16 Marker - Explanations

• What does the cognitive explanation believe about the cause of depression?

  - Assumes depression is the result of cognitive distortions based on the idea of cognitive primacy (thoughts cause feelings and behaviour).

  - Focuses on an individual's negative thoughts, irrational beliefs and misinterpretations of events as being the cause of depression
• What does Beck believe about negative self schemas in relation to the cause of depression?


  - Beck believes people become depressed through viewing the world through negative schemas, which are triggered whenever an individual is in a situation similar to the one they were in when they learned the schema.

  - These are perceived to develop in childhood and adolescence when authority figures placed unrealistic demands on individuals and were highly critical.

  - A self schema is information we have about ourselves, and if someone has a negative self schema, they interpret all information about them in a negative way.
• What are cognitive biases caused by according to Beck?

  Faulty information processing
• What are Beck's cognitive biases?

  - Arbitrary interference

  - Selective abstraction

  - Overgeneralization

  - Magnification and Minimilisation
• What is Beck's negative triad?

  Says that negative thoughts are about:

  - The self - individuals see themselves as helpless, worthless and inadequate

  - The world - obstacles are perceived within one's environment which cannot be dealt with

  - The future - personal worthlessness is seen as blocking any improvements
• What is Ellis' ABC model?

  Ellis believed that depressives mistakenly blame external events for their unhappiness, and it is their interpretation of these events that is to blame for their distress
• What is the activating event?


  Something happens in the environment around you, e.g. your teacher says they are unhappy with your work
• What is the belief?


  You hold a belief about the event or situation, e.g. you see yourself as a failure
• What is the consequence?


  You have an emotional response to your belief, e.g. a feeling of worthlessness
• Describe how Ellis' ABC model explains the cause of depression

  The activating event triggers an emotion that is seen as true, and consequently, the individual becomes depressed as they have a negative view of themselves and no confidence in their ability.
• Give a strength of Ellis' explanation of depression

  Telling the patient it is their beliefs linked to events causing their issues rather than the events themselves gives the patient control and belief in free will, leading to better mental health outcomes
• Give a weakness of Ellis' explanation of depression

  Whilst some depressions are reactive (exogenous) with an activating event, not all are, and some cases just suddenly appear from within (endogenous)
• What other concept did Ellis put forward in relation to the cause of depression?

  Musturbatory thinking
• What is musturbatory thinking?


  Thinking that certain ideas or assumptions must be true in order for an individual to be happy, e.g. a person may believe that they should have perfect grades, and failing a test therefore triggers the idea of the ABC model
• What did McIntosh and Fischer find in 2000?

  Tested Beck's cognitive triad to see if there were three distinct types of negative thoughts, finding no such separation, but a one dimensional negative perception of the self, therefore questioning the validity of Beck's explanation
• What did Koster find in 2005?

  - Presented patients with a positive, negative or neutral word on a screen and found that depressed patients took longer to disengage with the negative words.

  - This supports Beck's explanation as participants demonstrated cognitive bias to selective attention to negative information.
• What did Grazioli and Terry find in 2000?

  - Longitudinal study which collected data from 65 women during their third trimester of pregnancy, and then 6 weeks after the birth, assessing cognitive vulnerability and level of depressed symptoms at time 1, and assessing stress and post partum depressive symptoms at time 2.

  - Those women assessed as having increased cognitive vulnerability at time 1 were more likely to develop post partum depression based on assessment at time 2. This provides support for Beck's ideas about faulty information processing as the women who developed this were cognitively vulnerable anyway
• What are the strengths of the cognitive explanation of depression?

  - Success with development of therapies and treatments - practical applications like CBT

  - Acknowledges that other explanations, like gene development and early experiences, can lead to certain thinking patterns, causing depression, making the explanation less reductionist than others

  - gene mapping techniques of twins where genetics accounted for 66% of cognitive abilities showed that negative schemas are somewhat genetic

  - Objective testing as it is based on scientific principles - constant improvements are made to models with testing, increasing accuracy and validity. Research supports the explanation, giving it reliability
• What are the weaknesses of the cognitive explanation of depression?

  - Can't explain all aspects of depression, e.g. anger and hallucination

  - Reactive depression

  - Ellis' explanation of depression being caused by an event does not explain depression which appears to have no cause- Do the negative thoughts cause depression or depression cause negative thoughts? - it is a bi-directional relationship
• Who put forward the idea of the two process model to explain phobias in the behaviourist explanation?


  Mowrer
• What does the two-process model suggest?

  - Phobias are acquired through classical conditioning or social learning theory and are maintained through operant conditioning, more specifically, negative reinforcement (by taking away the anxiety of the phobia by never actually facing it and avoiding situations where the phobic stimulus may be present).
• How can a phobia be acquired through classical conditioning?

  1. UCS -> UCR}UCS + 2. NS -> UCR

  3. NS BECOMES CS AND UCR BECOMES CR

  4. CS -> CR

  The CS can then be generalized to situations in which it may be present
• What did Rachman suggest in 1984 which criticises the two-process model?

  Suggests that avoidant responses are motivated by positive experiences associated with safe places
• What are other criticisms of the two-process model?


  - Not everyone experiencing traumatic events go on to develop a phobia, e.g. not everyone who is bitten by a dog becomes phobic of them, and so therefore there must be some other explanation, such as a genetic vulnerability, maladaptive thought processes or evolution

  - The evolutionary explanation is ignored - we acquire phobias more easily for factors that have been a source of dangers in an evolutionary past, e.g. snakes and spiders were adaptive to fear, and the two-process model ignores this idea. Seligman said we have a "biological preparedness" to fear such things, however, this doesn't apply to modern phobias, like guns
• Which study of classical conditioning supports the two-process model?

  The Watson and Rayner 1920 "Little Albert" study
• What were the findings of the 1920 Little Albert study?

  - When shown the rat, Albert would cry, roll over and crawl away - he developed a fear to the white rat and generalised this to other white furry objects
• What conclusion was drawn from the 1920 Little Albert study?

  This therefore suggested that fear responses can be learnt as a direct result of conditioning thus supporting the classical conditioning explanation of how we acquire phobias
• What is a weakness of the Little Albert study?

  - Fear response for Little Albert not initially as severe as it was made out to be
• What is a further limitation of the behavioural explanation for phobias?

  There is a cognitive element.

  - Suggests we develop a phobia through attentional bias, where a phobic focuses more upon anxiety generating stimuli, e.g. the teeth of a dog, rather than the other features of the thing.

  - It also suggests that phobics have maladaptive thoughts and beliefs about stimuli, e.g. belief that taps which are on will cause flooding, generalising to a fear of flowing water.
• What does the genetic explanation believe about how you develop OCD?

  You inherit a genetic predisposition to developing OCD
• How has the genetic explanation of OCD used twin and family studies?

  - Twin studies on genotype and phenotype are used to find concordance rates (measure of genetic similarity) using Mz (identical) and Dz (non-identical) twins.

  - Twin studies are used to find out if there is credibility in the idea of there being specific genes related to the onset of OCD, giving us a genetic vulnerability to the disorder, and so these studies look into what extent genes play their part over environment. Mz twins are genetically similar and share the same environment, so if one twin has the disorder, so should the other theoretically.
• What did Nestadt find in 2000?


  Found that first degree relatives of OCD sufferers, such as parents, siblings and children, had an 11.7% chance of developing the disorder compared to 2.7% of first degree relatives of non-OCD sufferers
• What did Miguel find in 2005?


  - Claims that when one Mz twin has OCD, the other has a 53-87% chance of developing it, compared with Dz twins having a 22-47% chance of both suffering.

  - The environment the twins grow up in will still be seen as the same, so therefore the difference in chance must be due to the greater genetic similarity in Mz twins over Dz.
• How can a malfunction of the COMT gene cause OCD according to the genetic explanation?

  - The COMT gene usually regulates dopamine activity, keeping normal levels, however, when the gene malfunctions, there is no regulation, producing lower activity.

  - Therefore, homeostatic balance is not maintained and therefore this causes higher levels of dopamine, which is found in many OCD sufferers.
• How can a SERT gene malfunction cause OCD according to the genetic explanation?

  - A malfunction of the SERT gene affects the normal reuptake of serotonin, leading to low serotonin levels, meaning that there is not enough to inhibit the worry associated with OCD.

  - This gene malfunction seems to run in families, and raising serotonin with anti-depressants alleviates symptoms, therefore validating the casual influence of serotonin.
• What did Ozaki find in 2003 about the SERT gene malfunction?

  Found a mutation of the SERT gene in 2 unrelated families where 6 of the 7 family members with it had OCD.
• Give a strength of the genetic explanation of OCD

  It is supported by research such as:

  - Lenane et al 1990 - found evidence for existence of heritable contributions to the onset of OCD

  - Stewart et al 2007 - performed gene mapping on OCD patients and their family members, finding that a variant of the OLIG-2 gene commonly occurred, suggesting a genetic link
• What are the weaknesses of the genetic explanation of OCD?

  - Concordance rates from twin studies were not 100%, meaning that there must be some environmental influence at play. Therefore, genetics alone is an insufficient explanation

  - There is a stronger genetic link between some types of OCD than others, particularly those associated with contamination/washing, meaning that genetics is not a complete explanation to OCD overall

  - No single gene causes the disorder, but many scattered across the genome, and these depend on environmental triggers to develop into full blown OCD

  - Taylor (swift xx) 2013 said that OCD is polygenic and may involve 230 genes- Twin and family studies show a link between genetics and OCD but do not explain the genetic mechanisms behind the disorder

  - Pato et al 2001 said that there is a huge amount of evidence for OCD being heritable, but few details are understood about the genetic mechanisms underpinning the disorder, indicating need for more focused research- Family members often show different OCD symptoms

  - if disorder = purely inherited, surely the symptoms would be the same-Grootheest et al 2005 - OCD originating in childhood is more genetic in nature than originating in adulthood - different types of OCD with different causes
• What is the diathesis-stress model in terms of genetics?


  - An interactionist approach to explaining the cause of OCD, believing that individuals inherit a "genetic vulnerability" to developing OCD, such as having the COMT or SERT gene, which has to be triggered by the environment to actually suffer with the disorder.

  - For example, a person might catch a virus, like the flu or strep throat, and this may trigger the candidate genes, meaning you do develop OCD
• What is the diathesis-stress model in terms of neural explanation?

  - An interactionist approach to explaining the cause of OCD - you have an abnormally functioning brain mechanism, like a neurotransmitter imbalance, which has the potential to cause OCD (e.g. due to too low levels of serotonin), and catching a virus like flu or strep throat leads to an immune system attack and deficiency.

  - This can trigger the neural abnormality, meaning that you do develop OCD