Explaining depression:

• Who proposed the idea of the negative triad in 1967?

  Aaron Beck
• What did Beck suggest?

  Beck suggested that some people are more prone to depression because of faulty information processing, i.e. thinking in a flawed way.
• What is faulty information processing?

  When depressed people attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives, they also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and think in 'black and white' terms.
• What are schemas?

  A schema is a 'package' of ideas and information developed through experience.
• What are negative schema?

  • We use schema to interpret the world, so if a person has a negative self-schema they interpret all information about themselves in a negative way.
  • Depressed people tend to have acquired a negative schema during childhood. This may be caused by parental and/or peer rejection and criticism by teachers
• What are cognitive biases?

  Negative schemas lead to systematic cognitive bases in thinking:

  • Selective abstraction= drawing conclusions on the basis of just one of many elements of a situation
  • Personalisation= attributing personal responsibility for events which aren't under a person's control
  • Minimisation= Downplaying the importance of a positive thought, emotion or event
• What are the three elements of the negative triad?

  • Negative view of the world, e.g. 'the world is a cold hard place'
  • Negative view of the future, e.g. 'there isn't much chance that the economy will get any better'
  • Negative view of the self, e.g. thinking 'I am a failure' and this negatively impacts upon self-esteem
• Who proposed the idea of the ABC model in 1962?

  Albert Ellis
• What did Ellis suggest?

  He proposed that good mental health is the result of rational thinking, defined as thinking in ways that allow people to be happy and free from pain. To Ellis, conditions like anxiety and depression result from irrational thoughts. Ellis defined irrational thoughts, not as illogical or unrealistic, but as any thoughts that interfere with us being happy or free from pain.
• What is the ABC model?

  An explanation for how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state.
• What does the (A) stand for in the ABC model?

  It stands for Activating event!

  • Ellis suggested that depression arises from irrational thoughts
  • According to Ellis depression occurs when we experience negative events, e.g. failing an important test or ending a relationship
• What does the (B) stand for in the ABC model?

  It stands for Beliefs! Negative events trigger irrational beliefs, for example:

  • Ellis called the belief that we must always succeed musterbation.
  • I-can't-stand-it-itis is the belief that it is a disaster when things do not go smoothly
  • Utopianism is the belief that the world must always be fair and just
• What does the (C) stand for in the ABC model?

  It stands for consequences!

  • When an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences
  • For example, if you believe you must always succeed and then you fail at something, the consequence is depression.
• Give me a strength of the cognitive explanation for depression:

  P- One strength of Beck's cognitive model is the existence of supporting research

  E- 'Cognitive vulnerability' refers to ways of thinking that may predispose a person to becoming depressed. These cognitive vulnerabilities are more common in depressed people and do precede the depression.

  L- This shows that there is an association between cognitive vulnerability e.g. negative triad, negative schema and depression.
• Give me a limitation of the cognitive explanation:

  P- The cognitive explanation has been criticised as it suggests that it is the client who is responsible for their disorder.

  E- Although this placing emphasis on the client can seen be seen as a good thing as it gives the client the power to change the way things are, this stance does have limitations. Ethically it may put more pressure on the individual if they think that they are responsible.

  L- It is possible that other aspects of the clients environment and life may have contributed to the disorder
• Give me a strength of the cognitive explanation:

  P- A strength of this explanation is that it can be practically applied in the real world

  E- Cognitive behavioural therapy is consistently the best treatment for depression, especially when used in conjunction with medication. The aim of the therapy is to turn irrational thoughts into rational ones.

  L- The usefulness of CBT as a therapy supports the effectiveness of the cognitive approach- if depression is alleviated by challenging irrational thinking, then this suggests such thoughts had a role in the depression the first place
• Give me a limitation of the cognitive explanation:

  P- One limitation of Ellis' ABC model is that it only explains reactive depression and not endogenous depression

  E- There seems to be no doubt that depression is often triggered by life events. Such cases are sometimes called 'reactive depression'. However, many cases of depression are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what leads the person to become depressed at a particular time.

  L- This means that Ellis can only explain some cases of depression and is therefore only a partial explanation.
• Give me one limitation of the cognitive explanation:

  P- A problem for the cognitive explanation is that there are alternative explanations to explain depression.

  E- For example, the biological approach suggests that neurotransmitters may cause depression. Research supports the low level of serotonin in depressed people and the success of drug therapies for treating depression suggests that neurotransmitters do play an important role.

  L- It is possible that having biological and psychological factors interact, therefore cognitive factors alone cannot explain the cause of depression.