Becks negative triad evaluation

• Evidence from Clark, beck and Cohen et al

  One strength generally of Beck's cognitive model of depression is the existence of supporting research.

  'Cognitive vulnerability' refers to ways of thinking that may predispose a person to becoming depressed, for example faulty information processing, negative self-schema and the cognitive triad. In a review David Clark and Aaron Beck (1999) concluded that not only were these cognitive vulnerabilities more common in depressed people but they preceded the depression. This was confirmed in a more recent prospective study by Joseph Cohen et al. (2019). They tracked the development of 473 adolescents, regularly measuring cognitive vulnerability. It was found that showing cognitive vulnerability predicted later depression.

  This shows that there is an association between cognitive vulnerability and depression.
• Clinical practice application

  A further strength of Beck's cognitive model of depression is its applications in screening and treatment for depression.

  Cohen et al. (see above) concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people, identifying those most at risk of developing depression in the future and monitoring them. Understanding cognitive vulnerability can also be applied in cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT- see next spread). These therapies work by altering the kind of cognitions that make people vulnerable to depression, making them more resilient to negative life events.

  This means that an understanding of cognitive vulnerability is useful in more than one aspect of clinical practice.
• Becks partial explanation

  There seems to be no doubt that depressed people show particular patterns of cognition, and that these can be seen before the onset of depression. It therefore appears that Beck's suggestion of cognitive vulnerabilities is at least a partial explanation for depression.

  However, there are some aspects to depression that are not particularly well explained by cognitive explanations. For example, some depressed people feel extreme anger, and some experience hallucinations and delusions.