cog explan for depression Flashcards
C and E
It is difficult to determine the extent to which distorted cognitive pattern’s cause depression. Numerous studies have shown that depressed people do show more
negative thinking than controls. For example, Evans used a questionnaire of pregnant women
and found that women with a high negative schema were subsequently 60% more likely to become depressed than those with a low negative schema. However, as yet there is not enough convincing evidence that such thinking comes before a depressive episode. It seems likely that negative thinking is a consequence of depression and that it might well serve to maintain the disorder rather than explain its origins. However there is supporting research that negative thinking causes depression
Supporting research
There is a wealth of research to support Beck’s cognitive explanation. Koster et al’s study used student volunteers who took part in an attention task and were
presented with positive, negative and neutral words. They found that depressed participants spent longer attending to the negative words than the non-depressed group. The result supports the aspect of cognitive biases and that people with depression attend to negative
aspects of their life rather than the positive. The view that depression is linked to irrational thinking is also supported by research. Hammen and Krantz (76) found that depressed female participants made more errors in logic when asked to interpret written material than non-
depressed participants. These research studies suggest that there must be some cognitive influence on the development of depression
A more holistic approach is needed
it has been argued that the cognitive distortions of depressed people are not a cause, but a symptom of the depression therefore other explanations are needed to fully understand the disorder and where the faulty thoughts originated from. Psychodynamic explanations could play a role in helping to understand how early experiences have influenced the development of the irrational and faulty thinking
characteristic of depression. Additionally, current research supports the role of low levels of
serotonin in depressed people and the success of drug therapies for treating depression offer further strength to a biological explanation. Taking an eclectic approach, including social,biological and psychological theories, would be a better way of explaining such a complex disorder. Therefore, to fully understand depression a more holistic approach is needed.
