The Cognitive Approach to Depression

• Major depression

  • a mental disorder that affects a person's mood that is characterised by these symptoms:
  • low mood
  • loss of pleasure
  • Irrational negative beliefs
  • difficulty concentrating
  • change in appetite
  • change in sleep patterns
  • social withdrawal
• Depressive episode

  low mood lasting for at least 1 week
• Manic episode

  high mood lasting for at least 1 week
• Manic depression


  when a person cycles between depressive episodes and manic episodes.
• Ellis's ABC model

  • when people experience negative events, the experience can be broken down into 3 steps:
  • Activating event e.g. receiving a bad grade
  • Beliefs - can be rational or irrational e.g. I am so stupid
  • Consequences e.g. low mood, change in sleep patterns
• Beck's cognitive triad

  • categorises irrational negative beliefs into 3 types either about the: self, world or future
  • Caused by negative self schemas. People form negative self expectations
  • They have negative cognitive biases meaning that they focus on negative information which is assimilated into their negative self schemas.
• Who investigated attentional abilities in people with major depression?

  Koster et al
• What was the method used in Koster et al's study?

  Participants pressed a button to indicate square location
• What types of words were presented to participants in the study?

  Positive, negative, or neutral words
• What was the dependent variable (DV) in the study?

  Reaction time to press a button
• What was the independent variable (IV) in Koster et al's study?

  Whether the participant had major depression
• What did the results indicate about participants with major depression when presented with negative words?

  They took longer to indicate square location
• Was the effect of major depression observed with positive or neutral words?

  No, the effect was not observed
• What cognitive bias does the study support regarding people with major depression?

  They focus on negatives and have a negative cognitive bias
• Alloy and Abramson

  • asked participants with and without depression to estimate how much control they had over a flashing light.
  • participants with major depression estimated more accurately than the control group, suggesting that not all people with major depression have irrational beliefs.
• Mc Guffin et al

  • suggested that irrational beliefs may not be the only cause of depression
  • they found that the concordance rates of depression for monozygotic twins was 46% and for dizygotic twins, 20%.
  • Indicates that genetic factors contribute to the development of major depression.
• Cognitive Behavioural therapy (CBT)

  • a treatment for depression that aims to remove the negative beliefs that cause depression and it involves 4 steps:
  • Identify negative irrational beliefs
  • Challenge negative beliefs
  • The patient is set homework to test their hypothesis
  • The therapist and the patient evaluate evidence together
• Cuijpers et al

  • Reviewed all the studies in the US that compared an experimental group with depressed participants receiving CBT to a control group receiving no treatment for their depression.
  • Participants who were treated to CBT experienced significant improvement compared to the control group.
  • Concluded that CBT is more effective than no treatment for major depression.
• Limitations of CBT

  • CBT may not be as effective for everyone because there are individual differences in participants' experiences of depression. Cuijpers et al found that the effectiveness of CBT varies between individuals.
  • May not be as effective as other treatments. Treatments aimed at the biological causes may be more effective. e.g. low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin are a biological cause of depression. So patients with depression are prescribed with drugs called antidepressants which target serotonin e.g. SSRIs