🟠Psychopathology - Depression Flashcards
What is depression
- aka major depressive disorder or clinical depression
- mood disorder characterised by low mood
- causes a number of changes to the way you think, feel and behave
- symptoms vary in severity and duration
Behaviour characteristics of depression
- activity levels: reduction in energy levels, become lethargic and withdrawn. Sometimes the opposite, constant agitation (psychomotor agitation)
- disruption to sleeping and eating: insomnia or hyoersomnia. Appetite may increase or decrease, weight gain or loss
- aggression and self harm: aggression, erratic behaviour, self harm
Emotional characteristics of depression
- lowered mood: vert sad, emptiness, worthless and dejection
- anger: extreme, self harm, harm to others
- low self esteem: we don’t like ourselves, hatred and self loathing
Cognitive characteristics of depression
- poor concentration: unable to stick to a task, lack decision making ability, interfere with work
- dwelling on the negative: pay more attention to negatives, recall unhappy events
- absolutist thinking: black and white thinking
What is black and white thinking called
Absolutist thinking
Becks theory of explanation
- faulty information processing: selective attention to environment, attend to negative aspects of the world, black and white thinking
- negative self schemas: ideas developed through lived experience. We receive sensory information from the world around us and our schemas act as mental framewor for interpretation, with depression, will interpret negatively
Becks negative triad
- negative views about the world
- negative views about oneself
- negative views about the future
Positives of becks explanation
- strong supporting evidence
- practical application; led to successful therapy (CBT)
Negative of becks explatption
Doesn’t explain all aspects of depression.
Ellis abc model
A - activating event, external event triggers irrational thoughts
B - beliefs, irrational thoughts leads to irrational beliefs
C - consequences, irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy, maladaptive, negative emotionally
Positives of ELLISs work
- practical application, lead to successful therapy
Negatives of Ellis work
- partial explanation, some cases of depression follow activating events
- doesn’t explain all aspects of depression,
What is behaviour activation and why is it useful in treatment
People who are depressed are often have less opportunities to feel mastery, pleasure…
Way of breaking this viscous cycle is behavioural activation.
Increasing activity levels and engaging in past times
Countinues with monitoring and logging daily activities, this will improve mood, self worth, less depression
CBT
Cognitive behaviour therapy: talking therapy aiming to identify and challenge negative, automatic, irrational thoughts
Cognitive changes from CBT
- identify challenge and change negative thinking
- improve understanding of self , others and world
