Behavioural Explanations Of Depression - Lewinsohn

Question 0

What would be a classical conditioning explanation of depression?

Answer 0

It would suggest that we make associations between events or circumstances and mood change, and this leads to learned behaviour which is then diagnosed as depression

Question 1

What is the behavioural explanation for depression?

Answer 1

The behaviours shown by individuals suffering from depression are learnt through either conditioning or imitation

Question 2

How would operant conditioning explain depression?

Answer 2

It would suggest that a lack of positive reinforcement is directly linked with depression

Question 3

Who argues that depression occurs as a consequence of learned helplessness?

Answer 3

Seligman

Question 4

What was the aim of Lewinsohn’s study?

Answer 4

To compare the amount of ‘positive reinforcement’ received by depressed and non-depressed participants

Question 5

What was the duration of Lewinsohn’s study?

Answer 5

It was a longitudinal study over 30 days

Question 6

What did participants have to complete during the study?

Answer 6

A self-report of pleasant activities on the pleasant events schedule and a self-rating of depression using the depression adjective checklist

Question 7

How was positive reinforcement operationalised?

Answer 7

It was operationalised as taking part in pleasant activities

Question 8

Describe the sample of Lewinsohn’s study

Answer 8

30 participants who were diagnosed with depression, a disorder other than depression and a ‘normal’ control group was used

Question 9

What was the design?

Answer 9

Independent measures

Question 10

What experimental method did Lewinsohn’s study use?

Answer 10

A quasi experiment

Question 11

What were participants asked to do on a daily basis?

Answer 11

Check their mood using the depression adjective checklist which included emotions such as happy and active, and the participants ticked the ones they felt best represented their mood on that day

Question 12

How many activities did the pleasant activities scale consist of that participants were asked to complete?

Answer 12

320

Question 13

How were the activities in the pleasant activities checklist rated?

Answer 13

They were rated twice on a scale of 3, once for pleasantness and once for frequency

Question 14

What was there a significant positive correlation between?

Answer 14

Mood ratings and pleasant activities

Question 15

What was concluded from Lewinsohn’s study?

Answer 15

That there is a link between reinforcement from pleasant activities and mood, but further research is needed to identify the individual characteristics that make some people more influenced by pleasant activities than others