The cognitive approach to explaining depression

What is the cognitive approach?

Cognitive → mental processes so this approach focused on how our mental processes affect behaviour

What did Beck suggest was three parts to cognitive vulnerability?

Beck - took cognitive approach to explaining why some people more vulnerable to depression than others → persons cognitions that create vulnerability

• Faulty information processing

• Negative self schema

• The negative triad

What is faulty information processing?

When depressed people attend to negative aspects of a situation & ignore positives eg. winning 1mil in lottery but only focusing on someone else winning 10mil last week

Also tend to blow small problems out of proportion & think in black and white terms

What is negative self schema?

Self schema - package of ideas & info developed through experience about themselves→act as mental framework for interpretation of sensory info

People use schema to interpret the world → person with negative self schema interprets all info about themselves negatively

What is the negative triad?

Beck suggested that people develop dysfunctional views of themselves because of 3 types of negative thinking that occur automatically, regardless of reality →contribute to depression

• Negative view of world - eg. world is cold place →created impression of no hope

• Negative view of future - economy will never get better →thoughts reduce hopefulness & enhance depression

• Negative view of the self - I’m a failure →enhance depression because confirm existing emotions of low self esteem

What is Ellis’s ABC model?

Ellis proposed good mental health is result of rational thinking & conditions like anxiety & depression result from irrational thoughts → thoughts that interfere with being happy & free from pain

He used ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour & emotional state

• Activating event

• Beliefs

• Consequences

What is an activating event?

Ellis focused on situations where irrational thoughts triggered by external events →he states that we get depressed when we experience negative events eg. failing test →trigger irrational beliefs

What are beliefs?

Activating event triggers irrational belief

Ellis identified a range →eg. belief we must always succeed - musturbation

/ utopianism - belief that life is always meant to be fair

What is a strength of Beck’s cognitive model of depression?

Existence of supporting research

Cognitive vulnerability - refers to ways of thinking that may predispose person becoming depressed (eg.negative self scheme, triad, faulty info)

Clark & Beck: Concluded in review that not only were these cognitive vulnerabilities more common in depressed people but they preceded depression

Cohen: Confirmed this in more recent prospective study → tracked development of 437 adolescents regularly measuring cognitive vulnerability

Shows the association between cognitive vulnerability & depressiom

What is a further strength of Beck’s cognitive model?

It’s real world application in screening & treatment for depression

Cohen: concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows phycologists to screen young people → identifying those most at risk in developing depression in future & monitoring them

Understanding cognitive vulnerability → applied in cognitive behaviour therapy - which work by altering cognitions that make people vulnerable to depression → more resilient to negative life events

This means an understanding of cognitive vulnerabilities useful in more than one aspect of clinical practise

What is a drawback of Becks cognitive model?

Only a partial explanation

No doubt that depressed people show particular patterns of cognition that can be seen before onset of depression

HOWEVER some aspects to depression not well explained by cognitive explanations eg. some depressed people feel extreme anger & some experience hallucinations/delusions

What is a strength of Ellis’s ABC model?

Real world application in psychological treatment of depression

Ellis’s approach to cognitive therapy - rational emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) → idea that by vigorously arguing with depressed person therapist can alter the irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy

David et al: presented evidence to support idea that REBT can both change negative beliefs & relieve depression symptoms

REBT HAS REAL WORLD VALUE

What is a limitation of Ellis’s ABC model of depression?

Only explains reactive depression, not endogenous depression

Depression often triggered by activating events → called reactive depression → our response to negative life events partly result of our beliefs

HOWEVER many cases of depression not traceable to life events & not obvious what leads person to depression →endogenous depression

Means Ellis ABC model can only explain some cases of depression→ partial explanation

Why is the ABC model controversial?

Controversial → locates responsibility for depression purely with depressed person →critics say this is effectively blaming person - unfair

On other hand, provided it’s used sensitively & appropriately, application of ABC model in REBT appears to make some depressed people achieve more resilience & feel better