Cognitive approach to explaining depression

• Describe the ABC model

  • A: activating event
  • B: beliefs (rational/irrational)
  • C: consequences (healthy or unhealthy emotions)

  The event doesn’t cause depression but the irrational belief REGARDING that event does
• What is musturbatory thinking?

  Source of irrational beliefs- thinking certain ideas must be true for an individual to be happy
• What are the three most important irrational beliefs?

  • I must be accepted by people I find important
  • I must do very well or I am worthless
  • The world must give me happiness or I’ll die
• What is a result of musturbatory thinking?

  • At the least disappointed, at the worst depressed
  • The event doesn’t cause depression but the irrational belief REGARDING that event does
• What does Beck say about how depression is caused?

  Thinking is biased towards negative schema of the world and people lack a perceived sense of control
• What is the definition of a schema? And what is a negative schema?

  Cognitive framework helping to organise information in the brain. Negative schema- tendency to adopt negative view of world
• What does the negative triad consist of?

  • Negative view of self
  • Negative view of world
  • Negative view of the future
• State two advantages of explanations for depression

  • 😊support for role of irrational thinking- research by hammen and krantz identified participants made more errors in logic if they were depressed that non depressed participants when asked to interpret written material
  • 😊useful applications in therapy- cognitive explanations (triad and abc) have both been applied to CBT- which is found to be best treatment for depression, supports effectiveness of cognitive approach
• State two disadvantages of the cognitive explanation for depression

  • ☹️blames self- emphasis on the client is a good thing as it gives them power to change themselves but is bad because can overlook situational factors like life events or family problems
  • ☹️irrational beliefs may be realistic even though they seem irrational - alloy and abramson suggested depressed people tend to see things for what they truly are- gave more accurate testimonies on the likelihood of disaster