Psychpath- Cognitive approach of Depresssion

Question 1

What is the definition of Depression and it’s characteristics

Answer 1

Depression is a mood disorder
Characterised by low mood and low energy levels

Question 2

Define what a mood disorder is

Answer 2

A mood disorder is a term used to explain disorders that affect the emotional state of those suffering
For example the current mood is distorted or inappropriate to the circumstances of that situation

Question 3

Name and explain the 4 categories of depression an depressive disorders

Answer 3

1. Major Depressive Disorder- Is severe but short term depression
2. Persistent Depressive Disorder- Long term depression that is reoccurring, which includes sustained major depression
3. Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder- Is intense and frequent childhood temper tantrums
4. Premenstrual Dsyphoric Disorder- Is a disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation (severe form of PMS)
   PMS being pre-menstrual syndrome

1 short term depression 2 long term (persistent) depression 3 chilhood tantrums (distruptive mood dsyregulation) 4 premenstrual depression

Question 4

List the 3 categories in the Characteristics of depression

Answer 4

Emotional- how they feel
Behavioural- how they act
Cognitive- how they think

Question 5

Name and explain the 3 sub topics in the category ‘emotional’ in the characteristics of depression

Answer 5

Emotional
1. Lowered mood- feeling lethargic, sad and describing themselves as ‘worthless’ or ‘empty’
2. Anger- feeling angry leading to behaviour like aggression or self harm
3. Lowered Self-Esteem

Question 6

Name and explain the 3 sub topics in the category ‘behavioural’ in the characteristics of depression

Answer 6

Behavioural
1. Activity levels- reduced amount of energy making them lethargic and don’t want to get out of bed in extreme cases
2. Disruption of sleep and eating behaviour- reduced sleep (insomnia) or increased sleep (hypersomnia) and appetite increase or decrease leading to fluctuation of weight
3. Aggression and self harm- aggressive to others or themselves

Question 7

Name and explain the 3 sub topics in the category ‘cognitive’ in the characteristics of depression

Answer 7

Cognitive
1. Poor concentration- unable to focus on a task and find decision making difficult
2. Absolutist thinking- Black and white thinking, seen something a an absolute disaster
attending to and dwelling on the negative- any bad experiences they dwell on, it will ruin the whole day

Question 8

cognitive approach to explaining depression

List the 3 main assumptions of the cognitive approach to abnormality
1- they have d______ and ir______ thinking
2- the way you t______ about a pr_____ than the pr_____ i_____f
3- learning to use c_____ th_____ is how to overcome a ps_______ di_______

Answer 8

1. Individuals who suffer from psychological disorders have Distorted and Irrational thinking, which may cause Maladaptive behaviour
2. It’s the way you Think about a problem rather than the problem itself which causes the disorder abnormality
3. Individuals can overcome psychological disorders by learning to use more cognitive thinking (appropriate cognition)

Question 9

Define what is meant by a Schema/ Schemata (plural) 3 things
- org____ p_____ of t______ and be_____
-st______ clu___ of p___-C_______ id___
- Can be ha__ to introduce n___ in______ into a schema

Answer 9

-Schemas are organised pattern of thought or behaviour
- A structured cluster of pre-conscious ideas
- it can be hard to incorporate New information into our schemas

Question 10

Who suggested there’s a cognitive explanation as to why some people are more Vulnerable to depression than others

Answer 10

Beck
Beck’s Model of Depression

Question 11

What are the 3 parts to this cognitive vulnerability that is suggested by Beck’s model of depression

Answer 11

1. Faulty information processing
2. Negative self-schemas
3. The negative triad

Question 12

There are three parts of cognitive vulnerability to depression in Beck’s Model of depression

Explain the 1st one: F_____ in_______ pr_______

Answer 12

Faulty information processing:
Beck believed that people who are depressed make fundamental errors in logic.
They selectively attend to the negative parts of a situation and ignore the positive aspects.
There’s a tendency to think in black and white and ignore the middle ground of being good at something and okay at another.

Question 13

There are three parts of cognitive vulnerability to depression in Beck’s Model of depression

Explain the 2nd one:

Answer 13

Negative self schemas:
A schema is a package of ideas/information that has developed with experience.
a self schema is ideas about ourselves
People with depression have developed negative selfschemas where they interpret all info about themselves in a negative way

Question 14

There are three parts of cognitive vulnerability to depression in Beck’s Model of depression

Explain the 3rd one:

Answer 14

the negative triad:
based ont he ideas of maladaptive responses, Beck suggested that depressed people get stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts, and see the world in a pessimistic way- hence the triad of impairments.
having a negative view of:
your Self- im a failure
the World - it is a cold hard place to live on
the Future- the economy won’t get better

tip: must have all three- self, world, future in a sentence for it to be counted as evidence being the negative triad

Question 15

name the researchers who studies negative schemas
We_________ and b____ 197_
What was the aim method and findings

Answer 15

Weissman and beck (1978)
aim: investigate the thought processes of depressed people to establish if they make use of negative schemas
Method: thought processes were Measure using the dysfunctional attitude scale (DAS). ppts answered a questionnaire (social desirability bias) by ticcking which statement they agreed with, e.g. ppl will think less of me if i make a mistake’
Findings: they had mire negative assessments than control group of non-depressed people. When given therapy their negative schemas had changed as there was an improvement in their self-rating
conclusion: depression involves negative schemas

Question 16

Who proposed the ABC stage model and what does it explain

Answer 16

Albert Ellis
Ellis’ ABC Model is used to explain how irrational thoughts could lead to depression

Question 17

What do each of these stand for A B C in the Ellis ABC model

an A______ event is a_______ by an individual’s B which r_____ in a C________

Answer 17

A- activation event
B- beliefs
C- consequences

an Activation event is affected by an individual’s Belief which results in a Consequence

Question 18

in ellis’ ABC What happens if beliefs are subject to cognitive biases, like Becks then what can occur

Answer 18

if beliefs are subject to cognitive biases in the same way as becks then they can cause irrational thinking which may produce undesirable behaviours

Question 19

Explain the A in ellis’ ABC explanations of irrational thinking can lead to depression

Answer 19

activating event
he suggests that depression arises from irrational thoughts, and depression occurs when negative events are experienced e.g. failing a test

Question 20

Explain the B in ellis’ ABC explanations of irrational thinking can lead to depression

Answer 20

Belief’s about what happened

negative events trigger irrational beliefs

Question 21

Explain the C in ellis’ ABC explanations of irrational thinking can lead to depression

Answer 21

Consequences of the beliefs

when an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences.
If you example succeed in tests and then you fail the consequence is depression

Question 22

What is the strength and weakness when evaluating Beck’s cognitive explanations/theory of depression

Answer 22

P- A strength is that is has practical applications
E-This is due to beck’s cognitive explanations which form the main basis of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
L- Therefore, all cognitive aspects of depression can be challenged in CBT because it has applications from Becks research.
P- However, a weakness of Beck’s explanations of depression, is unable to explain all aspects of depression.
E- this is becaise depression is a complex disorder, where beck has only explained the basic symptoms and not all of them.
L- This suggests, that Beck’s explanation isn’t reliable for explaining depression because he has only explained a section of it

Question 23

What is the strength and weakness when evaluating Ellis’ ABC Model

Answer 23

P- One strength of Ellis’ ABC model (cognitive explanation for depression) is its application to therapy.
E- The cognitive ideas have been used to develop effective treatments for depression, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which was developed from Ellis’s ABC model.
E- 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.
L- This implies that irrational beliefs do have a role into understanding depression

P- However, one weakness of Ellis’ ABC Model is that it does not explain the origins of irrational thoughts and most of the research in this area is correlational.
E- For example, Alloy and Abrahmson (1979) found that depressed people had the ‘Sadder but Wiser effect’ where they gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of disaster than those not depressed.
E- So, it is difficult to determine if negative, irrational thoughts actually cause depression, or if a person’s depression leads to a negative mindset.
L- Therefore, the model is unable to cover all aspects of depression, which means that other factors, for example genes and neurotransmitters, may be the cause of depression.

Question 24

Name and explain one alternative explanations for depression

Answer 24

P- The biological approach, suggests genes and neurotransmitters may cause depression.
E- For example, the success of drug therapy in being able to treat depression.
E- This means that neurotransmitters do have an impact of depression, because the medication alters the levels of specific neurotransmitters which reduces symptoms of depression.
L- Overall, a diathesis- stress model approach suggests that individuals with genetic vulnerability for depression are mire prone to the effects of living in a negative environment, which leads to te negative irrational thinking.

Question 25

The cognitive approach to treating depression
Whats the name of the main therapy to treat depression and other disorders, such as??

What 2 techniques does this treatment use

Answer 25

CBT cognitive behavioural therapy
treats depression, phobias, OCD and PTSD

CBT uses behavioural and cognitive techniques

Question 26

In the main therapy for treating depression, what does the therapist aim to make the client aware of

Answer 26

In CBT they aim to make patients aware of their relationship between thought, emotion and action

Question 27

What are the 4 things CBT involves

Answer 27

CBT involves
1- sessions with a therapist between 5-20 times for weekly or fortnightely sessions
2- each session is 30-60 mins
3- CBT therapists use techniques influenced by Beck or Ellis
4- but most therapists use both techniques together

Question 28

In CBT do therapists and patients work together and explain why

Answer 28

Yes they work together to clarify the patients problems, in order to identify any negative or irrational thoughts, that will benefit from challenging them

Question 29

In Beck’s cognitive therapy, the first method of CBT
what does it try and challenge, what were the 4 steps they did to achieve this

Answer 29

Beck’s cognitive therapy challenged the Negative Triad beliefs of the client. And there were 4 steps to do this
1.client is assessed to see the severity of their condition
2. the therapist will establish a baseline to help monitor the improvements
3. will use reality testing to see when they have been successful at something
4. The therapist may ask the client to do something to demonstrate their ability to succeed

Question 30

List the key words in the diagram which shows how Beck’s cognitive therapy works

Answer 30

assessment- formulation and goals- treatment - (the treatment is….) homework and monitoring - treatment complete

Question 31

What does Ellis’ REBT - Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy do and how does it help treat depression

Answer 31

Ellis 1962 argues that irrational thoughts are the main cause of all types of emotional distress and behaviour disorders

REBT extends the AB model to an ABCDEF model

Question 32

In Ellis’ REBT model the 2nd method of CBT

what does DEF refer to

Answer 32

D- disputing (challenging) irrational thoughts/beliefs
E- effects of disputing AND effective attitude to life
F- feelings that are produced

Question 33

What is the central technique for REBT

Answer 33

To identify and dispute the patient’s irrational thoughts
So REBT challenges any irrational thoughts and then replaces them with more reasonable statements

Question 34

what are the 2 arguments that therapists challenge

Answer 34

Empirical argument- disputing whether theres evidence to support the irrational belief
Logical argument- disputing whether the negative thoughts actually follow from the fact

Question 35

Behavioural a_________ is another way to treat depression
explain how

Answer 35

Behavioural activation is to help depressed people engage in activities such as exercise and going out for dinner, to decrease how isolated they are improve their avoidance behaviour, because that can maintain their symptoms if they continue to avoid difficult situations

Question 36

Uncon________ positive r_____ is another way to treat depression
What did Ellis noticed helps in therapy

Answer 36

Unconditional Positive regard
Ellis noticed that convincing clients of their value as a human helps change their beliefs and attitudes, if their therapist provides respect and appreciation regardless of what they say. This helps them feel less worthless if someone is there and has unconditional positive regard for them

Question 37

Name two similarities and differences of the two methods of CBT: Becks cognitive therapy and Ellis’ REBT

Answer 37

similarities:
- Both challenge irrational thinking and negative beliefs
- both cognitive explanations and client centered
Comparisons:
- Beck sets homework to find evidence for the client in between sessions
- elllis uses empirical evidence to show what is real and whats imagined

Question 38

What is a strength and weakness of Beck’s CBT

Answer 38

strength- It is an effective treatment, for example March 2007 is research support for it reducing depressive symptoms and prevents relapse
This also suggests that compared to drug therapy it is more effective because taking antidepressants, only treats depression until you stop taking them, the symptoms come back.
Weakness- CBT isn’t suitable for all patients because in some severe cases they can’t motivate themselves to engage in the sessions, which means it can’t be the sole treatment for depression, if it cant help everyone

Question 39

What is a strength and weakness of Ellis’ REBT

Answer 39

strength- is that there’s research support for Ellis’ REBT. There is a claimed 90% success rate for REBT, discovering that the average is 27 sessions in order to complete the treatment. Furthermore, in Newark 1973, who investigated with two group 1 with anxiety 2 has no psychological disorder, which group thought more irrationally, by agreeing to two statements. He found that the group with psychological problems thought more irrationally.

Weakness- Is the success just due to the relationship of client to patient, where they are able to have someone to talk to where the therapist will listen to what they have to say no matter what.