Cognitive approach: Explaining depression Flashcards
Beck’s Negative Triad
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
Beck took a cog app to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depp than others
In particular it’s a person’s cognitions that create this vulnerability
Beck suggested 3 parts to this cognitive vulnerability:
1. Faulty info processing
2. Negative self-schema
3. Negative triad
Faulty information processing
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
When depressed people attend to neg aspects of a situation & ignore positives
Depressed people may tend towards ‘black & white thinking’ where something is ether all bad or all good
Negative self-schema
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
Self-schema is package of info people have about themselves
People use schema to interpret the world
If a person has negative self-schema they interpret all info about themselves negatively
Negative triad
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
Beck suggested a person develops dysfunctional view of themselves because of 3 types of neg thinking that occur automatically regardless of reality of what is happening at the time
1. Negative view of the world - creates impression there is no hope anywhere
2. Negative view of the future - such thoughts reduce any hopefulness & enhance depp
3. Negative view of the self - such thoughts enhance any existing depressive feelings as they confirm existing emotions of low self-esteem
Evaluation: Research support
Beck’s negative triad
Strength: existence of supporting research
‘Cog vulnerability’ refers to ways of thinking that predispose a person to becoming depressed
Clark & Beck concluded not only were these cog vulnerabilities more common in depped people but preceded depp
Confirmed in prospective study by Cohen et al who tracked development of 473 adolescents, regularly measuring cog vulnerability
Found that showing cog vulnerability predicted later depp
Shows association between cog vulnerability & depp
Evaluation: Real-world application
Beck’s negative triad
Strength: applications in screening & treatment for depp
Cohen et al concluded that assessing cog vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people, identifying those most at risk of developing depp in future & monitoring them
Understanding cog vulnerability can also be applied in CBT
These therapies work by altering kind of cognitions that make people vulnerable to depp, making them more resilient to neg life events
Therefore, an understanding of cog vulnerability is useful in more than one aspect of clinical practice
Ellis’s ABC model
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
Ellis proposed good mental health is result of rational thinking that allow people to be happy & free from pain
Conditions like anxiety & depp result from irrational thoughts
Ellis defined irrational thoughts as any thoughts that interfere w/ us being happy & free from pain
Ellis used ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour & emotional state
A - Activating event
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
Ellis focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events
According to Ellis, we get depped when we experience negative events & these trigger irrational beliefs
Events like failing and important test or ending a relationship may trigger irrational beliefs
B - Beliefs
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
Ellis identified a range of irrational beliefs
He called belief that we must always succeed or achieve perfection ‘musterbation’
‘I-can’t-stand-it-itis’ is belief that it is a major disaster whenever something does not go smoothy
Utopianism is belief that life is always meant to be fair
C - Consequences
Cognitive approach: Explaining depression
When activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional & behavioural consequences
E.g. if a person believes that they must always succeed & then fails at something this can trigger depp
Evaluation: Real-world application
Ellis’s ABC model
Strength: application in psychological treatment for depp
Ellis’s app to cog therapy is rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT)
Idea of REBT is that by vigorously arguing w/ a depp person the therapist can alter irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy
There is evidence to support idea that RENT can change negative beliefs & relieve symptoms of depp (David et al)
Therefore, REBT has real-world value
Evaluation: Reactive & endogenous depression
Ellis’s ABC model
Limit: only expains reactive depp & not endogenous depp
There seems no doubt that depp is often triggered by life events
Such cases are called reactive depp
However, many cases of depp are not traceable to life events & it’s not obvious what leads person to be depped at a particular time
This type of depp is endogenous depp
Ellis’s ABC model is less useful for explaining endogenous depp
Therefore, Ellis’s ABC model is only a partial explanation as it cannot explain all cases of depp
