Explaining depression

• Becks negative triad

  > Beck stated that consistent negative thoughts can make a person vulnerable to depression

  > This can be due to faulty information processing where people ignore all the positives and attend to all the negative aspects

  > Proposed the negative triad

  1. negative views about oneself - 'i hate myself'
  2. Negative views about the world - 'the world is a hard place'
  3. negative thoughts about the future - ' i will never achieve anything'
• Ellis's ABC Model

  > Emphasises the role of irrational thoughts that interfere with us being happy

  1. Activating event - external such as the loss of a job
  2. trigger irrational Beliefs - perfection (musterbation) and that life should be fair (utopianism)
  3. Consequences - such as depression
• Beck AO3

  :) RTS Cohen et al

  > He tracked the development of 473 adolescents, regularly measuring cognitive vulnerability

  > It was found that showing cognitive vulnerability predicted later depression in life

  > supporting the association between cognitive vulnerability - negative thinking
• AO3 -

  :) Led to practical applications

  > Principles of the theory that depression is caused by negative and irrational thought processing has led to the treatment of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

  > Challenge and change irrational thoughts to rational and positive ones via disputing

  > Therefore it is an important part of applied psychology
• AO3-

  :( Cause and effect cannot be established

  > Cannot be concluded if the negative and irrational thoughts cause depression or if they are a consequence of it

  > Therefore it is argued the cognitive approach cannot be seen as a full explanation