Explaining depression: Psychopathology

• AO1 - beck model


  becks cog theory of depression

  -persons has a 3 part cognition which creates vulnerability to depression

  1. faulty info processing

  pay attention to negative aspects and ignore positives

  blow small problems out of proportion

  2. negative self schemas

  use schemas to interpret world, if we have a negative self schema we interpret all info about ourselves in a negative way

  3. negative triad

  person develops negative view of themselves due to 3 elements

  -negative view of world - creates impression theres no hope anywhere

  -negative view of future- reduce hopefulness and increase depression

  -negative view of self- enhance depressive feelings because they confirm existing emotions of low self esteem
• AO3 - strength of becks model


  -supporting research

  -studies concluded that cog vulnerabilities are more common in depressive people

  -a recent prospective study by cohen tracked 473 adolescents and found early cog vulnerability predicted later depression

  -This shows that there is an association between cognitive vulnerability and depression
• AO3- strength of beck model


  - real world application to screening depression

  -Assessing cog vulnerability in young people most at risk of developing depression means they can be monitored.

  -understanding cog vulnerability is applied to CBT after cognitions underlying depression, making a person more resiliennt to live events

  -Means that the idea of cog vulnerability is useful in clinical practice.
• AO1- ellis abc model


  -proposed good mental health it result of rational thinking and conditions like anxiety and depression result from irrational thoughts

  -Ellis defined irrational thoughts as thoughts that intefere with being happy or free of pain

  - he used the abc model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state.
• AO1- ellis abc model


  A- activating event

  Ellis focused on situation in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events

  -according to ellis we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs

  B- beliefs

  he called the belief that we must always succeed or achieve perfection 'musturbation'

  - and 'i cant stand it-itis' is the belief that its a major disaster whenever something doesnt go smoothly

  -utopianism is the belief that life is always meant to be fair

  C- consquences

  -when an activating event triggers beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences e.g believing you must always succeed and then fail at something can trigger depression
• AO3- strength of ellis' model


  -real world application in treating depression

  -ellis applied abc model to treat depression (rational emotive behaviour therapy, REBT)

  - evidence that REBT can change negative beliefs and relieve symptoms of depression

  -This means that REBT has real-world value
• AO3- limitation of ellis' model


  - only explains reactive depression

  - reactive depression is a form of depression thats 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 causes of depression