The Cognitive Approach To Explaining Depression

Question 1

Explaining depression through a cognitive approach

Answer 1

Beck (1967) took a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression than others.

In particular it is a person’s cognitions that create this vulnerability.

Beck suggested three parts to this cognitive vulnerability — Faulty information processing, negative self-schema, the negative triad.

Question 2

Faulty information processing

Answer 2

This is when depressed people attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore positives.

Depressed people may tend towards ‘black and white thinking’ where something is either all bad or all good.

Question 3

Key Term: Schema

Answer 3

A schema is a package of ideas and information developed through experience. They act as a mental framework for the interpretation of sensory information.

A self-schema is the package of information people have about themselves.

Question 4

Negative self-schema

Answer 4

Beck (1987) believes people become depressed because they see the world through negative schemas. These dominate thinking and are triggered whenever individuals are in situations similar to those in which the schemas were learned.

Negative schemas continue into adulthood, providing a framework to view life in a pessimistic fashion.

Negative schemas fuel and are fuelled by cognitive biases (the tendency to think in certain ways), causing individuals to misperceive reality in a negative way.

Negative schemas, together with cognitive biases, maintain the negative triad.

Question 5

The negative triad

Answer 5

Beck proposed that there are three kinds of negative thinking that contribute to becoming depressed: negative views of the world, the future and the self.

Such views lead a person to interpret their experiences in a negative way and make them more vulnerable to depression.

Question 6

Beck
AO3 — Strength
Research support

Answer 6

In a review, Clark and Beck (1999) concluded that not only were cognitive vulnerabilities more common in depressed people but they preceded the depression.

This was confirmed in a more recent prospective study by Cohen et al (2019). They tracked the development of 473 adolescents, regularly measuring cognitive vulnerability. It was found that showing cognitive vulnerability predicted later depression.

This shows that there is an association between cognitive vulnerability and depression.

Question 7

Beck
AO3 — Strength
Real-word application

Answer 7

Applications in screening and treatment for depression -

Cohen et al concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people, identifying those most at risk of developing depression in the future and monitoring them.

Understanding cognitive vulnerability can also be applied in CBT.

This means that an understanding of cognitive vulnerability is useful in more than one aspect of clinical practice.

Question 8

Beck
AO3 — Weakness
Reductionist

Answer 8

There seems to be no doubt that depressed people show particular patterns of cognition, and that these can be seen before the onset of depression. It therefore appears that Beck’s suggestion of cognitive vulnerabilities is at least a partial explanation for depression.

However, there are some aspects to depression that are not particularly well explained by cognitive explanations. For example, some depressed people feel extreme anger, and some experience hallucinations and delusions.

Question 9

Beck
AO3 — Strength
Saisto (2001)

Answer 9

Studied expectant mothers and found that those that did not adjust personal goals to match specific demands to the transition to motherhood, and indulged in negative thinking had increased depression.

This supports the idea of negative thoughts lead to depression.

Question 10

Beck
AO3 — Strength
Saisto (2001)

Answer 10

Studied expectant mothers and found that those that did not adjust personal goals to match specific demands to the transition to motherhood, and indulged in negative thinking had increased depression.

This supports the idea of negative thoughts lead to depression.

Question 11

Beck
AO3 — Strength
Tony and Glazioli

Answer 11

Assessed 65 pregnant women for vulnerability before and after birth.

Women with high vulnerability had post-natal depression cognitions that developed before pregnancy.

Shows how the negative triad increases likelihood of depression.

Question 12

Ellis’s ABC Model

Answer 12

Ellis (1962) proposed that good mental health is the result of rational thinking, defined as thinking in ways that allow people to be happy and free from pain.

Ellis used the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state.

Question 13

A
Activating event

Answer 13

Ellis focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events.

According to Ellis we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs — Failing an important test or ending a relationship might trigger irrational beliefs.

Question 14

B
Beliefs

Answer 14

Ellis identified a range of irrational beliefs:
Musturbation — We must always succeed or achieve perfection.
Utopianism — Life is always meant to be fair.

Question 15

C
Consequences

Answer 15

When an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences.

For example, if a person believes that they must always succeed and then fails at something this can trigger depression.

Question 16

Ellis
AO3 — Strength
Real-word application

Answer 16

Real-world application in the treatment of depression — Ellis’s approach to cognitive therapy is called rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT).

The idea of REBT is that by vigorously arguing with a depressed person the therapist can alter the irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy. There is some evidence to support the idea that REBT can both change negative beliefs and relieve the symptoms of depression.

This means that REBT has real-world value.

Question 17

Reactive and endogenous depression

Answer 17

Only explains reactive and not endogenous depression.

Many cases of depression are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what leads the person to become depressed at a particular time.

This type of depression is sometimes called endogenous depression and Ellis’ ABC model is less useful in explaining it.

The model is only a partial explanation.