Psychopathology: The cognitive approach for explaining depression Flashcards
What is the cognitive approach?
Focuses on how our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect our behaviour.
The approach assumes that behaviours are controlled by thoughts and beliefs thus making irrational/ faulty thoughts and beliefs causing ‘abnormal’/ depressed behaviours.
What is Ellis’ ABC model (1962)
The key to mental disorders such as depression are a result of irrational beliefs.
What does the ABC stand for?
A refers to the activating event (e.g. getting fired at work)
B refers to the belief, which may be rational or irrational (e.g. I was fired because they were over staffed, or I was fired because they always had it in for me)
C refers to the consequence —> rational beliefs lead to healthy emotions (e.g. acceptance) whereas irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy emotions (e.g. depression).
What is musturbatory thinking?
Thinking that a certain idea/ assumption must be true in order for an individual to be happy —> describes how irrational thoughts lead to depression.
How does musturbatory thinking lead to depression?
An irrational belief (e.g. I must do well or I’m worthless) results in a higher likelihood of the individual being disappointed. Depression isn’t a result of an event but an irrational belief of that event.
What are the 3 most common irrational thoughts/ beliefs?
1)I must be accepted/ approved by people I find important.
2)I must do well or I’m worthless
3)The world must give me happiness, or I will die
What is Beck’s Negative Triad (1967)?
States that negative schemas and cognitive biases maintain a negative triad of pessimistic and irrational views. The Negative Triad involves a negative view of the self, the future and the world all of which feed into each other to create a loop.
What are the 3 elements to Becks cognitive theory of depression?
1) Faulty info processing
2) Negative self-schemas – a schema is a cognitive framework that helps organise and interpret information in the brain —> a schema helps and individual make sense of new information.
Depressed people have acquired a negative scheme during childhood due to paternal/ peer rejection or teacher criticism. Schemas are activated in conditions similar to when they’re learnt. Negative schemas lead to systematic cognitive biases e.g. individuals overgeneralise, drawing a sweeping conclusion of self worse on the basis on a small piece of negative feedback.
3) Beck’s Negative Triad – outlines the dysfunctional views that occur when people are depressed.
What are the 4 AO3 points for the Cognitive approach to explaining depression?
+Practical applications
-Blames the client rather than situational factors
-Irrational thoughts are subjective
-Credible alternative explanation
(+AO3) What are the practical applications of the Cognitive approach to explaining depression?
CBT —> consistently found to be the most effective treatment especially when used in combination with drug treatments/ medication. This supports the cognitive approach to explaining depression as depression is alleviated by challenging irrational thinking which further suggests the importance of these thoughts in depression.
(-AO3) Why is the cognitive approach blaming individuals rather than situational factors a weakness?
The cognitive approach suggests that the client is responsible for their disorder. Placing emphasis on the client can be seen as positive as it gives them the power to change the way things are. However it also has limits as it may cause the client or therapist to overlook situational factors such as not considering how life events or family problems contributed to the mental health disorder. Therefore suggesting that the cognitive approach may need to be more holistic as it may be more damaging to a clients mental health.
(-AO3) Why is the subjectivity of irrational thoughts a weakness?
Whether something is irrational or not is subjective as depressive thoughts may bee realistic. Further research has shown that individuals suffering with depression gave more accurate estimates in the likelihood of a disaster than ‘normal’ controls —> the sadder but wiser effect. This debate over irrational and rational thoughts questions the accuracy of the cognitive approach.
(-AO3) What is the credible alternative explanation?
The biological approach offers a differing explanation to the cognitive approach. There’s a positive correlation between low serotonin levels and depression. Successful drug treatments heighten the importance of the biological approach. Therefore, suggesting that the cognitive approach should be used in combination with other approaches when explaining depression.
