The Cognitive Explanation of Depression (Clinical Psychology)

Question 1

What do behaviourist theories say about Depression?

Answer 1

Depression is a result of environmental factors causing faculty learning, which leads to set behavioural responses

Question 2

What is the Behavioural Explanation for Depression?

Answer 2

Depression is due to: Lack of Positive Reinforcement Learned Helplessness

Question 3

How is Depression due to Learned Helplessness?

Answer 3

Maker + Seligman: They found that dogs exposed to inescapable electric shocks learned to give up trying to escape; and didn’t take the chance to escape, even when an opportunity was offered. This reflects the behaviour of ‘learned helplessness’; the inability to initiate coping strategies

Question 4

What is the Cognitive Explanation for Depression?

Answer 4

Depression is due to: Maladaptive Attributional Style Cognitive Triad Negative Schemas Cognitive Distortions

Question 5

What are the Types of Attributional Biases?

Answer 5

Internal: We are responsible for what happens to us External: Events are beyond our control Stable: Consistent thinking it will often/always happen (e.g. I always get lost) Unstable: Thinking it will not always happen/will be inconsistent (e.g. this is a one off event) Global: Happens for many things/all places, everything in general (e.g. My navigational skills are awful) Specific: Happens for few/one things/places, incidents are isolated (e.g. I get lost in Seven Kings)

Question 6

How is Depression due to a Lack of Positive Reinforcement?

Answer 6

Lewisohn (1974): Depression occurs due to a lack of positive reinforcement from the environment. The person either does not engage with the social environment, or they lack the social skills to engage with social environments in a way that leads to reinforcement

Question 7

What is an Attribution Bias?

Answer 7

Attributions Bias: How we habitually locate causes for events

Question 8

How is Depression due to Negative Schemas?

Answer 8

Beck’s Theory of Depression: Depression and a depressed mood is a product of pessimistic schemas we hold about how the world works. Negative schemas develop during childhood as a result of early trauma and unhappy experiences, leading to a cognitive triad about themselves seeing themselves as useless and worthless.

Question 9

What is the Cognitive Triad?

Answer 9

Depressed people hold negative views about themselves, the world and the future

Question 10

What are the two types of schema that operate in depression?

Answer 10

Negative Interpersonal (generalised representation of self relationships) Depressonegenic Schemas (Negative life events have an impact on cognitive behaviour)

Question 11

How is Depression due to a Maladaptive Attributional Style?

Answer 11

Those with depression have an internal, stable and global attributional biases. Therefore they may believe that everything that happens to them is due to them being the way they are, and everything is their fault. People with a maladaptive attributional style tend to put more emphasis on fault within themselves as a casual factor of their failure. They internalise failure in a way that suggests they can’t change, and that will affect everything they do

Question 12

How is Depression due to Cognitive Distortions?

Answer 12

Depressed people interpret information in a biased and inaccurate way; focusing on the negative and ignoring the positive (selective abstraction)

Question 13

What is Polar Reasoning, and how can it Link to Depression?

Answer 13

Unless everything is absolutely perfect, it is considered a dismal failure For example, getting an A instead of an A* If people have polar reasoning, they may always see themselves as a failure (even when they’re not)

Question 14

What is Overgeneralisation, and how does it Link to Depression?

Answer 14

One aspect of an experience is extrapolated from, in order to form a belief about what happened For example, failure on one essay means that failure on the course is inevitable

Question 15

What research evidence Supports the Cognitive Behavioural Theory for Depression?

Answer 15

D’Alessandro Lewinsohn et al

Question 16

How does D’Alessandro’s study support the Cognitive Behavioural Theory of Depression?

Answer 16

D’Alessandro (2002) found that students’ negative views about their futures were did not get into their an increase in depressed mood: Those with dysfunctional beliefs about themselves, who did not get into their first choice college, then doubted their futures and developed symptoms of depression. This supports idea that cognitive distortion is linked to a negative belief about the future.

Question 17

How does Lewinsohn et al’s study support the Cognitive Behavioural Theory of Depression?

Answer 17

Support of the concept that pessimistic schema about how the world works is a supported by Lewinsohn et al. (2001) who researched adolescent depression. They found that stressed, dysfunctional attitudes rather than environmental factors was the strongest predictor of adolescent major depressive disorder This therefore supports the cognitive explanation rather than the behavioural explanation

Question 18

What are the Weaknesses of the Cognitive Behavioural Theory for Depression?

Answer 18

There is little evidence that shows negative thinking was present before depression. The behaviourist model fails to explain the root causes of depression. It doesn’t clarify if, for example, the poor social interactions or isolation that limits a reinforcing experience is a cause or symptom of depression. The learned helplessness view doesn’t explain why someone may be suicidal. It states that the individual would adopt a passive acceptance to a situation rather than an active with to die which is a symptom of depression. It doesn’t explain causes of endogenous depression. The cognitive aspect of the approach suggests that a pessimistic explanatory style leads to depression; however it does not make clear how it develops.

Question 19

What are the Similarities between the 2 Explanations of Depression?

Answer 19

Both explanations have led to the development of treatments: CBT and antidepressants. Both have research that supports them: Versiani’s (1999) double blind trial showed NRIs improved mood more than placebo and D’Alessandro (2002) supports the link between cognitive distortion and negative beliefs about the future Both suffer from aetiology fallacy neurochemicals and faulty thinking might be associated with depression, rather than being the cause of it.

Question 20

What are the Differences between the 2 Explanations of Depression?

Answer 20

The neurochemical explanation suggests low levels of monoamine neurotransmitters cause depression whereas the cognitive behavioural explanation suggests learned helplessness and faulty schema causes depression. The neurochemical explanation is more credible than the cognitive as neurochemicals can be empirically measured with PET scans whereas negative schema and learned helplessness cannot. The cognitive behavioural explanation is more holistic as it considers how thoughts, feelings and behaviours interact, whereas the neurochemical explanation is more reductionist as it breaks the disorder down to being caused by neurochemicals without considering the interaction between brain chemistry and social and environmental factors such as past trauma