cognitive approach-explaining depression

• Faulty information processing=when depressed people attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives. They also tend to blow small problems out of proportion.
• Negative self-schema= they interpret all information about themselves in a negative way
• The negative triad:

  • negative view of the world
  • negative view of the future
  • negative view of the self
• Research support


  Clark and Beck concluded that not only were these cognitive vulnerabilities more common in depressed people but they preceded the depression.
• Research Support


  Cohen tracked the development of 473 adolescents, regularly measuring cognitive vulnerability and found that showing cognitive vulnerability predicted later depression. This means there is an association between cognitive vulnerability and depression.
• Real-world application


  Beck’s cognitive model of depression has applications in screening and treatment for depression. Cohen concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people, identifying those most at risk of developing depression and monitoring them.
• Real-world application


  Understanding cognitive vulnerability can also be applied in cognitive behaviour therapy-CBT. These therapies work by altering the kind of cognitions that make people vulnerable to depression, making them more resilient to negative life events.
• Ellis’ ABC model


  He proposed that good mental health is the result of rational thinking, defined as thinking in ways that allow people to be happy and free from pain. To Ellis, conditions like depression result from irrational thoughts. Ellis defined irrational thoughts not as illogical or unrealistic but as any thoughts that interfere with us being happy and free from pain.
• Ellis used the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state.
• ABC model:

  • A= activating event
  • B= beliefs
  • C= consequences
• Activating event= we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs
• Consequences= when an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences. (e.g. if a person believes they must always succeed and then fails at something this can trigger depression)
• Real-world application


  Ellis’ approach to cognitive therapy is called REBT. The idea of REBT is that by vigorously arguing with a depressed person the therapist can alter the irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy. There is evidence that REBT can both change negative beliefs and relieve the symptoms of depression. This means REBT has real-world value.
• Reactive and endogenous depression:

  Ellis’ model only explains reactive depression not endogenous depression. Depression triggered by life events is called reactive depression. However many cases of depression are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what leads the person to become depressed (endogenous depression).
• Beck took a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression than others. In particular it is a person‘s cognitions that create this vulnerability. Beck suggested three parts to this cognitive vulnervaility.
• The negative triad= Beck suggested that a person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of three types of negative thinking that occur automatically, regardless of the reality of what is happening at the time.