Psychopathology - Explaining Depression

Question 1

AO1

Answer 1

• Cognitive Approach – The term ‘cognitive’ has come to mean ‘mental processes’ so this approach is focused on how our mental processes (e.g. thoughts, perceptions, attention) affect behaviour
• Negative triad – Beck proposed that there are three kinds of negative thinking that contribute to becoming depressed: negative views of the world, the future and the self. Such negative views lead a person to interrupt their experiences in a negative way and so make them more vulnerable to depression
• ABC model – Ellis proposed that depression occurs when an activating event (A) triggers an irrational belief (B) which in turn produces a consequence (C) i.e. an emotional response like depression. The key to this process is the irrational belief
• Depression – a mental disorder categorised by low mood and low energy levels
• Behavioural – ways in which people act
• Emotional – related to a persons feeling or mood
• Cognitive – refers to the process of ‘knowing’ including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing

Question 2

AO3

Answer 2

• A strength of Beck’s explanation for depression is that it has good supporting evidence
• For example, Clark and Beck (1999) identified that not only were these cognitive vulnerabilities more common in depressed people but they preceded in depression
• This is a strength as it is evidence to support the idea that cognitive vulnerability way of thinking may predispose a person to become depressed, for example, faulty information processing, negative self-schema and the cognitive triad and shows that cognitive vulnerability predicted later depression
• However, some psychologists may argue that Beck is able to explain symptoms related to cognitive processing but does not address other common/uncommon symptoms e.g. individuals feeling angry, showing that the evidence is limited reducing its usefulness
• Despite this, the evidence shows that there is an association between cognitive vulnerability and depression
• Thus increasing the validity of Beck’s explanation for depression
• A weakness of Ellis’s ABC model is that it only explains reactive depression and not endogenous depression
• For example, Ellis focuses on how depression is often triggered by life events called ‘activating events’ called reactive depression and how we respond to negative life events also seems to be at least partly the result of our beliefs but there are many cases of depression that are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what leads the person to become depressed at a particular time
• This is a weakness as he does not include other possible explanations for depression that cannot be traced back to life events or ‘activating events’, thus reducing the reliability of his model for explaining only reactive depression and not endogenous depression
• However, it can be argued that although it does not provide a full explanation for depression, it is still useful as the application of the ABC model in REBT does appear to make at least some depressed people achieve more resilience and feel better
• Despite this, Ellis’s model only provides a partial explanation for cases in depression and is less useful for explaining endogenous depression
• Thus reducing the validity of Ellis’s ABC model
• A strength of the cognitive explanations of depression is their real-world application
• For example, Ellis’s approach to cognitive therapy is called rational emotive behaviour therapy or REBT for short. The idea of REBT is for the therapist to vigorously argue with a depressed person.
• This a strength as through this method, the therapist can alter the irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy, thus showing its effectiveness of treating depression
• However, it can be argued that Ellis’s ABC model is limited as there are some aspects to depression that are not particularly well explained by cognitive emotion like how some depressed people feel extreme anger, and some experience hallucinations and delusions
• Despite this, there is some evidence to support the idea that REBT can both change negative beliefs and relive the symptoms of depression, which means that REBT has real-world value
  Thus increasing the ecological validity of Ellis’s cognitive approach to explaining depression
• For example, Cohen et al concluded that assessing cognitive vulnerability allows psychologists to screen young people and can also be applied in CBT
• This is a strength because it allows psychologists to identify those most at risk of developing depression in the future so that they can be monitored, which is effective as they work to alter the kind of cognitions that make people vulnerable to depression, in turn making them more resilient to negative life events
• However, it can be argued that Beck’s cognitive model of depression is limited as there are some aspects to depression that are not particularly well explained by cognitive emotion like how some depressed people feel extreme anger, and some experience hallucinations and delusion
• Despite this, the understanding of cognitive vulnerability is useful in more than one aspect of clinical practice, therefore showing its usefulness
• Thus increasing the ecological validity of Beck’s cognitive approach to explaining depression