Psychopathology - cognitive approach to explaining depression

Question 1

what is Beck’s negative triad

Answer 1

• 1967
• negative view of the world
• negative view of the future
• negative view of the self

Question 2

what is faulty information processing

Answer 2

• depressed people attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore positives
• blow small problems out of proportion and have black and white thinking

Question 3

what is a negative self schema

Answer 3

interpret all information about themselves in a bad way

Question 4

what are the strengths of Beck’s negative triad

Answer 4

Cohen et al
- tracked development of 473 adolescents
- measuring cognitive vulnerabilities
- cognitive vulnerabilities predicted later depression

• assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people
• identifying those most at risk of developing depression

Question 5

what is Ellis’s ABC model

Answer 5

• proposed that depression occurs when an activating event triggers an irrational belief producing a consequence

Question 6

what is an activating event

Answer 6

• irrational thoughts are triggered by external events

Question 7

what are beliefs

Answer 7

• musturbation ‘I can’t stand it itis
• major disaster when something that doesn’t go smoothly

Question 8

what are consequences

Answer 8

when irrational beliefs are triggered there are behavioural and emotional consequences

Question 9

what are the strengths of Ellis’s ABC model

Answer 9

Real World Application
- REBT
- vigorously arguing with a depressed person so the therapist can alter the beliefs

Question 10

what are the limitations of Ellis’s ABC model

Answer 10

• only explains reactive depression not endogenous depression
• reactive depression is depression triggered by life events
• many cases of depression are not traceable to life events - endogenous depression
• only a partial explanation