Cognitive Etiology of Major Depressive Disorder ERQ

What is abnormal psychology?

The scientific study of psychological disorders and maladaptive behaviors.

What is etiology?

A set of causes or factors contributing to the development of a disorder.

What is Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)?

An affective disorder characterized by symptoms like depressed mood, loss of interest, fatigue, and suicidal thoughts.

DSM-5 symptoms of MDD

Depressed mood, loss of interest/pleasure, weight change, sleep disturbances, psychomotor changes, fatigue, feelings of worthlessness/guilt, concentration difficulties, suicidal thoughts.

What is cognitive etiology?

Explains depression as a result of negative thinking patterns and maladaptive information processing.

Beck (1967) - Aim

To propose a cognitive theory of depression explaining how negative thinking patterns cause depressive symptoms.

Beck's cognitive theory - Key concepts

Automatic thoughts, cognitive triad (negative views of self, world, future), negative self-schemata, faulty thinking patterns.

Examples of faulty thinking patterns

Dichotomous thinking, arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization, personalization.

Beck (1967) - Link to MDD

Negative thinking patterns lead to feelings of helplessness and depression; forms the basis for CBT.

Beck (1967) - Strengths

Comprehensive cognitive explanation; influential in CBT development; aligns with clinical observations.

Beck (1967) - Limitations

A sample size of 50 MDD patients is small which means that the ndings from this study are unlikely to represent the experience of a larger population of MDD patients hence they lack generalisability

The concept of cognitive distortions may be overly subjective as each person’s thought processes and patterns are likely to differ from another person’s, which means that the research may lack reliability

Haeffel and Hames (2013) - Aim

To investigate if cognitive vulnerability to depression can spread between roommates.

Haeffel and Hames (2013) - Participants

103 first-year college roommates in the USA.

Haeffel and Hames (2013) - Procedure

Measured negative cognitive styles, MDD symptoms and vulnerabilty to MDD at baseline, then reassessed at 3 and 6 months.

Haeffel and Hames (2013) - Results

Participants assigned to those with cognitive vulnerabilities and negative cognitive styles tended to adopt these thinking styles. Those who experienced an increase in cognitive vulnerability also had greater symptoms of depression over the duration of the study than those who didn't.

Haeffel and Hames (2013) - Conclusion

Cognitive vulnerability can spread via social interaction; supports cognitive etiology of depression.

Haeffel and Hames (2013) - Strengths

Naturalistic setting, longitudinal design, empirical support for cognitive factors.

Haeffel and Hames (2013) - Limitations

Cannot fully separate social influence; college student sample; self-report measures.

Diathesis-stress model

A framework suggesting that depression arises from cognitive vulnerability interacting with environmental stressors.

Discussion paragraph summary

Beck's theory and Haeffel and Hames' findings support cognitive etiology, but also show social factors influence cognition; depression involves both cognitive and social components.