The Cognitive Explanation Of Depression Flashcards
What is the key assumption of the cognitive approach?
Individuals who suffer from mental disorders have distorted and irrational thinking which may cause maladaptive behaviour
What was Beck’s theory?
The cognitive triad
What are the 3 parts to Beck’s cognitive triad?
Negative self-schemas
Faulty information processes (cognitive bias)
Negative triad
What is a negative self-schema?
People who have become depressed have developed negative self-schemas
What is the faulty information processes?
People who are depressed make fundamental errors in logic- they misperceive reality
Depressed people tend to selectively attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positive aspects
There is a tendency to blow small problems out of proportion
Weissman and Beck- DAS?
PPTS asked to fill in a questionnaire by ticking agree or disagree with a set of statements
Eg. People will think less of me if i make a mistake
Depression PPTS made more negative assessments than non-depressed people
What are the 5 cognitive biases?
1) overgeneralisation
2) personalisation
3) selective abstraction
4) magnification
5) minimisation
What is overgeneralisation?
Making a general conclusion based on a single occurance e.g. this always happens to me
What is personalisation?
Negative feelings of others are attributed to something about you
E.g. he didn’t say hi when he walked past so therefore he can’t like me
What is selective abstraction?
Focuses on one aspect- overlooks aspects leading to a positive conclusion
E.g. if one thing goes badly in an interview- you focus on that instead of everything else that went well
What is magnification?
Exaggerating significance of events- I couldn’t do it so I am hopeless at everything
What is minimisation?
Underplaying positive outcomes and events
E.g. it was a fluke
What is the negative triad?
They have a tendency to view themselves, the world and the future in pessimistic ways
Strengths of Beck’s theory?
Science based- cognition- labs- PET scans and MRI’s
Practical application (CBT therapy)- Beck’s cognitive explanation is the basis of CBT
Has good supporting evidence- research has supported the proposal that depression is associated with faulty information processing, negative self-schemas and the triad of impairments
Weaknesses of Beck’s theory?
Ignores nature- focuses entirely on nurture
Role of learning is ignored
Very person centred
Does not explain all aspects of depression- the theory explains the basic symptoms of depression, however it is a complex disorder with a range of symptoms- not all of which can be explained
