Cognitive approach to explaining depression

• Who came up with the negative triad

  Beck (1967)
• negative triad: faulty information processing

  • Beck (1967) suggested that some people are more prone to depression because of fualty information processes. -
  • when depressed people attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore positives, they also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and think in black and white terms
• depressed people have a negative self schema: negative triad


  a schema Is a package of ideas and information developed through experience. we use scheme to interpret the world, so it a person has a negative self schema they interpret all information about themselves in a negative way
• what are the elements of the negative triad

  1. negative view of the world e.g the world is a cold hard place
  2. negative view of the future e.g. there isn’t much chance the economy will get better
  3. negative view of self e.g. thinking i am a failure - this negatively impacts upon self esteem
• what is Ellis (1962) ABC model


  Ellis suggested that depression arises from irrational beliefs:

  A - activating event

  B - beliefs

  C - consequences
• what is A - activating event

  according to Ellis depression occurs when we experience negative events e.g. failing an important test or ending a relationship
• what is B - beliefs

  negative events trigger irrational beliefs e.g.

  • musterbation - the belief that we must always succeed
  • I can stand it - the belief that its a disaster when things don't go smoothly
  • utopianism - the belief that the world must always be fair and just
• what is C - consequences

  when an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences. e.g. if you believe you must always succeed and then you fail at something, the consequence is depression
• one strength of becks model is supporting research

  Clark and Beck (1999) concluded that cognitive vulnerabilities e.g. faulty information processes, negative self schema are more common in depressed people. a recent prospective study by Cohen (2019) tracked 473 adolescents Developement and found that early cognitive vulnerability predicted later depression. this shows that there is an association between cognitive vulnerability and depression
• another strength of becks model is real world application to screening for depression

  assessing cognitive vulnerability in young people most at risk of developing depression means they can be monitored. understanding cognitive vulnerability is applied in CBT to alter cognitions in underlying depression, making a person more resilient to life events. this means that the idea of cognitive vulnerability is useful in clinical practice
• another limitation is that the negative triad is only a partial explanation


  Depressed people show particular patterns of cognition, even before the onset of depression. Therefore becks idea of cognitive vulnerability is at least a partial explanation. However, some aspects of depression are not explained by cognitive factors. These include experiences of extreme anger, and for some people hallucinations and delusions. This suggests that the cognitive model is not a particularly good explanation for all depressive phenomena
• One strength of Ellis model is its application in treating depression

  Ellis applied the ABC model to treat depression (rational emotive behaviour therapy - REBT). Evidence has shown that REBT can both change negative beliefs and relieve the symptoms of depression (David 2018). This means that REBT has real world value
• one limitation is that ellis model only explain reactive depression


  reactive depression describes a form of depression which is triggered by negative activating events. however, in many cases its not obvious what triggers depression, described as endogenous depression. Ellis model is less useful in explaining this. this means that Ellis model can only explain some cases of depression
• a further limitation of Ellis model is ethical issues 


  the ABC model of depression locates responsibility for depression with the depressed person. critics see this as blaming the depressed person. however, the application of the ABC model to REBT does appear to make at least some depressed people achieve more resilience and feel better. this means that REBT gives reason for concern but can be ethically acceptable as long as its carried out sensitively to avoid victim blaming.