AQA A Level Psychology复习笔记4.3.2 Cognitive Explanations of Depression

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Cognitive Explanations of Depression: Beck's Negative Triad

The cognitive approach to explaining depression looks at our 'mental processes' (thoughts, attention, perceptions) and how they affect our behaviour. Cognitive Psychologists look at how irrational thinking (cognition) leads the patient to suffer from depression.

Beck's negative triad

Aaron Beck (1967) explains depression as a vulnerability that can be caused by the person's cognition (the way they think) and their negative schemas.

Beck suggested there were 3 parts to cognitive vulnerability:

Faulty information processing

When depressed the person tends to ignore the positives in their lives and only focus on the negatives
The depressed person will blow small problems out of proportion
These cognitive biases cause the depressed person to constantly see themselves as worthless and useless

Negative self-schema

A schema is a shortcut that acts as a mental framework for the individual
A self-schema is the framework of information they have about themselves
When depressed, the person will have a negative self-schema, which means they interpret all of the information about or around themselves negatively
For example, they could have an ineptness schema, in which they believe they will fail, and/or a negative self-evaluation schema, where they constantly remind themselves of their worthlessness

The negative triad

Regardless of the reality, due to the person having depression and having both cognitive biases and negative self-schemas, the depressed person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves
Beck suggests that a depressed person has three elements of negative thinking and these are called the negative triad:
- Negative view of the self: I am worthless/ unimportant/ useless/ a waste of time
- Negative view of the world: Everyone is against me
- Negative view of the future: I am never going to amount to anything

Cognitive Explanations of Depression: Beck's Negative Triad Evaluation

Strengths

Limitations

Personal life events are taken into account and are recognised as a starting point for the person's depression.

Joseph Cohen et al. (2019) supported Beck's findings, they tracked 473 adolescents, ensuring they measured their cognitive vulnerability regularly and found that those who had shown cognitive vulnerability predicted depression later on.

Real-world applications: Due to the findings of both Beck and following psychologists, it has allowed psychologists and therapists to understand cognitive vulnerability and apply it in treatments such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy).

It does not explain the symptoms of depression, such as why different depressed people may experience different feelings, E.g. Feeling extreme anger, hallucinations, or extreme exhaustion.

Not all irrational thoughts are irrational: Alloy & Abrahamson (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.

Cognitive Explanations of Depression: Ellis's ABC Model

Ellis's ABC model

Albert Ellis (1962) had a slightly different view to Beck and suggested depression is caused by irrational thoughts and that rational thoughts cause good mental health.
Ellis stated that these irrational thoughts interfere with happiness and cause the person to be unhappy.
Ellis defined irrational thoughts as not logical or realistic thoughts.
Ellis developed the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect individuals:
- A: Activating event. This is a negative event that triggers the irrational thoughts, E.g. Losing your job
- B: Beliefs. The thoughts which the person associates with the event, and why it happened: These can be either rational (healthy), E.g. I didn't really like the job anyway and wanted a new one, or irrational (unhealthy), E.g. I am so useless, I will never get another job as I do not deserve one
- C: Consequences. Rational beliefs lead to health consequences (new job or job searching), Irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy consequences (believing you will never deserve another job, which leads to depression)
It is important to note, in Ellis's ABC model, that unhealthy consequence always leads to depression.

Exam Tip

Remember, the negative consequence of cognitive explanations is depression itself, which should be clearly noted in your answers. Try to provide an example, if the question does not have an item, to really clarify your answer for both Cognitive Triad and ABC model. It will help the examiner see that you understand the theory and can apply it.

Cognitive Explanations of Depression: Ellis's ABC Model Evaluation

Strengths

Limitations

REBT (a form of CBT) led by Ellis following the ABC model has been successful in treating depression and changing thought patterns.

David et al. (2018) stated that REBT can both change negative beliefs and change the symptoms of depression.

It lays the responsibility with the individual and allows them the power to change the way things are.

Not all irrational thoughts are irrational, Alloy and Abrahmson (1979) found that depressed had the 'Sadder but Wiser effect' where they gave more accurate estimates of the likelihood of disaster than those not depressed.

It does not explain all of the symptoms of depression, such as behaviours that differ, E.g. Extreme anger or exhaustion.

It gives responsibility completely to the individual suffering with depression, which in turn could be seen to be blaming them.

It only account for reactive depression, where the individual has had an activating event but does not account for endogenous depression, when the depression is not traceable to life events.

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