cognitive explaining depression

• The cognitive approach generally explains depression in terms of faulty and irrational thought processes and perceptions. Where the behaviourist explanations would focus on maladaptive (faulty) behaviours, the cognitive approach focuses on maladaptive cognitions that underpin such maladaptive behaviours.
• Ellis proposed that good mental health is the result of rational thinking in ways that allow people to be happy and free of pain. He believed conditions like anxiety and depression result from irrational thoughts, (dysfunctional thoughts that interfere with us being happy and free of pain, which can lead to mental disorders such as depression).
• Ellis used the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect our behaviour and emotional state. A) activating event. Ellis focused on situations in which irrational thoughts are triggered by external events. We get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs. Thus the activating even is the negative event such as failing an important test.
• B) beliefs. You hold a belief about the event/situation. This may be rational (it was a hard test) or irrational (I failed because they made the test on everything I didn't revise).

  There are a range of irrational beliefs: mustabatory thinking (the belief that we always must succeed and achieve perfection), utopianism (the belief that life is always meant to be fair).
• Lastly C) consequence. You have an emotional response to your belief. Rational beliefs lead to healthy emotions (I accept that I didn't do well in the test), whereas irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy emotions (If you believe that you always must succeed and then fail at something this can trigger the person to go into depression).
• Beck suggested a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression than others. It is a person's cognitions that create this vulnerability i.e. the way that they think. Beck suggested 3 parts to this cognitive vulnerability. Faulty information processing. When depressed one focuses on the negative aspects of a situation, and ignores the positives. We also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and think in black and white terms.
• Next there are negative self-schema's. A schema is a mental framework of ideas developed through sensory experience, this framework allows for the interpretation of sensory information. A self-schema is a package of information that we have about ourselves. We use schema's to interpret the world, so if we have a negative self-schema we interpret all information about ourselves in a negative way, leading to depression.
• Lastly the negative triad where a person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves because of the three types of negative thinking that occur automatically, regardless of the reality of what is happening at that time. When we are depressed we experience: negative views of the self - where the individual sees themselves as helpless, worthless and inadequate.
• These thoughts enhance existing depressive feelings because they confirm the existing emotions/low self-esteem, negative views of the world - where obstacles are perceived within one's environment that cannot be dealt with, thus creating the impression that there is no hope anywhere and negative view of the future - where personal worthlessness is seen as blocking improvements in the future. These thoughts reduce hopefulness and enhance depression.
• The cognitive explanation of depression has further evidence to support the role of irrational thinking. For example, Grazioli and Terry (2000) assessed 65 pregnant women for cognitive vulnerability (for cognitive bias) and depression before and after birth. They found that those women who were judged to have been high in cognitive vulnerability were more likely to suffer from post- natal depression.
• continuing strength;

  This is a strength because the research supports the view that negative thinking is associated with depression- supporting negative schema's and cognitive bias as otherwise, the women with higher cognitive vulnerability would be equally as likely as the other women to suffer from post-natal depression
• The cognitive explanation has resulted in some practical applications. For example, the cognitive explanation focuses on negative cognitive bias has resulted in the development in CBT, where an individual's thought processes undergo reality testing and challenge, this has been found to be a successful approach for many patients resulting in a reduction in their symptoms and improved management of their depression. This is a strength because it highlights that irrational beliefs have, to some degree, a role in depression.
• continuing strength;

  By being treated for depression with CBT, this can have potentially positive impacts on the economy as more people will be able to work, now not hindered by their depression, meaning people have more money to spend and more people are paying taxes.
• The cognitive approach to depression blames the patient. For example, the cognitive approach suggests disorders are simply in the patient's mind (e.g. an individual is depressed because they have negative thoughts) and this can lead to environmental factors (e.g. family) being overlooked. This is a limitation because it may be unhelpful to place a large burden of blame on a person prone to negative thoughts and depression. As a result of this, individuals may feel responsible for their own abnormality and this could lead to delays in treatment as the individual may lack motivation.
• continuing limitation;

  Statistically it takes those with depression 10 years to access help, which could be shortened if their experiences were treated differently and less blame was place in themselves.
• The cognitive explanation of depression has evidence to support the role of irrational thinking. For example, Bates et al (1999) found that depressed participants who were given statements of negative automatic thoughts became more and more depressed. This is a strength because the research supports the view that negative thinking is associated with depression- supporting both the negative triad and the ABC model as otherwise, the negative automatic thoughts wouldn't have changed how depressed the participants were.