cognitive approach to explaining depression

Question 1

who created the negative triad

Answer 1

Beck (1967)

Question 2

what is Becks negative triad (1967)

Answer 2

• cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression

Question 3

what are the 3 parts to cognitive vulnerability according to Beck

Answer 3

1. Faulty processing
   - attend to the negative aspects to a situation and ignore the positive
   - black and white thinking
2. Negative self schema
   - self schemas are packages of information that people have about themselves
   - negative self schemas interpret all information about themselves in a negative way
3. Negative triad
   - negative view of the world
   - negative view of the future
   - negative view of self

Question 4

strength of Becks cognitive model

Answer 4

1. research support
   - cognitive vulnerability refers to ways of thinking that may predispose a person to becoming depressed
   - in a review by Clark and Beck (1999) they concluded that cognitive vulnerabilities were more common in depressed people and preceded the depression
   - study by Cohan et al (2019) tracked 473 adolescents and regularly measured the cognitive vulnerability
   - found that showing cognitive vulnerability predicted later depression
2. real world application
   - application in screening and treatment of depression
   - Cohan et al concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psycholdit to screen young people, identify those more at risk of developing depression in the future and monitoring them
   - understanding cognitive vulnerability can also be applied in CBT

Question 5

Who developed the ABC model

Answer 5

Ellis (1962)

Question 6

what is the ABC model

Answer 6

• explain how irrational thoughts affect our behavior and emotional state

Question 7

what is the features of the ABC model

Answer 7

A - activating event
- irrational thoughts are triggered by external events
- we get depressed when we experience negative events and these trigger irrational beliefs
B - beliefs
- musturbation - must always succeed or achieve perfection
- I can’t stand it itis - belief that it is a major disaster whenever something doesn’t go smoothly
- utopianism - belief that life is always meant to be fair
C - consequences
- when an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences
- if a person believes that they must always succeed and they fail at something this can trigger depression

Question 8

strength of Ellis’s ABC model

Answer 8

1. real world application
   - Ellis approach to cognitive throaty is called REBT
   - the idea of REBT is that by vigorously arguing with a depressed person the therapist can alter their irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy
   - evidence to support that REBT can both change negative beliefs and relieve the symptoms of depression (David et al 2018)

Question 9

Limitations of Ellis ABC model

Answer 9

1. Reactive and endogenous depression
   - only explains reactive depression and not endogenous depression
   - reactive depression are caused by life events (activating events)
   - however many causes of depression are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what leads the person to become depressed at a particular time (endogenous depression)
   - Ellis’s ABC model is less useful for explaining endogenous depression