What approach explains depression?
The cognitive approach
How does the cognitive approach explain depression?
In terms of faulty and irrational though processes and perceptions
What two ways does the cognitive approach explain depression?
- Becks negative triad
2. Ellis’s ABC model
What is Becks negative triad?
Beck believes that people become depressed because the world is seem negatively through negative schemes. These negative schemes are fuelled by cognitive biases. Negative schemes are developed in childhood and adolescence and then continue into childhood providing a negative framework to view life
What are three negative schemes?
- Ineptness schemes- make depressives expect to fail
- Self blame schemes- make depressives feel responsible for all misfortunes
- Negative self evaluation schemes- constantly remind depressives of their worthlessness
What are the four cognitive biases?
- Arbitrary inference- conclusions drawn in the absence of sufficient evidence
- Selective abstraction- conclusions drawn from just one part of a situation
- Overgeneralisation- sweeping conclusions drawn on the basis of a single event
- Magnification and minimisation- exaggerations in evaluation of performance
What can be maintained when negative schemes combine together with cognitive biases?
The negative triad
What are the three components of the negative triad?
- The self- where individuals see themselves as being helpless, worthless and inadequate ‘nobody loves me’
- The world- where obstacles are perceived within ones environment that cannot be dealt with ‘everything is beyond my control’
- The future- where personal worthlessness is seen as blocking any improvements ‘I will always be useless’
What does Ellis’ ABC model explain?
People’s response to negative events- how people react differently to stress and adversity. He believed that depressives mistakenly blame external events for their unhappiness and that is is their interpretation of these events that is to blame for their distress
What is the ABC model?
A- activating event- something happens in the environment around you
B- beliefs- you hold a belief about the event or situation, can be rational or irrational
C- consequence- you have an emotional response to your belief
How can the ABC model be explained in words?
Activating events in an individual’s life have consequence. However these consequences are affected by beliefs about these events
What is an example of Ellis’ ABC model?
When being told the boss is unhappy with their work, the belief may be that they did their best with the consequent emotion of being motivated to do better. The difference between depressed and non depressed people therefore is how they perceive themselves
What are three strengths of the cognitive approach explaining depression?
- Lots of research evidence supporting the idea of cognitive vulnerability being linked to the onset of depression
- It’s based upon scientific principles that permit objective testing allowing improvement of the model
- It acknowledges that other aspects such as genes and early experiences can lead to certain thinking patterns that lead to depression
What are three limitations of the cognitive approach explaining depression?
- It has less success in explaining and treating bipolar depression, lessening the support for the model
- Some critics believe that not all depressed people have a distorted view of their own abilities and so actually understand such events accurately
- Most evidence is correlational and doesn’t indicate negative thoughts causing depression
