Depression

Question 1

What are the 4 types of depression?

Answer 1

• major depressive disorder = severe but short-term
• persistent depressive disorder = long-term or recurring
• disruptive mood dysregulation disorder = childhood temper tantrums
• premenstrual dysphoric disorder = disruption of mood due to menstruation

Question 2

What are 3 behavioural characteristics of depression?

Answer 2

• activity levels
• disruption to sleep and eating
• aggression and self-harm

Question 3

What are 3 emotional characteristics of depression?

Answer 3

• lowered mood
• anger
• lowered self-esteem

Question 4

What are 3 cognitive characteristics of depression?

Answer 4

• poor concentration
• pessimistic thinking
• absolutist thinking

Question 5

What is Beck’s cognitive approach to explaining depression?

Answer 5

• Beck (1967) said that depression happens due to:
  – faulty information processing (dwelling on negatives)
  – negative self-schemas (negative view of self)
  – the negative triad (negative view on self, world, future
• he believed that these factors make you venerable to depression

Question 6

What is Ellis’ cognitive approach to explaining depression?

Answer 6

• Ellis (1962) said that depression is due to irrational thinking and proposed the ABC model
  A = activating event
  B = beliefs
  C = consequences

Question 7

What are 2 strengths of Becks explanation?

Answer 7

• strength of research support from Cohen et al (2019) who monitored cognitive venerability of just under 500 adolescents - reliable
• strength of real-world application in CBT as this works by altering these cognitive factors and has treated depression - applicable

Question 8

What is a strength and a limitation of Eliis’ explanation?

Answer 8

• strength of real-world application as his REBT therapy uses his model by changing irrational beliefs so applicable and real-world value
• limitation that his model only explains reactive depression and not endogenous depression where there is no activating event so it doesn’t apply to all situations - lacking validity and applicability

Question 9

What are 2 cognitive treatments for depression?

Answer 9

• Beck’s CBT where you challenge thoughts in the negative triad by setting homework to find positives and question reality of negative beliefs
• Ellis’ ABCDE therapy REBT that extends the ABC model by adding dispute and effect to challenge irrational beliefs and break the link between activating event and depression as a cause

Question 10

What is a strength of these treatments for depression?

Answer 10

• strength of evidence for CBT effectiveness from March et al (2007) who compared CBT to antidepressants on over 300 participants - after 36 weeks both the CBT and antidepressant group had improved by 81% - validity

Question 11

What are 2 limitations of these treatments for depression?

Answer 11

• limitation of CBT is that is had high relapse rates so there is question over long-term effectiveness - Ali et al (2017) assessed over 400 clients eery month for a year and by 6 months 42% had relapsed - lacking validity
• limitation of CBT is that it lacks effectiveness for severe cases and clients with learning difficulties as it requires a lot of cognitive work and isn’t an immediate fix - client preferences - not applicable to all situations