Depression Intro and Cognitive Approach to Explaining Depression

Question 1

Define depression

Answer 1

Depression is characterised by changes to mood

Question 2

Describe three behavioural characteristics of depression

Answer 2

• *change in activity levels such as lack of energy and withdrawal from activities once enjoyed or increased activity
• disruption to sleep so red or inc sleep
• disruption to eating bhv so inc appetite leading to weight gain or dec appetite leading to weight loss

Question 3

Describe three cognitive characteristics of depression

Answer 3

• poor levels of conc so unable to stick to usual tasks or make straightforward decisions, interfering with indvs work
• negative schema so interpret all info in neg way
• black and white thinking so viewing bad situation as an absolute disaster

Question 4

Describe two emotional characteristics of depression

Answer 4

• *lowered mood so feeling sad, empty and worthless
• anger directed towards others or self

Question 5

What is the intro for the cognitive approach to explaining depression?

Answer 5

• cog approach explains how dep is caused by the way people think about info/situations or env
• if thoughts and perceptions are irrational and neg, indv is more vulnerable to dep

Question 6

What are the two theories into cognitive approach to explaining depression?

Answer 6

Becks negative triad and Ellis ABC model

Question 7

Describe Becks Negative Triad (negative thoughts)

Answer 7

• Beck suggested consistent neg thinking can make a person vulnerable to dep due to faulty info processing
• this causes indv to have black and white thinking so indv ignores all pos within situation and instead focus on the negative aspects
• he used the neg trias to exp that three kinds of thinking make indv vulnerable to dep
• neg views about the world e.g. world is a hard place
• neg views about future e.g. i will never achieve anything
• neg views about oneself e.g. i hate myself

Question 8

Describe Eliss ABC Model (irrational thoughts)

Answer 8

• Ellis ABC model emphasises the role of irrational thoughts that interfere with us being happy
• suggests there is an activating event, this is an ext event such as loss of job
• this can trigger irrational beliefs such as that we must achieve perfection, this is called musterbation and beliefs that life should be fair, this is called utopianism
• this causes emotional and behaviour consequences such as dep

Question 9

What are the three AO3 PEELS to evaluate Ellis ABC Model of the cognitive approach to explaining depression?

Answer 9

RTS - cognitive vulnerability
Strength - prac apps - CBT
Weakness - cannot est cause and effect