psychopathology - cognitive approach to explaining depression

Question 1

What did Ellis say depression was the result of?

Answer 1

Ellis said depression is the result of irrational thinking, which prevents us from being happy and pain free.

Ellis proposed the A-B-C three stage model, to explain how irrational thoughts could lead to depression.
A = Activating event
B = Beliefs
C = Consequences

e.g. A= Activating event (failing a Psychology exam)

B= Beliefs about the event (‘I failed the exam, so I am unintelligent and useless’)

C= Consequences of these beliefs (low self-esteem, not working for other exams, continued poor results, depression)

Rational beliefs lead to healthy outcomes whereas irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy outcomes.

Question 2

Evaluation of cognitive explanation of depression - application

Answer 2

A strength of cognitive explanations of depression is that they can be applied to therapy.
The cognitive ideas have been used to develop effective treatments for depression, including CBT.
These therapies attempt to identify and challenge negative, irrational thoughts and have been successfully used to treat people with depression, providing further support to the cognitive explanation of depression.

Question 3

Evaluate cognitive explanations of depression - limited

Answer 3

A weakness of Ellis’ ABC model is that it is limited in explaining why depression occurs, as it does not explain the origin of these irrational thoughts.
Therefore, we are unable to determine if negative, irrational thoughts cause depression, or whether a person’s depression leads to a negative mindset.
Therefore, it is possible that other factors, for example genes and neurotransmitters, are the cause of depression and one of the side effects of depression are negative, irrational thoughts.

Question 4

Evaluate cognitive explanations of depression - research evidence

Answer 4

Grazioli and Terry (2000) found that women assessed to be cognitively vulnerable to depression were more likely to go on to develop post-natal depression, supporting that negative thoughts do lead to depression.

Question 5

Describe Beck’s cognitive triad explanation of depression

Answer 5

Beck developed a cognitive explanation of depression which has three components:
1) cognitive bias
2) negative self-schemas
3) the negative triad.

Question 6

Explain ‘cognitive bias’ in Beck’s cognitive triad

Answer 6

Beck found that depressed people are more likely to focus on the negative aspects of a situation, while ignoring the positives. They are prone to distorting and misinterpreting information, a process known as cognitive bias.
e.g. over-generalising and catastrophising

Question 7

Explain ‘negative self-schemas’ in Beck’s cognitive triad

Answer 7

A person with a negative self-schema is likely to interpret information about themselves in a negative way, which could lead to cognitive biases, such as over-generalising etc

Question 8

Explain ‘the negative triad’ in Beck’s cognitive triad

Answer 8

Beck claimed that cognitive biases and negative self-schemas maintain the negative triad, a negative and irrational view of ourselves, our future and the world around us. For sufferers of depression, these thoughts occur automatically and are symptomatic of depressed people.

The negative triad demonstrates these three components, including:

The self – ‘nobody loves me.’
The world – ‘the world is an unfair place.’
The future – ‘I will always be a failure.’

Question 9

Evaluate cognitive explanations of depression - irrational

Answer 9

It is assumed in the cognitive explanations that depression comes from irrational thinking, however some people develop depression after a negative life event e.g. a parent’s death.
It could be considered rational to feel deeply sad after this, even abnormal to feel anything else.

Question 10

What do cognitive approaches suggest about depression?

Answer 10

Cognitive approaches suggest abnormal behaviour arises from faulty/incorrect though processes.