AO1 - Cognitive Explanations of Depression

• Beck states that consistent negative thinking can make a person vulnerable to depression - this can be to do with faulty information processing where people ignore all the positives in a situation and attend to all the negative aspects, this is referred to as "black and white thinking"
• Beck's Negative Triad - three kinds of negative thinking that make someone vulnerable to depression:

  • Negative views about oneself - "I am worthless"
  • Negative views about the future - "I will never achieve anything"
  • Negative views about the world - "The world is a hard place"
• Ellis suggested the ABC model as a cognitive explanation for depression - emphasises the role of irrational thoughts that interfere with us being happy and free of pain
• Ellis' ABC Model:

  • Activating events - external event such as the loss of a job, that trigger;
  • irrational Beliefs - for example, we must always achieve perfection (musterbation) and that life should be fair (utopianism)
  • Consequences - these are emotional and behavioural, such as depression