Cognitive approach Flashcards
What disorder will the cognitive approach explain & treat?
- Depression
What does the cognitive approach explain about abnormality?
Give an example?
- Abnormality caused by irrational thought processes can be the root of disorders like depression
- e.g. Faulty information processing, how people perceive, reason & judge the world around them
What does the cognitive approach show us about depression?
- Cognitive distortions
- These are evident in depression & approach explains faulty information processes causes depression
What are the 2 cognitive explanations in the approach?
- Beck’s negative triad
- Ellis’s ABC model
What are the 3 components of Beck’s negative triad?
What are the nature of these thoughts?
- Negative view of self e.g. I’m useless
- Negative view of future e.g. I’ll always endure emotional pain
- Negative views of world e.g. the world is evil & hostile
- These negative thoughts are automatic
What does Beck’s triad say the negative thoughts come from?
What are they?
- Negative schemas
- They interpret all information about themselves in a negative way
- ineptness schema: expectation of negative schema
- Self-blame schema: feeling of responsibility for all misfortunes
What does Beck’s triad believe maintains negative thoughts?
What are the 3 categories of maintenance?
What do these do?
- Cognitive biases
- Arbitrary interference: Conclusions drawn from no evidence
- Minimisation: Minimalizing any positive events in life
- Over-generalisation: Sweeping conclusions drawn on basis of a single event
- Feed into individuals own self-perception & views about their place in the world, potentially leading to depression
What 2 things did Ellis propose about depression in his ABC model?
- Depression mainly result of irrational thoughts about external events
- Claimed depression was not result of the activating event but based on false cognitions (thoughts) about the event
What does the ABC stand for in the model?
A: Activation
B: Beliefs
C: Consequences
What’s the first phase of the model?
-First phase (Activation)
- Does not lead to depression: (rational thoughts)
- May lead to depression: (Irrational thoughts)
What’s the second phase of the model?
What did Ellis believe about this phase?
- Second phase: (Beliefs about A)
- Does not lead to depression: (desirable emotions/thoughts)
- May lead to depression: (undesirable emotions/thoughts)
- Ellis argued these Beliefs are crucial difference between getting depression/not
What’s the third phase of the model?
- Third phase (Consequences of B)
- Does not lead to depression: (desirable behaviour)
- May lead to depression: (undesirable behaviour)
AO3 cognitive explanation
Practical applications?
Beck & Ellis?
P - Explanation of depression has led to useful practical applications to help those suffering from depression
E - Beck & Ellis’s cognitive explanations form the basis of CBT
E - In CBT irrational/negative thoughts are challenged helping to reduce depressive symptoms
L - So high success rate of CBT validates the cognitive explanations
AO3 cognitive explanation
Incomplete explanation?
P - While theory is sufficient in explaining sufferer’s current state of mind it fails to fully outline the steps & processes for how the sufferer came to think in this way
E - Cognitive approach is vague in establishing how this occurs & why some people are prone to depressive thoughts
E - Shows that the theory fails to tackle to root causes of depression which may have more of an impact on treatment
L - Limits extent we practically use these theories to combat depression
AO3 cognitive explanation
Research support?
Temple Wisconsin study?
P - Research support that supports role of cognition in depression
E - Temple Wisconsin study of cognitive vulnerability sampled Uni students
E - No students had depression & were assessed per 3 months for 2 years: results showed 17% of those with negative thinking developed depression
L - Shows influence negative cognition has on the development of depression
AO3 cognitive explanation
Biological reinforcement?
P - While not a holistic explanation, the two cognitive explanations (Beck & Ellis) takes into account factors like genes & environment
E - Beck & Ellis both suggested environmental factors contribute to the development of depression & negative thinking
E - Ellis discusses activating events vs Beck who suggested people developed negative outlooks due to rejection in childhood
L - This shows the cognitive approach equally attempts to involve other external factors increasing the validity of the theories
What is the treatment for depression in the cognitive approach?
- Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT)
What is the basic aim of CBT?
- Works to challenge irrational thinking & improve behaviour & cognition of depressed patients
What are the basics principles surrounding CBT?
- Tackles cognition & behaviour
- Therapy is weekly/fortnightly sessions of 30 mins/an hour & lasts from 6 weeks to 6 months (brief)
- Therapy focuses on the present though the therapist may ask about the past if that’s relevant
- Problems are broken into parts to identify
What are the 4 components of CBT in treating depression?
- Identifying negative thinking patterns in depressed patients
- Challenge irrational thoughts of depressed patients
- Skill acquisition & application
- Follow-up
Outline the 1st component of CBT?
- Encourage the sufferer to speak about their problems
- One questions is the Beck depression inventory (BDI) containing 21 questions each related to a symptom of depression (useful indicator of mood)
Outline the 2nd component of CBT?
- Ellis (1962) called these ‘alternatives disputing beliefs’ & uses them to help rationalise the individuals thinking
- This is called reframing as it shows events in a more optimistic fashion (challenges negative thoughts)
Outline the 3rd component of CBT?
- Techniques are adopted: relaxation, optimistic self-statements to challenge negative conditions
- Enhances patients coping mechanisms & empowers them
- CBT is collaborative so assignments are set for the patient to complete
Outline the 4th component of CBT?
- Therapy then undergoes final assessment using self-reports (e.g. BDI) & compares before & after scores
- End of treatment & maintaining a positive frame of mind is discussed & top-up sessions may be used in the future
AO3 CBT
Research support?
March (2007)?
P - There is research support for CBT in treating depression
E - March (2007) compared CBT, anti-depressants & combination of CBT & anti-depressants (3 conditions) in 327 adolescents
E - After 36 weeks, 86% of CBT plus anti-depressants group had significantly improved vs 81% of other groups
L - Shows effectiveness of CBT in treating depression (without the unwanted side effects of medication e.g. addiction)
AO3 CBT
Aetiological fallacy?
P - Success of CBT could lead to aetiological fallacy, whereby we assume causes of depression are cognitive because cognitive treatments are successful
E - Just because some symptoms can be removed through CBT does not mean the causes are cognitive
E - e.g. Some people may need time to heal their depression rather than a therapy
L - So it is important to be receptive to the causes of depression & not have the view narrowed by the success of particular treatments like CBT
AO3 CBT
CBT tackles root cause of depression?
P - CBT tackles root cause of depression, unlike biological treatments such as anti-depressants
E - Improves chances that depressive episodes will be short-lived reducing chance of relapse later on
E - This could be due to the skill acquisition component of CBT, helping to inoculate depressed patients against further episodes
L - So, it could be argued the effects of CBT are more effective & longer lasting than alternatives
AO3 CBT
CBT is good because of patient-therapist relationship only?
Luborksy (2002)?
P - Some psychologists argue improvements with CBT are usually rooted in the therapist-patient relationship
E - It may be the quality of the clinical relationship that determines any improvements rather than techniques through skill acquisition
E - Luborksy (2002) found little difference between therapies, supporting the view having someone to talk to who listens matters most in depression recovery
L - This shows that the importance of CBT is actually rooted in the inter-personal relationship rathe than other components, could offer psychologists an area they need to research further
