Depression

What type of disorder is depression?

A mood disorder

What are the 4 behavioural characteristics of depression? (ASAA)

• Activity levels- Sense of tiredness/ wish to sleep all time is common, but so is being agitated, pacing the room, wringing hands or tearing skin.

• Sleep affected- some may sleep more (hypersomnia) or less (insomnia)

• Appetite changes- Increased/ decreased appetite

• Aggression and Self harm

What’s the 3 Emotional Characteristics of Depression? (LAL)

• Lowered mood- sadness is common description that people give for their depressed state, as well as empty, worthless and hopeless

• Anger- Can be directed at others or towards oneself (self-harm)

• Low self esteem- Report a sense of self loathing

What’s the 3 cognitive characteristics? (PAA)

• Poor concentration- can’t stick to task, find hard to make decisions, has knock on effect at work/school

• Attending to and dwelling on the negative- see glass half empty and have biased view on things (overly negative in their thoughts)

• Absolutist thinking- Black and white thinking, When something mildly bad happens, they’ll view it as a disaster

What are the 2 Cognitive explanations of depression?

• Becks Negative triad

• Ellis’s ABC model

What do the 2 cognitive explanations suggest why people have depression?

That some people are more vulnerable to depression because of the way they think

What are the 3 concepts of Becks theory?

1. Faulty/ dysfunctional thought processing

2. Negative self-schemas

3. Negative triad

What does Becks 1st concept (dysfunctional thinking) say?

When depressed, people focus on negative aspects of situation, ignore positives

We therefore show different cognitive biases: Overgeneralisation (make sweeping conclusions based on single incident) and Catastrophising (Exagorate minor setback and believe it’s a complete disaster)

What does Becks 2nd concept (negative self schema) say?

A self schema is a package of information we have about ourselves (developed through experience). We use schemas to interpret the world so if we have negative one, we interpret all information about ourselves in a negative way.

Examples of negative self schema: Ineptness schema (sufferers expect to fail), Self-blame schema (makes them feel responsible for any misfortunes)

What does Becks 3rd concept (negative triad) say?

Negative view of self/ future/ world, depressed individuals develop irrational and distorted views in three specific areas. These three components—the self, the world, and the future—work together to sustain negative emotions and behaviours.

What does Ellis’/s ABC model say?

A- activating event, external event (failing a test, getting fired)

B- beliefs, irrational and negative (mustabatory- think we must always be successful, utopianism- belief life’s always meant to be fair)

C- consequence, depression and anxiety

Not the activating event itself that cause depression but the irrational beliefs in response to the event

2 strengths and 2 weaknesses of cognitive explanation of depression?

• Research support- Beck et al found evidence supporting idea that cognitive vulnerability and depression are linked

• RWA- development of successful therapies

→ CBT, very effective at treat inf depression, improve people’s lives

• Reductionist

• Deterministic

What’s the main process of CBT?

Identify irrational thoughts and challenge them

What are 2 methods the psychologist can do in CBT?

• Patient as a scientist

→ patient encouraged to put a irrational belief to the test (hypothesis testing)

• Data gathering HW

→ patient keep a diary to record events where positive/negative thinking/events occurred, so can be discussed and challenged in future sessions

what does REBT stand for?

rational emotive behaviour therapy

what does REBT do?

Extends ABC model to include steps D, E and F.

What does D, E and F stand for?

D- get clients to dispute (challenge) their irrational thoughts

E- effect of the dispute. Treatment is deemed successful when irrational thoughts are challenged and changed for more rational ones.

F- new (hopefully positive) feelings are produced because of new (rational) thoughts

2 strengths and 2 weakness of CBT?

• research support

March et al studied 327 depressed adolescence in 3 treatment groups:

→ Just CBT: 81% showed improvement

→ Just antidepressants: 81%

→ Both: 86%

• CA: didn’t work for 14% of people, what now…

• CA: limited sample on just young people

• Long term cost effective

Although initially expensive, new thinking skills patients taught can be utilised independently in the future instead of relying on medication for their whole life

• Not suitable for all

Requires a lot of motivation + acceptance that it’s your own thought processes which is the problem and the willingness to work on changing them, if your severely depressed, likely won’t engage well