cognitive explanations of depression

• Beck's negative triad Explains depression as a vulnerability that is caused by the person's cognition and their negative schemas.
• beck- identified a negative triad of automatic thoughts linked to depression
• Beck Negative triad- themselves (e.g that they can't succeed at anything)
• Beck Negative triad- the world (e.g everyone is against me)
• Beck Negative triad- The future (e.g that nothing will change)
• 3= A depressed person tends to only focus on the negative things in their lives rather than the positives, which means they often blow small problems out of proportion. These cognitive biases cause the depressed person to constantly have a negative view on themselves.
• 4= Becks= These cognitive biases may involve developing a negative self schema which means they interpret all of the information about or around themselves negatively. E.g they could have an ineptness schema where they believe they will always fail.
• Ellis's ABC model. Ellis suggested that depression is caused by irrational thoughts and that rational thoughts cause good mental health.
• Ellis stated that these irrational thoughts interfered with happiness and cause the person to be unhappy
• ells identified the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect the individual
• Ellis- (1)= Activation event - this is a negative event e.g failing an exam that triggers the irrational thoughts
• Beliefs - these are the thoughts that the person associated with the person, they can be rational (healthy) e.g i'll revise more next time or irrational (unhealthy) e.g im worthless
• ellis- (+) ABC= The view that depression is linked to irrational thinking is supported by research E.g Hammen and Krants found that depressed participants made more errors in logic when asked to interpret written material compared to non-depressed participants


  Furthermore Bates found that depressed participants who were given negative automatic thought statements became more and more depressed.
• ABC (-) This research supports the link between irrational thinking and depression, however it does not mean that irrational thinking causes depression in the first place.
• ABC (-) b= Faulty cognitions may simply be the consequence of depression rather than its cause. E.g depression may be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain which causes people to think very negatively.
• (+) The cognitive approach suggests that the client is responsible for their disorder Which may be beneficial for treatment because it gives the client power to change the way things are rather than them feeling powerless
• However, this may lead to the client and therapist overlooking situational factors e.g not considering life events or family problems which may have contributed towards the mental disorder.
• Therefore, the strength of the cognitive approach lies in its focus on the clients mind and recovery, but other (external) aspects of the clients life also need to be considered
• (+) CBT is consistently found to be the best treatment for depression, especially when used in conjunction with drug treatments
• The usefulness of CBT as a therapy supports the effectiveness of the cognitive approach. I.e If depression is alleviated by challenging irrational thinking, then this suggests such thoughts had a role in the depression in the first place