Psychopathology - Depression

Question 1

What is depression

Answer 1

Depression is a mental disorder that is characterised by a change in mood
(typically low mood)

Question 2

What are the behavioural characteristics

Answer 2

Activity Levels - reduced energy levels, making them lethargic, knock on effect

Disruption to sleep and eating - insomnia, premature waking, hypersomnia, weight gain or loss

Aggression and self-harm - irritable, physically and verbally aggressive, knock on effect with relationships

Question 3

What are the emotional characteristics

Answer 3

Lowered Mood - daily experience, lethargic or sad and describing themselves as worthless or empty

Anger - directed towards themselves or others, leads to aggression or self-harm

Low self-esteem - they like themselves less than usual, sense of self-loathing

Question 4

What are the cognitive characteristics

Answer 4

Poor Concentration - unable to stick with a task, hard to make decisions

Attending to and dwelling on the negative - bias towards recalling unhappy events

Absolutist thinking - all or nothing thinking

Question 5

Cognitive Approach to explaining

Answer 5

Ellis believed that depression was caused by ‘faulty’ cognition
Ellis put forward the abc model to explain how irrational thinking/beliefs can have a negative impact on our emotions and behaviour, therefore causing depression

Question 6

What is the ABC model

Answer 6

A - activating event
B - beliefs
C - consequences

Question 7

what are the strengths of this model

Answer 7

• has real world application because it has proven to be effective for people with depression

Question 8

what are the weaknesses

Answer 8

• it only explains ‘reactive depression’, not all depression is due to an event or the environment
• it totally discounts neurotransmitters as having a part to do with the disorder

Question 9

What is the cognitive approach to explaining depression

Answer 9

believes that depression is caused by early experiences which affect thinking. Schemata’s are then built up from these early interactions and experiences

Question 10

3 main aspects of Beck’s cognitive model

Answer 10

schemata - are patterns of maladaptive thoughts and beliefs
cognitive triad - a negative view of self, the world and the future develops
Cognitive distortions /biases - faulty thinking ensues, along with negative and unrealistic ideas