Explaining Depression - AO1 Flashcards
Who created Beck’s negative triad and what did it do?
American Psychologist Aaron Beck (1967)
He took a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are moe vunerable to depression than others. It is a person’s cognitions that create this vulnerability
What is faulty information processing?
Depressed people attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore positive. People also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and think in “black and white terms.
What is arbituary influence?
Conclusions drawn in the absence of sufficient evidence “im useless - it’s raining on my birthday”
What is selective abstraction?
Drawing conclusions from one part of a situation “I’m useless - the play I’m doing lighting for is awful”
What overgeneralisation?
Sweeping conclusions based on one event, “I’m rubbish at everything, I got a C in this week’s homework”
What is catastrophisation?
“The car’s ruined now it’s got a tiny scratch” “Even though everyone says I’m beautiful they don’t really mean it”
What is a schema?
A package of ideas and information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of sensory information
What is a self schema?
Package of information people have about themselves
What is a negative self schema?
All see information about themselves in a negative way
What is the negative triad?
Beck suggested that a person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of three types of negative thinking that occur automatically, regardless of what is happening at the time
What are the three components of the negative triad?
Negative view of the world - “the world is a cold hard place, created impression that there is no hope anyhwere
Negative view of the future - “there isn’t much chance that the economy will get better”. Such thoughts reduce any hopefulness and enhance depression
Negative view of the self - thinking “i am a failure”, such thoughts enhance any exisiting depressive feelings because they confirm the exisiting emotions of low self esteem
What did Ellis (1962) propose?
Good mental health is the result of rational thinking, thinking in ways that allow people to be happy and free from pain
How did Ellis define irrational thoughts?
Not illogical or unrealistic thoughts, but as any thoughts that interfere with us being happy and free from pain
- Conditions like anxiety or depression result from irrational thoughts
What is the ABC model?
Ellis used the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state
- A - Activating event
- B - Beliefs
- C - Consequences
What is activating event?
According to Ellis we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs
E.g failing an important test
