PSYCHOPATHOLOGY: The Cognitive Approach to Depression

Question 1

Key assumptions of the cognitive approach (depression)

Answer 1

• Individuals who suffer from mental health disorders (MHD) have distorted & irrational thinking - may cause maladaptive behaviour
• It is the way you think abt the problem rather than the problem itself which causes the MHD
• Individuals can overcome MHDs by learning to use more appropriate congitions. If ppl think in more +ve ways, they can be helped to feel better

Question 2

What did Aaron Beck suggest (1967)

Answer 2

• Beck suggested that there is a cognitive explanation as to why some ppl are more vulnerable to depression than others
• He suggested 3 parts to this cognitive vulnerability:
  1. faulty information processing
  2. negative self-schemas
  3. the negative triad

Question 3

Aaron Beck: faulty information processing

Answer 3

• Beck believed that ppl who have depression make fundamental errors in logic
• He proposed that ppl who have depression, tend to selectively attend to the -ve aspects of a situation & ignore the +ve aspects
• Tendency to blow small problems out of proportion w thinking in terms of black & white, ignoring the middle ground; you are a success of a failure (rather than not good at some things but OK at others)

Question 4

Aaron Beck: negative self-schema

Answer 4

• Ppl who have depression have developed negative self-schemas & therefore they interpret all the info abt themselves in a negative way

Question 5

Aaron Beck: the negative triad

Answer 5

• Beck built on the idea of maladaptive responses, & suggested that ppl w depression become trapped in a cycle of -ve thoughts
• They have a tendency to view themselves, the world & the future in pessimistic ways - the triad of impairments
  (negative view of the self, the world, the future)

Question 6

What did Albert Ellis (1962) propose

Answer 6

• Proposed that good mental health is the result of rational thinking
• Argued that there are common irrational beliefs that underlie much depression, & sufferers have based their lives on these beliefs
  eg. “I must be successful, competent & achieving in everything I do if I am to consider myself worthwhile”

Question 7

What did Albert Ellis create

Answer 7

Ellis’ ABC model

Question 8

What did Ellis’ ABC model suggest

Answer 8

(A) - an action is affected by
(B) - an individual’s beliefs which result in
(C) - a consequence
- 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 9

Ellis’ ABC model: Activating event - A

Answer 9

• Ellis focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events
• We have depression when we experience -ve events & these events trigger irrational beliefs

Question 10

Ellis’ ABC model: Beliefs - B

Answer 10

• Ellis identified a range of irrational beliefs
• We must always succeed or achieve perfection ‘musturbation’
• ‘I can’t-stand-it-itis’ - whenever smth does not go smoothly, it is a disaster
• Utopianism - life is always meant to be fair

Question 11

Ellis’ ABC model: Consequences - C

Answer 11

• When an activating event triggers irrational beliefs, there are emotional & behavioural consequences