Depression Flashcards
what is depression
a mood affective disorder that involves loss of pleasure in activities and struggling to cope with everyday life
what are the two cognitive explanations of depression
- Beck
- Ellis’ ABC model
how Aaron Beck explain depression
1 faulty information processing
cognitive biases
over-generalisation- making sweeping conclusions about one negative event
catastrophising- one minor setback being overexaggerated
2 negative triad
negative view of
self
world
future
3 people have negative self-schemas (a cognitive framework that contains information about how we view ourselves) developed from childhood
a negative self-schema means they interpret all of the information about or around themselves negatively
what are the cognitive characteristics of depression
- negative irrational thoughts
- poor concerntration
what are the behavioral characteristics of depression
- changes in appetite
- changes in sleep, insomnia or hypersomnia
- self harm
what are the emotional characteristics of depression
- low self-esteem
- lowered mood
- anger
what is Ellis’ explanation of depression
- poor mental health (depression) is caused by irrational thoughts (which he defined as thoughts that interfere with happiness)
- his ABC model helps explain how irrational thoughts affect behaviour and emotions
A activating event - a negative event that triggers irrational thoughts
B beliefs - the thoughts a person associates with the event can be either rational (healthy) or irrational (unhealthy)
C consequences - irrational thoughts lead to unhealthy consequences (depression)
evaluate Beck’s explanation of depression
+ Grazioli and Terry studied 65 pregnant women, assessing them for cognitive vulnerability and depression before and after giving birth. FOUND that women with cognitive vulnerability were more likely to develop post-natal depression
+ Real-life application, helped in the development of cognitive behavioural therapy, the success of the therapy shows that cognitive vulnerability is contributing to depression
- only a partial explanation, it can’t fully explain all depressive symptoms, for example, extreme anger, hallucinations and delusions
evaluate Ellis’ explanation of depression
+ successful application of REBT Ellis’ rational emotive behaviour therapy shows that challenging irrational beliefs about events can reduce depression
- places blame on the clients thinking which could be problematic as environmental factors like family could be playing a role, this may make it difficult for the client to be motivated and committed to the process
- only a partial explanation as it can’t explain why depression may arise without an obvious cause (like activating events), for example, the biological explanations suggest that low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin are linked to depression. the success of drug therapies has further supported this idea. it could be argued by psychologists that irrational thoughts are the symptoms rather than the cause
what is CBT
- cognitive behavioural therapy aims to challenge the way the client thinks, change this which in turn will change behaviour
outline Beck’s CBT
- sees the patient as a scientist, they test and compare their irrational thoughts to reality, once they realise they don’t match the irrational thoughts can be discarded
- the client will have homework tasks (like writing a diary) to help record negative thoughts and situations that cause this
- positive thoughts are also recorded to help challenge clients thinking with evidence
- the client is encouraged to enter these situations (behavioural activation) and compare their irrational thoughts to the reality of how the situations are
oultine Ellis’ REBT
- rational emotive behaviour therapy is a development of Ellis’ ABC model adding D for dispute and E for effect
- Disputing is the therapist confronting the client’s irrational beliefs, consists of empirical arguments (challenging the client to provide evidence for their irrational beliefs) and logical arguments (attempting to show their irrational beliefs don’t make sense)
- Effect, the effect of changing the irrational beliefs (B) is healthier consequences (c)
what is the difference between Beck’s CBT and REBT
- Beck’s CBT helps clients figure out the irrationality of their thoughts themselves whereas in REBT the therapist explain and challenges the irrational thoughts through disputation
outline MARCH ET AL.
MARCH ET AL. (2007) compared CBT to drug therapies. took 327 depressed patients and split them into three treatment groups, antidepressants, CBT, and a combination group. the CBT and the antidepressant group had 81% rate but the combination group had a success rate of 86%.
- this supports the successfulness of CBT
- but also suggests that some people may be too severely depressed to engage with the demands of CBT and drug therapy may need to be implemented before psychological therapy.
- despite drug therapy and CBT having the same success rates, drug therapy may be more applicable as it doesn’t rely on patients being motivated and is a cheaper option
AO3 evaluation of CBT
+ - patients play an active role and responsibility in CBT which could be argued as a positive and empowering opportunity for patients to take control of their lives HOWEVER it could be seen as victim blaming as it blames the depression on the clients negative thinking
- both CBT and REBT focus too much on the present and ignores past trauma or experiences that may be affecting the client
- implications for the economy, CBT is much more expensive for the NHS to provide than drug therapies as it requires a trained therapist and may take between 16 and 20 sessions
