Depression

• what is depression classified as?

  Mood disorder
• what are characteristics of depression?

  • feelings of sadness or lack of interest.
  • difficulties with eating, sleeping and concentration.
• what is major depressive disorder?

  severe, lasts a short period of time
• what is persistent depressive disorder?


  • reocurring depression.
• what are the symptoms of depression?

  • insomnia
  • depressed mood
  • significiant weight loss
  • lack of interest
  • feelings of worthlessness
• What is cognitive depression?

  • negative thoughts
  • Poor concentration
  • Focus on the negatives
• whats behavioural depression?

  • loss of energy or psychomotor agitation.
  • Change in sleep habits and eating habits.
  • Aggressive behaviour
• what’s emotional depression?

  • low mood/empty/worthlessness
  • anger
  • low self esteem
• what are the explanations for depression?

  • basic assumption of the cognitive explanation is that depression is caused by negative thinking
  • this then creates a negative midset
  • and this causes a low mood.
• what are the 2 main schools of thought as to how faulty cognitions cause depression?

  beck and ellis
• what are the basic assumptions?

  • mind is like a computer
  • abnormality is due to irrational or faulty thought processes.
• what did beck suggest?

  1. faulty information processing= focuses on negatives and not the positives,ignores middle ground.
  2. negative self schemas = vey critical about the selves
  3. the negative trait= their self,world,future
• what is the Ellis ABC model?

  A)activating event = negative situation experienced causing irrational thoughts

  B)beliefs=leads to irrational beliefs about themself

  C)consequences= leads to consequences for behaviour and emotions.
• what is an alternative explanation?

  biological approach to explaining depression.
• what’s a strength of this topic?

  p=good supportive evidence

  e=research has supported the proposal that depression is associated with faulty information processing

  E=so this suggests all 3 components help people with depression.

  L= therefore external validity increases.
• what’s a limitation of depression?

  p=doesn’t explain all aspects of depression

  e=only explains the basic symptoms of depression

  e=however, its a complex disorder with a range of symptoms

  l=therefore not all of which can be explained.
• what’s another strength of depression?

  p=practical application to CBT

  e=forms the basis of cognitive - behavioural therapy

  e= so all cognitive aspects of depression can be challenged in cbt which is a treatment for depression.
• what’s the final weakness of depression?

  p=biological approach isn’t considered in this cognitive approach

  e=doesn’t take biological processes into account e.g genetics, neurotransmitters

  e= so cannot fully explain depression

  l=not a holistic view.
• what is cognitive behavioural therapy?

  a therapy that changes negative thinking to positive thinking.
• what are the 2 types of treatment?

  (CBT)cognitive behavioural therapy and (REBT) rational emotive behavioural therapy
• what does becks CBT therapy consist of?

  1. thought catching - negative beliefs are identified
  2. patient as a scientist - generate a hypothesis to test the validity of the negative thoughts
  3. homework tasks - test their hypothesis and record the results.
  4. cognitive restructuring - patient has now got evidence to dispute their hypothesis so can be used to change thoughts to positive ones.
• what is REBT?

  this therapy helps to challenge these irrational beliefs by extending the ABC model.
• what is logical dispute

  questioning the logic of the beliefs, do they make sense?
• what is empirical dispute?

  finding empirical evidence for thoughts
• what does ABCDE stand for under ellis' model?

  activating event, beliefs about the event, consequences, disputations to challenge irrational beliefs, effective beliefs to replace the irrational ones
• whats a strength of these therapies?

  p-its more ethical than drug therapy

  e-CBT is more empowering for patients,drug therapy only works if the patient is obedient in their treatment.

  e-this means that when the improvements are seen the patient feels good as its from the direct effort they've put in.

  l- therefore this can help raise self esteem