Depression Explanation Flashcards
Which approach is used to explain Depression
Cognitive Approach
Cognitive Approach
Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression (1967) and Ellis’s ABC Model (1962)
Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression (1967)
Believes individuals feel as they do because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretations of the world and lack a sense of control
Three components to Beck’s Theory
Faulty information processing, Negative self-schema, and The negative triad (1979)
Faulty information processing
Process information in a faulty way e.g. black and white thinking, may blow things out of proportion, and over generalise. These are cognitive biases.
Negative self-schema
Some develop a negative self-schema in childhood, which means they have a tendency to adopt a negative view of the world. When a slightly negative event occurs their negative schemas are activated. This be become activated when entering a new situation which can lead to feelings of depression.
The negative triad (1979)
A person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of three types of negative thinking that occur automatically. These three elements are what makes the negative triad. When a person is depressed they develop a negative view of themselves which enhance any existing depressive feelings and confirm low self esteem, they also have a negative view of the world which gives the impression there is no hope, and then a negative view of their future which reduce hopefulness again. This is a cycle of negative thoughts that they get trapped in. Negative schemas and cognitive biases maintain this.
Ellis’s ABC Model (1962)
Good mental health is the result of rational thinking, defined as thinking which allows them to be happy and free of pain. Conditions like anxiety and depression are the result of irrational thinking, defined as illogical and unrealistic thoughts which interfere with happiness and being free from pain. He used ABC to explain how irrational though affected emotional and behavioural state.
ABC
A - activating event, experience a negative event which triggers irrational beliefs.
B - beliefs, this is the belief triggered by the event and if it is irrational it lies in musturbatory thinking which means certain ideas must be true in order for them to be happy. They will be disappointed by these. They also have utopianism which is the idea life is always meant to be fair, but it is not.
C - consequences, the emotional and behavioural consequences of these irrational beliefs is depression.
(B) Strength (A)
Practical application.
For example, CBT involves identifying and challenging all the cognitive aspects of depression including components in the negative triad.
Challenge their beliefs to encourage them to see they are false. Theory has formed base for treatment that does improve the quality of life of some individuals.
However… only explains basic symptoms of depression and not the anger or hallucinations e.g. Cotard Syndrome which means the theory is incomplete and it should be noted the treatment isn’t complex enough for this.
(B) Strength (S)
Research support.
Clark and Beck (1999) concluded that cognitive vulnerabilities were more common in depressed people but also that they preceded depression. Confirmed by Cohen et al (2019) who tracked 473 adolescents regularly measuring cognitive vulnerability and found it predicted depression.
This research ash temporal and population validity so can be generalised. This means that this theory has helped us to predict the people who may develop depression so we can then prevent it from happening.
Furthermore… Grazioli and Terry (2000) assessed 65 pregnancy women for cognitive vulnerability before and after birth and found women judged to have high cognitive vulnerability were more likely to suffer from post-natal depression. This helps to give the research greater support and shows can be generalised to other types of depression which gives the theory greater validity.
(E) Strength
Practical application is treatment.
Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) challenges irrational belief fiercely. David et al (2018) found that REBT is able to challenge negative beliefs and relieve symptoms.
This shows how the model has led to successful treatments which help people giving them a better quality of life which strengthens the explanation and gives greater validity.
However… only partial as some psychologists believe depression may not have a particular life event that has led to development, meaning his explanation can only be applied to reactive depression and not endogenous depression which means only successful in treating that type limiting application and validity.
(B) Furthermore
There are other biological treatments.
Often people with depression are giving SSRIs before a talking therapy to help them better engage. These are successful at helping to reduce symptoms.
This suggests that this explanation is reductionist as it only looks at the cognitive side when there must be a biological side relating to serotonin levels if SSRIs are able to be effective.
