Theories For Depression Flashcards
What is attribution
Attribution is the process of explaining causes of behaviour.
Seligman proposed that some people have a negative attributional style.
There are internal, stable and global attributions which result in depression.
What is Becks Negative Triad
Beck proposed that we learn negative schemas throughout life. These schemas are reactivated during new situations
He proposed a negative triad Depressed people have negative thoughts schemas on=
self, the world, and the future.
What is faulty thinking
The cognitive approach sees depression as caused by faulty or irrational thinking.
When a person is depressed they focus on the negative and ignore positives and think in black-and-white terms.
This creates feelings of hopelessness and depression. Like they put themselves in a box
What is a negative schema and what would a person think if they had this
Schemas are mental frameworks containing ideas and information developed through experience.
Having a negative self-schema means you are likely to interpret all information about yourself in a negative way.
What is learned helplessness ( the role of nurture)
Seligman suggested that a negative attributional style is learned.
An unpleasant experience makes you try to escape but if you can’t escape, you learn to give up trying. This is called ‘learned helplessness’.
State 2 strengths of the psychological explanation for depression
One strength is that there is research support for learned helplessness.
Seligman has demonstrated the process of learned helplessness. Dogs learned to react to challenge by ‘giving up’. (Describe selgimans study)……
Therefore, this research supports his explanation of depression due to negative attributions.
One strength is that the cognitive explanation leads to ways of treating depression.
Cognitive behaviour therapy teaches people to think differently replacing faulty, irrational thinking with rational thinking to help relieve depression.
Therefore, the explanation leads to successful ways to help people with depression.
One weakness of the psychological explanation for depression
One weakness is that negative beliefs may simply be realistic rather than depressing.
Alloy and Abramson found that depressed people gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of a disaster than ‘normal’ people (‘sadder but wiser’).
Therefore, a negative attributional style may not be all bad.
Describe Martin Seligman’s study of learned helplessness
Martin Seligman (1972) demonstrated learned helplessness (see left) in a study using three groups of dogs.
Group 1- each dog was placed in a harness and later released.
Group 2 and 3 - each group 2 dog was placed in a harness with a group 3 dog. The dogs were given electric shocks but only the group 2 dog could push a lever to stop the shock.
Later all the dogs were placed in a box where shocks were occasionally delivered but they could easily escape by jumping over a partition. The group
1 and 2 dogs learned to do this but most of the group 3 dogs didn’t. These dogs just lay down passively and whined when they were shocked. They had previously learned that nothing they did had any effect on shocks.
They had learned to be helpless.
What does SSRI stand for
Selective serotonin re uptake inhibitor
What does the SSRI do
Low levels of serotonin may cause depression, therefore increasing serotonin levels may treat depression.
SSRIs selectively target serotonin at the synapse.
SSRIs inhibit the reuptake of the serotonin molecules.
Describe the presynaptic neuron in terms of serotonin
Serotonin is stored at the end of a transmitting (presynaptic) neuron in sacs called vesicles.
The electrical signal travelling through the neuron causes the vesicles to release serotonin into the synaptic cleft.
Describe the synaptic cleft in terms of serotonin
Serotonin locks into the postsynaptic receptors, chemically transmitting the signal from the presynaptic neuron.
Describe reuptake in terms of serotonin
Normally serotonin is taken back into the presynaptic neuron, broken down and reused.
SSRIs block this reuptake so when new serotonin is released it adds to the amount held in the synaptic cleft.
State 3 evaluation points for antidepressants
One weakness is that SSRIs have serious side effects.
The side effects include nausea, insomnia, dizziness, weight loss or gain, anxiety and, most seriously, suicidal thoughts.
Side effects mean that people stop taking the drugs, affecting the effectiveness of drug therapies.
A weakness of antidepressant medication is that the evidence for the effectiveness of them is questionable.
Research by Asbert shows that the serotonin levels of depressed people may not actually be that different from the normal population.
This suggests that the effectiveness of the drug may not be related to serotonin. It may be a placebo effect.
A weakness of antidepressant medication is that it is regarded as a reductionist explanation.
Antidepressant medication targets serotonin (and sometimes noradrenaline) so focuses on only one kind of factor.
This suggests that other treatments are not necessary but a more successful treatment might include both biological and psychological approaches (a holistic approach)
What is a neurotransmitter
Messages travel along a neuron electrically but the message is transmitted chemically across the synapse by neurotransmitters.
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which has been linked to several behaviours including depression.
