depression pt1 Flashcards
What are the 3 behavioural categories for depression?
Explain
-Reduced activity levels, may feel lethargic (lack of energy) and struggle to get out of bed
-Disrupted sleeping and eating patterns, reduced or increased sleep and appetite and weight may increase or decrease
-Aggressive acts, e.g. self-harming
What are the 3 emotional categories for depression?
Explain
-Lowered mood, feelings of worthless or emptiness
-Anger, lead to emotions e.g. self-harming
-Lowered self-esteem, lacking confidence
What are the 3 cognitive categories for depression?
Explain
-Poor concentration, being unable to stick with a task and finding decision-making difficult
-Absolutist thinking, “black and white” when there’s an unfortunate situation
-Attending the negatives, bias towards focusing on negative aspects of situations
What are cognitions?
Give 4 examples
Thought processes
E.g. memory, decision-making, concentration, logic
The cognitive approach assumes depression is due to…? (3)
Negative, faulty, irrational thoughts
What does Beck believe depression is due to? (3)
-Faulty information processing
-Negative self-schemas
-Negative triad
What is faulty information processing?
Interpreting all situations irrationally (not based on evidence)
What are 3 examples of faulty information processing?
Explain
-Catastrophising, relatively normal events are percieved as disasters
-Black and white thinking, tendency to classify everything into one of two extreme categories e.g. success and failure
-Arbitrary inferences, drawing negative conclusions without having the evidence to support them
What is a schema?
So what is a self-schema?
Mental frameworks developed through experience
Mental framework where all information about the self is negative
What did Beck believe about self-schemas?
Give 3 examples of this
They were negative
E.g. “i’m ugly, no-one likes me, i hate myself”
What is the negative triad? (3)
Give examples for each
An individual has negative views on:
-the self “i’m worthless”
-the fututre “people’s views will never change”
-the world “people don’t value me”
What did Ellis propose?
Explain
ABC model of depression
Activating event
Beliefs about the event
Consequenses of these beliefs
According to Ellis, which part of the ABC model causes depression? Why?
Beliefs, it’s the irrational thoughts that trigger depression, not the event
Give an example of the ABC model
Activating event, failing a maths exam
Belief, “i’m unintelligent and useless”
Consequenses, low self-esteem and not working for other exams
What are the 2 features of the cognitive approach to depression?
-Beck’s theory
-Ellis’s theory
What is the real world application for depression?
PET (strength)
P: cognitive explanation of depression>successful treatment
E: CBT identifies and challenges irrational beliefs e.g. identifying patients aspects of the negative triad
T: CBT benefits the patient, economy and NHS
What is an alternative explanation to the cognitive approach? PET
P: biology causes depression
E: there’s lower levels of seratonin in patients of depression AND anti-depressants (corrects the imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain) are a successful treatment for depression
T: cognitions cannot be the sole cause
What is depressive realism? (weakness)
Name 2 situations where it may be normal to be depressed
Psychological hypothesis that states depressed individuals may be more accurate in their assessments of situations
E.g. death of a loved one, losing a job
What research support is there for the cognitive explanation of depression?
PET
P: there’s research evidence that supports
E: Terry and Grazioli found that pregnant women assessed to be cognitively vulnerable to depression, were more likely to develop postnatal depression
T: this research supports the idea that negative thoughts lead to depression
How is the cognitive explanation of depression an incomplete explanation?
PET
P: Beck’s theory explains the cognitive distortions that depressed patients go through, but NOT the emotional aspect that many face
E: the 3 emotional characteristics of depression
T: partial explanation as it cannot explain the patients whole experience, only the cognitive aspects
Is the cognitive approach of depression reductionist or holistic? Explain
Machine reductionism, simplifies to thought processes
Too simplistic, an interactionist approach would be more realistic
Is the cognitive approach of depression deterministic or free will? (Beck AND Ellis) Explain
Beck=deterministic, we’re controlled by our thoughts and cannot overcome them
Ellis=free-will, we choose how to respond to an activating event
W=blames patient
S=you can choose to overcome, “empowering”
