Psychological theories of depression

• Faulty thinking

  • They tend to see the cup as 'half-empty' instead of 'half-full'
  • Only pay attention to the negatives rather than the positives
  • Way of thinking is inevitable
  • Creates feelings of hopelessness
• Negative schema

  • Self-schema - information we have about ourselves
  • Depressed have negative self-schemas about themselves
  • They could also have negative schemas about the world and future
• Attributions

  • Attribution - When you try to explain someone's cause of behaviour
  • When observing behaviour, we think about why that person did that
  • When something goes wrong, they experience an internal attribution
  • Believe they are 'stupid' or 'worthless'
• Evaluation of Psychological theories (1)

  • Strength
  • Has real-life application
  • We can use therapy to try and change the way people think
  • Explanation has been used to help people
• Evaluation of Psychological theories (2)

  • Weakness
  • Doesn't explain all types of depression
  • E.g, not everybody with depression has faulty thinking
  • Not a complete explanation
• Evaluation of Psychological theories (3)

  • Weakness
  • Ignores other potential causes of depression
  • E.g, ignores how serotonin might cause depression
  • Doesn't explain all causes of depression