cognitive expo of depression

Question 1

Catastrophising

Answer 1

Catastrophising: escalating tiny problems into much bigger ones, for example, you perform
poorly on one assessment, then catastrophise that into believing you are going to fail all you’re
A levels, and not get into university, and then not be able to get a job

Question 2

All or nothing thoughts/black or white thinking

Answer 2

All or nothing thoughts/black or white thinking: e.g., one thing has gone wrong today, now the
entire day is ruined.
* We learn these maladaptive thoughts through past experience.

Question 3

Learned helplessness

Answer 3

(People ‘learn’ to give up because they have only experienced failure)
can also cause maladaptive thoughts.

Question 4

Becks triad

Answer 4

Beck suggested if you had a negative view of yourself (e.g., I’m not good enough to pass this
exam), the world (e.g., it wouldn’t matter if I passed anyway) and the future (e.g., I’m not going
to be successful anyway) you will be highly susceptible to triggering depression.

Question 5

what do depressed people attribute negative life events to

Answer 5

• If people attribute negative life events to being internal (due to them), stable (it will be like this
  all the time) and global (every situation/relationship) they are more likely to be depressed
• Over time these become negative automatic schemas (you see all events/interactions in a
  negative light).
• They will interpret events in a negative way such as someone not speaking to them because
  they don’t like them.

Question 6

Seligman (1974) supports the theory of learned helplessness.

Answer 6

• Seligman (1974) supports the theory of learned helplessness. Dogs subjected to inescapable
  electric shocks later failed to escape from shocks even when it was possible to do so. The dogs
  showed that learned helplessness can lead to some features much like depression in the
  animals.

Question 7

Alloy and Abramson (1999)

Answer 7

Alloy and Abramson (1999) Carried out a longitudinal study of students. They identified those
with a negative self-schema. Those with negative thought patterns had a greater risk of
depression. This shows that maladaptive thoughts like schemas can be linked to depression
making this theory more credible.

Question 8

Lewinsohn et al (2001)

Answer 8

Lewinsohn et al (2001) researched adolescent depression and found that when stressed,
dysfunctional attitudes, rather than environmental factors, was the strongest predictor of
depression. There is little evidence that the cognitive distortions are present before
depression. This suggests that it is the depression causing the cognition and not the other way
around.