Explanations for Depression

Question 1

what is the monoamine depletion hypothesis

Answer 1

• dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline are the cause of depression
• serotonin is necessary but not the defining cause of Depression
• permissive hypothesis suggests that when there are low levels of Serotonin there are also low levels of Noradrenaline.

Question 2

what are the consequences of low levels of each monoamine

Answer 2

• low levels of serotonin cause erratic brain function
• low levels of noradrenaline cause low levels of arousal and alertness
  -low levels of dopamine cause lack of concentration

Question 3

what is the receptor sensitivity explanation for Depression

Answer 3

the monoamine hypothesis is too simplistic that it is low levels of monoamines paired with insensitive receptors that lead to depressopm

Question 4

what is BDNF

Answer 4

brain derived neurotrophic factor

Question 5

what is the BDNF hypothesis

Answer 5

BDNF is a chemical that gives nutrients for neruons to successfully grow.
high levels of stress can lead to the gene for be switched off.
the lower the levels of BDNF in the hippocampus the more sever the depression

Question 6

strengths of the Monoamine Hypothesis

Answer 6

• as our understanding of depression grows so does our drugs, therefore leading to greater interest in particular neurotransmitters.
• the receptor sensitivity paired with low levels of monoamines can explain why drugs take a while too work

Question 7

strength of the BDNF hypothesis

Answer 7

Sen found low levels of BDNF in post mortem sin people with depression.

Question 8

weakness of Monoamine hypothesis

Answer 8

• the monoamine hypothesis cannot explain the delay in drug treatment working, as levels of serotonin and noradrenaline increase immediately.

Question 9

what is Ellis’ ABC model

Answer 9

activating event, which is the trigger
belief about the event usually irrational
consequence leading to irrational thoughts inhibiting the future

Question 10

what is Becks triad

Answer 10

feelings of worthlessness feed into a negative portrayal of the world we live in which fees into negative views of our future.

Question 11

strengths of the cognitive explanation for depression

Answer 11

• there is evidence that supports becks theory, Evans found that pregnant women who has negative beliefs were more likely to become depressed
• both theories have lead to effective therapies for example CBT, therefore this twos how cognitive techniques are successful in treating depression which implies the faulty cognitive processing is the root

Question 12

weaknesses of the cognitive explanation for Depression

Answer 12

• there is a lot of evidence that negative thinking accompanies Depression but is not the cause of depression
• there is no independent way of establishing a negative schema, so people are unable to predict who will become depressed, therefore it may instead be a better explanation of why depression is maintained
• negative self beliefs usually became positive ones after the depressive episode was over. this does not support causation