AO1 Explaining Depression

• what is depression?

  a mood disorder, affecting a persons emotional state by making their mood distorted or inappropriate to the circumstance, it is characterised by low mood and low energy levels
• what are diagnostic features of depression?

  • affects thoughts, feelings, behaviours and physical well-being of an individual
  • clinical depression not merely of feeling of sadness, but rather a set of complex symptoms
  • symptoms must be causing distress or impaired functioning in social and/or occupational roles
• what symptoms must an individual display to be diagnosed with depression?

  • low mood
  • lack of interest/pleasure in activities
  • insomnia
  • psychomotor agitation (unintentional motion e.g. pacing)
  • low self-esteem
• what behavioural traits does depression cause?

  • disruption to normal sleeping and eating patterns - can lead to insomnia and hypersomnia or eating disorder
  • highly aggressive - even self-harm which can be physical or verbal, including irritability and rash decisions
• what cognitive traits does depression cause?

  • poor concentration - can't stick to task or make decisions, can interfere with school and work life
  • dwell on the negative - only attending to negative rather than positive, can lead to bias towards unhappiness and unclear perception of reality
• what emotional traits does depression cause?

  • lowered mood - feelings of worthlessness and sadness are more pronounced than usual low mood
  • lowered self-esteem - struggle with how they see themselves and talk about themselves, can even extend to self-loathing
• what did Beck propose?

  • some people are more vulnerable to depression due to their faulty cognitions which create an underlying vulnerability to depression
• what is Becks faulty information processing?

  • selectively attending to the negative aspects of a situation, ignoring positive (dichotomous thinking, overgeneralisation, catastrophising)
• what is Becks negative self-schema?

  • interpret all information about themselves in a negative way e.g. 'no one likes me'
  • childhood events like loss of parent may lead to this
• what is Becks negative triad?

  • cycle of negative thoughts having a tendency to view themselves, the world, and the future in a pessimistic way
• what did Ellis propose?

  good mental health is the result of rational thinking, arguing that there are common irrational beliefs that underline depression
• what is Ellis's ABC model?

  • activating even causes an individuals irrational beliefs (utopianism - believing life should be fair, musturbation - potentially addictive habit of absolute thinking) which result in a consequence
  • beliefs are subject to cognitive bias