Cognitive approach to depression

• Cognitive approach to depression - cognitive explanations of depression is the result of disturbance in “thinking”

  they focus on individuals negative thoughts and misinterpretation of events being the cause of depression
• Aaron Beck - there is a cognitive explanation as to why some people are more vulnerable than others
• Aaron Beck - suggested three parts to cognitive vulnerability:

  faulty information processing

  negative self-schemas

  the negative triad
• Aaron beck - faulty information processing:

  people selectively attend to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positive aspects and blow small problems out of proportion with thinking in black and white
• Aaron beck - negative self schemas:

  self schema - a package of ideas we have about ourselves

  people with depression have a negative one
• Aaron beck - the negative triad:

  viewing themselves and the world in pessimistic ways

  triad:

  negative view of the self

  negative view of the world

  negative view of the future
• Albert Ellis - good mental health is the result of rational thinking

  There are common irrational beliefs that underlie depression and sufferers have based their lives on these beliefs
• Albert Ellis - ABC model:

  A - an Activating event

  B - an individuals Beliefs which results in

  C - a Consequence
• AO3. An advantage to the cognitive approach to depression is its application to therapy. it has been used to develop treatments for therapy such as CBT and REBT. These were developed from Ellis’ ABC model, identifying negative thoughts and supporting people with depression.
• AO3. A weakness to the cognitive approach to depression is that it does not explain why patients have irrational thoughts. We are unsure whether a person’s depression leads to negative thoughts or negative thoughts lead to depression. This means that other factors such as genes could be the cause, and irrational thoughts are the symptom.
• AO3. A limitation to the cognitive approach to depression is that there are explanations suggesting that depression is a biological condition, caused by genes and neurotransmitters. There is a lower level of serotonin in depression patients, and drug therapies including SSRIs are effective for treating depression. This casts doubt upon the cognitive approach.
• AO3. A strength to the cognitive approach is that there is research support. Boury et al found that depression patients were more likely to misinterpret information negatively, supporting cognitive bias, and feel hopeless about their future, showing support for cognitive triad. Also, Bates et al gave depression patients negative statements to read and found that their symptoms got worse. There findings support the idea that negative thinking is involved in depression.