Evaluation

• A strength is that it has practice application in CBT and it has lead to successful therapy. This is because the irrational negative beliefs are challenged which can help to reduce depression. This means that it is a reliable explanation as it is used in real life and successfully.
• A weakness is that It does not explain why some individuals experience anger or why people experience hallucinations. This is because it only focuses on the cognitive approach and does not look at depression holisticall. This means that Ellis model cannot be used as a full explanation of depression as it only focuses on one element.
• A weakness is that not all depression is a result of an activating event and this is called endogenous depression. This explaintion does not show how this can be caused. This means that it cannot be used to fully explain the cause of depression
• However the distress stress model might be advisable as it suggests that people with genetic vulnerability to depression are more prone to the effects of living in a negative environment which then leads to irrational thinking