5.1.3 Depression: Cognitive explain

Question 1

What did Aaron Beck propose about Depression?

Answer 1

That client with depression showed Negative Thinking patterns that can be split into three areas: The Cognitive Triad, Faulty information processing, Negative Self Schemas.

Question 2

Describe the Cognitive Triad, and what is it split into?

Answer 2

The Cognitive Triad (1976) states people with depression have three negative thoughts: The self, The future, The world.

Question 3

Describe Faulty Information Processing and what it includes?

Answer 3

That people with depression have distorted thinking.

Selectively attending to negative stimuli while ignoring positive stimuli

Once they’ve attended to negative information they magnify the event or overgeneralise the information

Fault in information processing = prone to depression

Question 4

Describe Negative Self Schema and what is it involved in?

Answer 4

A Self Schema = beliefs about the self

Only processing information that fits with the existing schema and ignoring information that doesn’t fit with the schema = Dysfunctional processing

Negative self schema = information selected (processed) will be information that matches schema while ignoring contrary (positive) evidence

Question 5

How did Beck believe that depression is caused if not automatically through cognitive dysfunction alone?

Answer 5

He believed there needs to be a trigger - Critical life event - which can be the death of someone close, divorce, losing a job.

Believed these could trigger dysfunctional thinking which would lead into developing the cognitive triad

Question 6

1) What is The sociotrope?

2) What is The autonomous individual?

Answer 6

1) A person who’s sense of self worth is based on the approval of others

2) A person whose sense of self-worth is based on achievement

Question 7

What are the cognitive biases proposed by Beck (1976)

Answer 7

Arbitrary Inference - Negative conc drawn in absence of sufficient or any evidence

Selective Abstraction - Negative conc drawn based off one of many elements

Overgeneralisation - Sweeping negative generalisation made based off of one single, perhaps trivial event

Magnification and Minimisation - small negative events magnified and significant positive events minimised

Question 8

What Neuropsychological opposing argument to Beck’s cognitive proposal was made by Damasio (2000)?

Answer 8

He suggests emotional processing occurs before cognitive processing (opposite to Beck, Cognitive before emotional).

Emotional reactions are non-concious and occur before conscious perception of them.

Emotionally activated biases control which Cog strats are available to us.

Question 9

What Neuropsychological opposing argument to Beck’s cognitive proposal was made by LeDoux (1998)?

Answer 9

Amygdala (subcortical structure, middle of limbic system) as a key brain region in processing emotional stimuli.

Rough judgements when there is danger and sends messages up to higher brain for Cog processing.

If needed higher brain centres send back corrective info but the wiring = superhighway of info from limbic to cortex but only backroad from cortex to limbic

emotional part of brain = more power to influence behaviour than rational part
= may not be able to change emotional reactions via cog process

Dependent on which brain area is being affected