cognitive explanation of depression Flashcards
key assumption of the cognitive approach to depression
individuals who suffer from mental disorders have distorted and irrational thinking - which may cause maladaptive behaviour
depression and attributional style (ao1)
attributional style refers to how you explain the cause of events
internal/external : personal or environmental
stable/unstable : always so or just on occasions
global/specific : all encompassing or specific to this situation
those with depression exhibit a negative attribution style
negative triad and depression (ao1)
people have negative views about the world that influence their feelings about themselves and their expectations. negative views about oneself and the future feedback into a negative worldview.
negative self schema and depression (ao1)
if we have a negative self schema we interpret all of the information about ourselves in a negative way
faulty info processing and depression (ao1)
all or nothing thinking : if something goes wrong it is taken to indicate everything else will go wrong
magnification : exaggerating the importance of minor problems
catastrophizing : a single event is blown up into the precursor of disaster
learned helplessness and depression (ao1)
people learn to give up because they have only experienced failure. they come to understand that they have no control over what happens to them and they begin to act and feel helpless
supporting and conflicting ao3 cognitive explanation of depression
Lewinsohn - found when stressed dysfunctional attitudes rather then environmental factors was the strongest predictor of depression, found little evidence that cognitive distortions are present before depression - supports that cognitive attitudes are related to depression OTOH no cause and effect
Yost and Weary - compared attributes of depressed students, when making attributes about someone else they were more likely to blame external factors but when making attributes about self they blamed their own personal shortcomings - supports as more likely to view self in a negative way supporting negative bias
Alloy and abramson - students with negative thought process were more at risk from depression - supports there is a relationship between negative self schema and depression
Hollon - cbt helps for at least as long as drug treatments - supports if the treatment is effective this suggests the theory is credible
other theories ao3 cognitive explanation of depression
:( biochemical may be better because monoamines can be empirically measured so may be more valid
usefulness ao3 cognitive explanation of depression
:) useful as cbt aims to challenge and change maladaptive thoughts and is effective
OTOH :( depressive realism - theory that someone with depression looks at things in a more realistic way - wouldn’t be useful
testability ao3 cognitive explanation of depression
:( cannot empirically measure a thought process so less valid
:( no cause and effect between negative thinking and depression less valid
