The Cognitive Approach to Explaining Depression

• • The cognitive approach to explaining depression focuses on faulty and irrational thought processes and perceptions.
  • According to Aaron Beck, depression is caused by negative thinking, especially about oneself, and this negative thinking precedes the development of depression.
  • Albert Ellis's ABC Model (1957) states that depressives mistakenly blame external events for their unhappiness, but it is their interpretation of these events that is to blame for their distress.
• Beck's Negative Triad:

  • Depression is explained through the negative cognitive triad, consisting of a negative view of the self, the world, and the future
  • These negative views interfere with normal cognitive processing like memory and problem-solving, with each component feeding into the other
  • Examples include negative views of the self (helpless, worthless, inadequate), the world (perceiving obstacles that cannot be overcome), and the future (feeling personal worthlessness blocks any improvements)
• Negative schemas:

  • Depressed individuals develop negative schemas about themselves.
  • These negative schemas develop in childhood and adolescence due to rejection by parents or friends, criticism, exclusion, or loss of a close family member.
  • Negative events shape the person's self-concept as unwanted or unloved, carrying into adulthood and providing a negative framework for viewing life pessimistically.
• Cognitive biases:

  • People with negative schemas are prone to making thinking errors and cognitive biases
  • They selectively focus on certain aspects of a situation and ignore equally relevant information
  • One example is overgeneralization, where individuals with depression make sweeping conclusions based on a single event (e.g., assuming someone hates them because they did not smile)
• • In the ABC model, A refers to an activating event: something that happens in the environment.
  • B in the ABC model is the belief held about the event, which can be rational or irrational.
  • C in the ABC model stands for the consequence: rational beliefs lead to healthy emotions, while irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy emotions
• Supporting research for Beck's cognitive explanation of depression:

  • Koster et al's study used student volunteers in an attention task with positive, negative, and neutral words
  • Depressed participants spent longer attending to negative words than non-depressed individuals.
  • Supports the idea of cognitive biases in depression where individuals focus on negative aspects of life.
  • Empirical support for Ellis's therapy based on the ABC model contributes to the acceptance that irrational beliefs lead to depression (Benjamin 2011).
• Cause or effect of distorted cognitive patterns in depression:

  • Difficult to determine if distorted cognitive patterns cause depression
  • Depressed individuals show more negative thinking than controls in numerous studies
  • Negative thinking may be a consequence of depression rather than its cause
  • Negative thinking might serve to maintain the disorder rather than explain its origins
• Practical application of Ellis' ABC model and Beck's cognitive explanation of depression:

  • Influential in stimulating research into depression and cognitive behavioural therapies
  • Contributed greatly to understanding depression and rise of cognitive behavioural therapies
  • CBT found highly effective in treating depression, especially unipolar depressive disorder
  • Challenging irrational negative beliefs can reduce depression (Lipsky's research)
• Argument for a more holistic approach to understanding depression:

  • Cognitive distortions in depressed individuals may be a symptom rather than a cause of depression
  • Other explanations, like psychodynamic explanations, are needed to fully understand the disorder
  • Role of low serotonin levels and success of drug therapies offer strength to a biological explanation
  • A holistic approach is necessary for a comprehensive understanding of depression