Cognitive - Depression

• What are the 7 symptoms of major depression?

  1. Low mood
  2. Loss of pleasure
  3. Irrational negative beliefs
  4. Difficulty concentrating
  5. Change in appetite
  6. Change in sleep pattern
  7. Social withdrawal
• What are the 3 category's of the symptoms of major depression?

  Emotional, cognitive and behavioural
• What symptoms of major depression are under the category: emotional ?

  Low mood and Loss of pleasure
• What symptoms of major depression are under the category: Cognitive?

  Irrational negative beliefs and difficulty concentrating
• What symptoms of major depression are under the category: behavioural?

  Change in appetite, change in sleep pattern and social withdrawal
• What is required in order to be diagnosed with major depression?

  At least one emotional symptom

  At least 5 symptoms of depression

  More than 2 weeks of experiencing symptoms
• When a person experiences a period of low mood, which lasts for at least one week, this is called a depressive episode.

  When a person experiences a period of high mood, which lasts for at least one week, this is called a manic episode.
• When a person cycles between depressive and manic episodes, they are said to have manic depression also known as bipolar disorder.
• What forms Ellis' ABC model of depression?

  the Activating event

  a Belief about the causes of an event

  the Consequence of the belief
• According to Ellis' ABC model depression is caused by....

  A - When a person with depression experiences a negative activating event, they form beliefs about the event that are overly negative.

  B - People experience the symptoms of depression as a consequence of irrational negative beliefs.

  C - Depression is caused by irrational negative beliefs.
• What 3 types of irrational negative beliefs are in Beck's negative triad?

  • self
  • world
  • future
• According to Beck, irrational negative beliefs are caused by a person having a negative schema, which is a framework built up from past experiences.
• When people have a tendency to pay attention to just some of the information they're given, we say that they have a cognitive bias. (positive cognitive bias = only listening/focusing on the positive information).
• According to Beck negative information is assimilated into people's negative schema, making their schema even stronger and that negative cognitive biases also help to maintain irrational negative beliefs.
• Koster et al's study...

  The dependent variable was reaction time to press a button.

  The Independent variable was whether the participants had major depression or not.

  On every trial, before the square appeared, a positive, neutral or negative word flashed up on the screen.

  Participants were asked to press a button as fast as they could to indicate where a square appeared on screen.
• What were the results of Kosyer et al's study?

  This study supports the idea that people with major depression have a negative cognitive bias.

  After being presented with a negative word, participants with major depression took longer than the controls to indicate where the square had appeared. (In comparison to the positive and neutral word which had the same reaction time)
• 1 limitation of the cognitive explanation of depression.....

  • Irrational negative beliefs may not be the only cause of depression. For instance McGuffin et al found a higher concordance rate (46%) in monozygotic twins than dizygotic twins(20%) meaning that the difference between concordance rates for depression indicates that genetic inheritance contributes to the development of major depression.
• 1 limitation of the cognitive explanation of depression.....

  • People with depression may not always have irrational beliefs. For instance in Alloy and Abramson's study, they found that participants with major depression estimated the control over a flashing light bulb more accurately than the control group.
• What are the steps involved in cognitive behavioural therapy?

  First, the therapist encourages the patient to identify their negative beliefs.

  Second, the therapist challenges the patient's negative beliefs.

  Third, the patient is set homework to gather evidence to test their hypothesis.

  Fourth, the therapist and patient evaluate the evidence together in the next sessions
• CBT aims to remove the negative beliefs of depression through a 4 step process.
• Support for The Cognitive behavioural therapy comes from Cuijpers et al.'s study, which reviewed study's in the United States and found that CBT was more effective than other treatments.
• What limitations are there are Cognitive Behavioural Therapy's?

  • Because every patient is different, CBT might not be effective for everyone. (People with Social Phobias may struggle to interact with a therapist)
  • CBT may not be as effective as other treatments e.g. Antidepressants (SSRIs)