cognitive approach to depression

Cards (9)

  • Ellis' ABC model - irrational thoughts lead to depression
    • A stands for activating event
    • B stand for belief (about external event) - can be irrational or rational
    • C stands for consequence-good or bad based on belief (includes physical/emotional reactions)
  • musturbatory thinking
    • certain ideas/assumptions must be true in order for a person to be happy
    • the three main assumptions are
    • i must be approved or accepted by people i find important
    • i must do well or very well or i am worthless
    • the world must give me happiness or i will die
  • Beck believed depressed individuals feel as they do because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretations of the world
    • they have a tendency to adopt a neg view which leads to systematic cognitive biases in thinking and pessemistic view of the 3 elements known as beck's negative triad
  • Beck suggested depression occurred as a result of negative schema
    • develops in childhood
    • based on parental rejection criticism from teachers
    • triggered in any situation which resembles the original conditions in which the schema was formed
  • negative triad consists on
    • negative view of self
    • negative view of world
    • negative view of future
  • One limitation of the cognitive approach to depression is that there is alternative reserach and explanation which suggests depressed people may just have a more realistic veiw of the world and their negativity can stem from a more accurate understanding of challenges or setbacks.  This was proposed by alloy and abrahamson and is backed up by research which found that depressed people gave more accurate responses on the likelihood of a disaster happening. This suggests that normal people may just be seeing the world through rose-tinted glasses and depressed people see the world through a more realistic viewpoint suggesting they don't actually think irrationally.
    +counter- howeve this doesnt explain why they have a negative perception of themselves which is often far from reality
  • there Research support that depression is linked with irrational thinking for example, hammen and krantz found depressed people made mroe errors in logic when asked to interpret written material than non-depressed people. Furthermore- Bates found that depressed participants who were given negative automatic thought statements became more and more depressed. This supports the view that negative thinking leads to depression.
    +counter- it doesnt mean irrational thinking causes depression ,negative thinking may develop because of their depression
  • however the existence of alternative approaches and therapies suggests that depression can't be explained by the cognitive approach alone.
  • One strength of the cognitive approach is that there is evidence that it has led to the development of successful therapies. For example CBT The method works to identify and change irrational thought processes Studies have shown that CBT can lead to significant reductions in depression symptoms and improving quality of life long term (report by oxford uni psych departement) .There is apporximately a 75% success rate for patients using cbt. Because this therapy which works on the bassi of challenges irrational thinking it strongly suggests there is a link between irrational thinking and depression , supporting the validity of this theory
    + counter However it doesn't help 25% of people therefore depression can't be completely attributed to cognitive factors