Depression-cognitive explanation Flashcards
what does the cognitive theory of depression argue?
that depression is caused by a faulty thinking process
what is catastrophising?
-escalating smaller problems into much bigger ones
what are attributional styles?
-how you explain causes pf events
what are the 3 dimensions to attribution for people with depression?
- internal-personal-blame themselves
- stable-event always happens
- global-generalise event/outcome to every future event
what are the 4 elements to the cognitive explanation of depression?
- negative attributional style
- negative self-schemas
- learned helplessness
- Beck’s Negative Triad
what is Beck’s negative triad?
-the idea that depressed people have negative views about the world that influence their feelings about themselves and their expectations of the future
what are the elements to Beck’s negative triad? (3)
- negative views about oneself
- negative views about the world
- negative views about the future
what is negative self-schemas? (2)
- if we have a negative self-schema we interpret all info about ourselves in a negative way
- past bad experiences create negative thoughts
what is learned helplessness?
the idea that if we face obstacles a few times then we give up on that task that has obstacles and become ‘helpless’
what are 3 things faulty information processing can lead to?
- catastrophising- a single negative event is blown into the precursor of a disaster
- all-or-nothing thinking- something goes wrong=everything e;se will go wrong
- disqualifying the positive- when someone says something positive about you, you just brush it off
what symptoms of depression can the cognitive explanation of depression explain? (8)
- suicidal thoughts- Beck’s triad of impairment-constant gloomy thoughts
- low interest/pleasure in activity-learned helplessness- don’t want obstacles so just give up/lose interest
- low mood-fault info processing/neg schemas
- change in appetite- faulty info processing/ neg attributional style
- concentration- beck’s neg triad
- fatigue-attributional styles
- feelings of guilt-neg triad
- sleep-beck’s neg triad
SUPPORTING
- Seligman- electric shocked dogs when almost got to top of hill- after a few times of doing it they stopped climbing-learned helplessness
- Yost&Weary-compared attributions to depressed patients and non-depressed patients-depressed people blame themselves for neg things
- Beck- depressed and control group kept diary-depressed people had more neg judgements about themselves
CONFLICTING (1)
-Lewinsohn et al- researched adolescent depression-found dysfunctional attitudes displayed when stressed
BUT couldn’t establish a cause and effect
OTHER EXPLANATION (4)
-monoamine hypothesis better- explains symptoms e.g. fatigue, sleep, appetite, lack of energy
-monoamine hypothesis better- objectively measure-cog have to self report
+cog better- explains symptoms- low mood, suicidal thoughts
-cog better- aims to look at route cause and basis of CBT
USEFULNESS (4)
+Beck’s neg triad-focus on in treatments
+gives depressed patient control of their illness
-blames person for depression- ‘snap out of it’
+face validity
