bates et al. (1999), who gave depressed patients negative automatic thought statements to read and found that their symptoms became worse.

Question 7

A limitation of the cognitive explanation of depression can be criticised for being reductionist, as it only considers the role if thinking as the cause of depression.

Answer 7

E: It argues that depression is caused by thinking in a negative or irrational way i.e. mustabatory thinking, but does not account for other symptoms as well, such as extreme anger.
E: This assumption ignores that biological research has indicated that depression can be as a result of low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and that SSRIs can be effective treatments
L: Therefore, the cognitive approach can be seen to be too simplistic in that it does not account for all depressive phenomena, and that other approaches need to also be considered offering a more holistic view of depression.

Question 8

P: A limitation of Ellis’ ABC model is that it only explains reactive depression, but not endogenous depression

Answer 8

Our response to what Ellis conceives of as ‘activating events’, which consist of life events that can trigger depression, are likely to also be at least partly affected by our beliefs. However, many cases of depression are not traceable to specific life events, and the precipitating cause is not readily identifiable.
E: This is termed “endogenous depression”, and Ellis’ ABC is less effective in explaining this.
L: This means that Ellis’ model can only explain some cases of depression and is therefore only a partial explanation.