Depression: cognitive explanation Flashcards
characteristics, cognitive explanations
behavioural characteristics
- reduced activity due to loss of pleasure and interest
- weight loss/gain
- insomnia and hypersomnia
- fatigue/loss of energy
emotional characteristics
low mood, worthlessness and excessive/inappropriate guilt, suicidal thoughts
cognitive characteristics
lack of concentration which can interfere with their work, focusing on the negatives and recalling unhappy events
types of irrational thoughts
- overgeneralisation: making sweeping assumptions
- catastrophising: believing the worst scenario will happen
- personalisation: blaming yourself for everything that happens
ABC model - Albert Ellis
a: activating event
b: belief, how the event is interpreted
c: consequences
musturbatory thinking
the belief that certain assumptions must be true in order for the individual to be happy e.g. “I must be happy in my life or its not worth living”
Black and White thinking
if things aren’t completely good then they must be completely bad ‘no grey area’
Utopian-ism
the belief life is always meant to be fair
what is Beck’s theory of depression (1967)?
faulty info processing causes negative schema which interprets everything as negative bias
- negative self schema’s causes negative thoughts about ourself
- may be caused by childhood events
what is the cognitive triad?
negative views about self causes negative views about the world which causes negative views about the future
cognitive explanations strengths
- research support (depressed ppts made more logical errors
- useful applications (CBT is most effective)
cognitive explanations limitations
- alternative explanations for depressions (low levels of serotonin in people with depression)
- some beliefs may seem irrational but not actually be (depressive realists)
