Cognitive Approach to Depression

• symptoms of major depression: low mood, loss of pleasure, irrational negative beliefs, difficulty concentrating, change in appetite, change in sleep pattern
• to be diagnosed with major depression

  • low mood and loss of pleasure
  • at least 5 symptoms
  • at least one emotional symptom
  • at least one behavioural symptom
  • more than 2 weeks of experiencing symptoms
• a manic episode

  • when someone experiences a period of extremely high mood for at least one week
• a depressive episode

  • when someone experiences a period of extremely low mood for at least one week
• manic depression = bipolar disorder
• when a person cycles between depressive episodes and manic episodes, this is called manic depression
• beck's negative (or cognitive) triad

  • categorised irrational negative beliefs into 3 different types
  • negative beliefs about the self
  • negative beliefs about the world
  • negative beliefs about the future
• people get a negative triad from a negative schema which is caused by negative past experiences

  according to beck, a negative schema is responsible for irrational negative beliefs
• beck: cognitive biases

  • a tendency to pay attention to just positive or negative information
  • a positive or negative cognitive bias or no bias
  • according to beck, a negative cognitive bias can help to maintain irrational negative beliefs
• if new information supports the schema, this strengthens the schema and the irrational negative beliefs

  if new, negative information matches expectations from a persons negative schema then this information is assimilated into their schema