Psychpath- Cognitive approach of Depresssion Flashcards
What is the definition of Depression and it’s characteristics
Depression is a mood disorder
Characterised by low mood and low energy levels
Define what a mood disorder is
A mood disorder is a term used to explain disorders that affect the emotional state of those suffering
For example the current mood is distorted or inappropriate to the circumstances of that situation
Name and explain the 4 categories of depression an depressive disorders
- Major Depressive Disorder- Is severe but short term depression
- Persistent Depressive Disorder- Long term depression that is reoccurring, which includes sustained major depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder- Is intense and frequent childhood temper tantrums
- Premenstrual Dsyphoric Disorder- Is a disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation (severe form of PMS)
PMS being pre-menstrual syndrome
1 short term depression 2 long term (persistent) depression 3 chilhood tantrums (distruptive mood dsyregulation) 4 premenstrual depression
List the 3 categories in the Characteristics of depression
Emotional- how they feel
Behavioural- how they act
Cognitive- how they think
Name and explain the 3 sub topics in the category ‘emotional’ in the characteristics of depression
Emotional
1. Lowered mood- feeling lethargic, sad and describing themselves as ‘worthless’ or ‘empty’
2. Anger- feeling angry leading to behaviour like aggression or self harm
3. Lowered Self-Esteem
Name and explain the 3 sub topics in the category ‘behavioural’ in the characteristics of depression
Behavioural
1. Activity levels- reduced amount of energy making them lethargic and don’t want to get out of bed in extreme cases
2. Disruption of sleep and eating behaviour- reduced sleep (insomnia) or increased sleep (hypersomnia) and appetite increase or decrease leading to fluctuation of weight
3. Aggression and self harm- aggressive to others or themselves
Name and explain the 3 sub topics in the category ‘cognitive’ in the characteristics of depression
Cognitive
1. Poor concentration- unable to focus on a task and find decision making difficult
2. Absolutist thinking- Black and white thinking, seen something a an absolute disaster
attending to and dwelling on the negative- any bad experiences they dwell on, it will ruin the whole day
cognitive approach to explaining depression
List the 3 main assumptions of the cognitive approach to abnormality
1- they have d______ and ir______ thinking
2- the way you t______ about a pr_____ than the pr_____ i_____f
3- learning to use c_____ th_____ is how to overcome a ps_______ di_______
- Individuals who suffer from psychological disorders have Distorted and Irrational thinking, which may cause Maladaptive behaviour
- It’s the way you Think about a problem rather than the problem itself which causes the disorder abnormality
- Individuals can overcome psychological disorders by learning to use more cognitive thinking (appropriate cognition)
Outline schema
-Schemas are a ‘package’ of ideas and information that develops with experience
Who suggested there’s a cognitive explanation as to why some people are more Vulnerable to depression than others
Beck
Beck’s Model of Depression
What are the 3 parts to this cognitive vulnerability that is suggested by Beck’s model of depression
- Faulty information processing
- Negative self-schemas
- The negative triad
There are three parts of cognitive vulnerability to depression in Beck’s Model of depression
Explain the 1st one: F_____ in_______ pr_______
Faulty information processing:
Beck believed that people who are depressed make fundamental errors in logic.
They selectively attend to the negative parts of a situation and ignore the positive aspects.
There’s a tendency to think in black and white and ignore the middle ground of being good at something and okay at another.
There are three parts of cognitive vulnerability to depression in Beck’s Model of depression
Explain the 2nd one:
Negative self schemas:
A schema is a package of ideas/information that has developed with experience.
a self schema is ideas about ourselves
People with depression have developed negative selfschemas where they interpret all info about themselves in a negative way
There are three parts of cognitive vulnerability to depression in Beck’s Model of depression
Explain the 3rd one:
the negative triad:
based ont he ideas of maladaptive responses, Beck suggested that depressed people get stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts, and see the world in a pessimistic way- hence the triad of impairments.
having a negative view of:
your Self- im a failure
the World - it is a cold hard place to live on
the Future- the economy won’t get better
tip: must have all three- self, world, future in a sentence for it to be counted as evidence being the negative triad
name the researchers who studies negative schemas
We_________ and b____ 197_
What was the aim method and findings
Weissman and beck (1978)
aim: investigate the thought processes of depressed people to establish if they make use of negative schemas
Method: thought processes were Measure using the dysfunctional attitude scale (DAS). ppts answered a questionnaire (social desirability bias) by ticcking which statement they agreed with, e.g. ppl will think less of me if i make a mistake’
Findings: they had mire negative assessments than control group of non-depressed people. When given therapy their negative schemas had changed as there was an improvement in their self-rating
conclusion: depression involves negative schemas
Who proposed the ABC stage model and what does it explain
Albert Ellis
Ellis’ ABC Model is used to explain how irrational thoughts could lead to depression
What do each of these stand for A B C in the Ellis ABC model
an A______ event is a_______ by an individual’s B which r_____ in a C________
A- activation event
B- beliefs
C- consequences
an Activation event is affected by an individual’s Belief which results in a Consequence
in ellis’ ABC What happens if beliefs are subject to cognitive biases, like Becks then what can occur
if beliefs are subject to cognitive biases in the same way as becks then they can cause irrational thinking which may produce undesirable behaviours
Explain the A in ellis’ ABC explanations of irrational thinking can lead to depression
activating event
he suggests that depression arises from irrational thoughts, and depression occurs when negative events are experienced e.g. failing a test
Explain the B in ellis’ ABC explanations of irrational thinking can lead to depression
Belief’s about what happened
negative events trigger irrational beliefs
Explain the C in ellis’ ABC explanations of irrational thinking can lead to depression
Consequences of the beliefs
when an activating event triggers irrational beliefs there are emotional and behavioural consequences.
If you example succeed in tests and then you fail the consequence is depression
What is the strength and weakness when evaluating Beck’s cognitive explanations/theory of depression
P- A strength is that is has practical applications
E-This is due to beck’s cognitive explanations which form the main basis of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
L- Therefore, all cognitive aspects of depression can be challenged in CBT because it has applications from Becks research.
P- However, a weakness of Beck’s explanations of depression, is unable to explain all aspects of depression.
E- this is becaise depression is a complex disorder, where beck has only explained the basic symptoms and not all of them.
L- This suggests, that Beck’s explanation isn’t reliable for explaining depression because he has only explained a section of it
What is the strength and weakness when evaluating Ellis’ ABC Model
P- One strength of Ellis’ ABC model (cognitive explanation for depression) is its application to therapy.
E- The cognitive ideas have been used to develop effective treatments for depression, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), which was developed from Ellis’s ABC model.
E- These therapies attempt to identify and challenge negative, irrational thoughts and have been successfully used to treat people with depression, providing further support to the cognitive explanation of depression.
L- This implies that irrational beliefs do have a role into understanding depression
P- However, one weakness of Ellis’ ABC Model is that it does not explain the origins of irrational thoughts and most of the research in this area is correlational.
E- For example, Alloy and Abrahmson (1979) found that depressed people had the ‘Sadder but Wiser effect’ where they gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of disaster than those not depressed.
E- So, it is difficult to determine if negative, irrational thoughts actually cause depression, or if a person’s depression leads to a negative mindset.
L- Therefore, the model is unable to cover all aspects of depression, which means that other factors, for example genes and neurotransmitters, may be the cause of depression.
Name and explain one alternative explanations for depression
P- The biological approach, suggests genes and neurotransmitters may cause depression.
E- For example, the success of drug therapy in being able to treat depression.
E- This means that neurotransmitters do have an impact of depression, because the medication alters the levels of specific neurotransmitters which reduces symptoms of depression.
L- Overall, a diathesis- stress model approach suggests that individuals with genetic vulnerability for depression are mire prone to the effects of living in a negative environment, which leads to te negative irrational thinking.
