Beck's cognitive theory

• The cognitive triad refers to the three main areas where distorted thinking occurs; self-image, world view and future expectations
• Beck (1957)suggested a cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression. It's a person's cognitions that create the vulnerability (e.g. the way they think). Beck suggested three parts to the cognitive vulnerability, he believed depressed individuals feel as they do because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretation self the world, and they lack a perceived sense of control
• Faulty information processing

  When depressed we attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore positives.

  E.g. someone depressed wins £1 million on the lottery they might focus on the facts someone had won £10 million rather than focus on the positives.

  They also tend to blow small problems out of proportion and think in "black and white" terms
• Negative self schemas

  A self-schema is the package of information we have about ourselves. We use schemas to interpret the world, so if we have a negative self-schema, we interpret information about ourselves in a negative way
• • Depressed people acquire a negative schema during childhood, a tendency to adopt a negative view of the world. This may be due to parental/peer rejections and criticisms by teachers.
  • These negative schemas are activated whenever the person encounters a new situation which resembles the original condition in which these schemas were learnt.
  • Negative schemas lead to systematic cognitive biases in thinking. E.g. Individuals over-generalise, drawing a sweeping conclusion regarding self-worth on the basis of one small piece of negative feedback
• Negative schemas and cognitive biases maintain what Beck calls the negative triad, a pessimistic and irrational view of three key elements in a person's belief system
• - The negative triad: The self; "I am such a failure"

  Enhance existing negative feelings, reinforce & confirm existing emotions of low self esteem

  -Negative view of the world (& life experience) "everybody hates me & leaves me"

  Creating the impression there is no hope anywhere.

  -Negative view of the future

  "I will always be alone"

  Reducing hope enhancing depression
• These negative schemas may influence how a person interprets events and experiences in their life. Beck predicted that in depression ‘latent’ negative schemas that have been formed in childhood can become activated by a life event or ongoing stressors. Negative schemas and cognitive biases maintain the negative triad.