Explanations for depression

• Depression


  A category of mood disorder that can be unipolar or bipolar
• Beck's cognitive theory of depression

  Suggested that some people have cognitive vulnerability to depression
• 3 parts to cognitive vulnerability

  - faulty information processing

  - negative self-schemas

  - the negative triad
• Ellis' ABC model

  Suggested that irrational thoughts are the key to mental disorders

  A - activating event

  B - beliefs

  C - consequences
• ABC model - activating event

  We get depressed when we experience negative events
• ABC model - beliefs

  We hold beliefs about all events or situations such as musturbatory thinking, utopianism and i-can't-stand-it-itis
• ABC model - consequences

  An emotional response to your beliefs
• Faulty information processing

  Focusing on the negative aspects of a situation and blowing small problems out of proportion
• negative self-schema

  interpreting all information about ourselves in a negative way
• the negative triad

  a pessimistic view of the self, the world, and the future
• Positive evaluation of cognitive explanation

  • research support - Harrell & Ryon used the automatic thoughts questionnaire and found that depressed people scored significantly higher
  • Application to therapy - Beck’s theory is the basis for CBT and Ellis’ theory if the basis for REBT
• negative evaluation of cognitive explanation

  • treatment causation fallacy
  • are irrational thoughts really irrational? - people with depression tend to see situations for what they really are
  • are negative thoughts a cause or consequence of depression?