Cognitive approach to explaining depression

Beck’s negative triad

Brxk(1967) took a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to Depression than others. In particular, It is a person cognitions that create this vulnerability- Beck suggested there were 3 parts to this cognitive vulnerability:

• faulty information Processing - This is when the people attend to the negative aspect of the situation and ignore positives. Depressed people may lean towards ‘ Black and white thinking’ where something is either all bad or all good

• Negative self schema - Schema is a package of information people have about things but also about themselves. People use schema to interpret the world, If a person has a negative self schema they interpret all information about themselves in a negative way

• Negative triad - Beck Suggested that a person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of 3 Types of negative thinking that occur automatically:

  • negative View of the world

  • Negative view of the future

  • Negative view of the self

Evaluation

• One strength is the existence for supporting evidence - cognitive vulnerability first two ways of thinking that predispose a person to be becoming depressed , for example faulty Information processing, Negative self schema and the negative triad . Clerk and Beck (1999) Concluded that these Cognitive vulnerabilities were common in depressed people

• One strength is that ur has real world application - Cohen concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people , identifying those most at risk of developing depression in the future and monitoring them. Understanding cognitive vulnerabilities can also be applied to cognitive behaviour therapy

• Nomothetic approach - aims to generalise laws

• Ignores biological factors and underestimates the role of biology. Research shows that low serotonin levels and and genetic influences play a major role in depression and antidepressant drugs can increase levels of serotonin to reduce symptoms

Ellis’s ABC model

Ellis 1962 suggested that good mental health is the result of rational thinking. To Ellis, Conditions like anxiety and depression result from irrational thoughts. Ellis used the ABC model to show our irrational thoughts affect our behaviour/ mental health

Activating event - according to Ellis We get depressed when we experience Negative external events and These trigger irrational beliefs

Beliefs - Ellis Identified a range of irrational beliefs. Musturbation is the belief that We must always succeeded or achieve perfection. Utopianism is Believe that life is always meant to be fair

Consequences - When an activating event triggers irrational beliefs , there were emotional and behavioural consequences

Evaluation

• One strength is that has real world applications - Ellis’s approach to cognitive therapy is called ‘ Rational emotive behaviour therapy’ (REBT). The idea of REBT is that by vigorously arguing with depressed person the therapist can alter the irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy. This means that REBT has real value

• One limitation is that it only explains reactive depression And not endogenous Depression - There seems to be no doubt that depression is often triggered by life events, However many cases of depression are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what leads the person to become depressed at a particular time. This means that Ellis’s Model can only explain some cases of depression