cognitive approach to explaining depression

Question 1

cognitive

Answer 1

• mental processes (thoughts, perceptions, attention) and how they affect behaviour

Question 2

beck’s negative triad

Answer 2

• american psychiatrist Aaron Beck (1967) took a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression than others
• cognitions create this vulnerability

Question 3

cognitive vulnerability

Answer 3

• ways of thinking that may predispose a person to becoming depressed

Question 4

faulty information processing

Answer 4

• depressed people attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives
• people also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and have absolutist thinking

Question 5

cognitive distortions

Answer 5

• inaccurate and irrational automatic thoughts or ideas that lead to false assumptions and misinterpretations
• magnification which exaggerates the significance of an event
• minimisation = underplays positive events

Question 6

negative self-schema

Answer 6

• a self-schema is a mental framework that people have about themselves
• people with a negative self-schema interpret all information about themselves in a negative way

Question 7

AO3 - Research support for Beck

Answer 7

• Clark and Beck (1999) in a review concluded that not only were these cognitive vulnerabilities more common in depressed people but they preceded depression
• In a prospective study why Cohen et al. (2019), 473 teens were tracked and their cognitive vulnerability measured
• It was found that cognitive vulnerability preceded depression

Question 8

The Negative triad

Answer 8

• Beck suggested that a person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of the 3 types of negative thinking that occur regardless of the reality of what is happening at the time
• Negative view of the world (no hope available)
• Negative view of the future (reduce any hopefulness)
• Negative view of self (enhance any existing depressive feelings because they confirm the existing emotions of low self-esteem)

Question 9

AO3 - Real-world application for Beck

Answer 9

:) - Application in screening and treatments for depression
- Cohen concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people, identifying those most at risk in the future of developing depression and monitoring them
- This can also be applied in CBT, which works by altering the kind of cognitions that make people vulnerable to depression, making them more resilient to everyday life

Question 10

Ellis’s ABC Model - context

Answer 10

• Another American psychologist, Albert Ellis (1962), suggested that good mental health is the result of rational thinking, defined as thinking in ways that allow people to be happy and free from pain
• To Ellis, conditions like anxiety and depression result from irrational thoughts
• These thoughts aren’t illogical or unrealistic, but as any thoughts that interfere with us being happy and free from pain

Question 11

ellis’s abc model

Answer 11

• explains how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state

Question 12

A

Answer 12

activating event - Ellis focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events
- we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs

Question 13

B

Answer 13

beliefs - Ellis identified a range of irrational beliefs. He called the belief that we must always succeed or achieve ‘musturbation’
- ‘Ican’t-stand-it-itis’ is the belief that it is a major disaster when something doesn’t go smoothly
- Utopianism is the belief that life is always meant to be fair

Question 14

C

Answer 14

consequences - When an activating event triggers irrational beliefs, there are emotional and behavioural consequences

Question 15

AO3 - Real word application for Ellis

Answer 15

:) - Ellis’ approach to cognitive therapy is called rational emotive behaviour therapy or REBT for short
- The idea of REBT is that by vigorously arguing with the depressed person you can alter the irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy

Question 16

AO3 - Reactive and endogenous depression

Answer 16

:( - Limitation of Ellis’ model is that it explains reactive but not endogenous depression
- Depression can be triggered by a life (activating event) called reactive depression
- However many cases of depression are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what led a person to become depressed = endogenous depression

Question 17

AO3 - Ethical issues

Answer 17

:( - ABC model is controversial as it puts the blame solely on the depressed person, critics say this is effectively blaming them which is unfair