Cognitive explanations for depression

• Identify the two cognitive explanations for depression.

  Beck’s negative triad and Ellis’ ABC model.
• Outline Beck’s negative triad.


  Proposes that depression can occur when negative experiences lead to negative schemas (frameworks of thinking).

  Negative schemas then result in cognitive biases such as selective perception whereby a person focuses on the negatives while ignoring the positives.
• Outline Beck’s negative triad.


  Another cognitive bias Is magnification whereby a person exaggerates negative consequences.

  A final example of a cognitive bias is overgeneralization whereby a person expects the same negative outcome for all future experiences.
• Outline Beck’s negative triad.


  These negative schemas and cognitive biases will maintain a negative triad whereby an individual thinks negatively about themselves, their world, and their future.

  In turn, this leads to depressive symptoms such as a low mood and low-self-esteem.
• Outline Ellis’ ABC model.


  Proposes that depression can be explained through a sequence of: an activating event, a belief about that event, and the consequences of that belief. 

  According to Ellis, an activating event occurs e.g. a person loses their job.
• Outline Ellis’ ABC model.


  The person then has a belief about this which can be rational (e g. there was someone with better experience) or irrational (e.g. they are useless and nobody wants to employ them).

  Rational beliefs lead to positive emotions and behaviours (e g. feeling hopeful and more likely to apply for other jobs) while irrational beliefs lead to negative emotions and behaviours (e.g. feeling hopeless and less likely to apply for other jobs).
• Outline Ellis’ ABC model.


  Ellis therefore proposed that people with depression have Irrational beliefs that lead to their negative emotions (e.g. low mood) and behaviours (e.g. social withdrawal).

  The cause of these irrational beliefs Is mustabatory thinking i.e. believing that certain assumptions must be true/happen for an Individual to be happy. This means that if it doesn't happen, they begin to have irrational beliefs.
• Evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression: difficult to establish cause and effect.

  This is because it is not clear whether irrational thinking causes depression or is a consequence/symptom of it. This Is a limitation because it means that any treatment developed out of this explanation may only be palliative i.e. it only supresses the symptoms of depression, it does not treat the root cause.
• Evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression: development of CBT as a treatment for depression.

  This is because both explanations propose that depression is caused by how an Individual thinks and so CBT works by disputing the client's irrational beliefs through logical, empirical and pragmatic disputing. This is a strength because CBT has been found to be an effective treatment for depression and, if the treatment developed out of the cognitive explanations is effective, the explanations themselves must have merit.
• Evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression: cannot explain every case of depression.

  Fail to explain how depression develops when there is no negative experience/activating event. This is a limitation because these cases would suggest that some people's depression may have a biological rather than environmental trigger.

  Biological psychologists have argued that depression can be caused by too little serotonin. SSRls have been found to be effective at reducing depressive symptoms.
• Evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression: more positive implications than alternative biological theories.

  This is because cognitive explanations propose that depression results from irrational thinking that the client can change. In contrast, biological explanations propose that depression is caused by biological factors such as genetics which the client has no control over. This is a strength because cognitive explanations can reduce feelings of hopelessness, a feeling that could have otherwise worsened their depressive symptoms.