Cognitive Etiology of Major Depressive Disorder
Cognitive Approach on Depression
THEORETICAL ASSUMPTION: The patterns of information processing (how
an individual interprets various life events)
influence the development of the disorder.
BECK (1967) identified 3 mechanisms that he thought were responsible for depression
- COGNITIVE TRIAD (negative automatic thinking)
- NEGATIVE SELF SCHEMAS
- ERRORS IN LOGIC
Negative view of SELF
Negatiive view of the WORLD
Negative view of the FUTURE
interferes with normal cognitive processing, leading to impairments in perception, memory and problem solving with the person becoming obsessed with negative thoughts
They possess a set of beliefs and expectations about themselves that are essentially negative and pessimistic
Negative schemas may be acquired in childhood as a result of a traumatic event
Experiences might contribute to negative schemas:
Death of a parent or sibling
Parental rejection, criticism, overprotection, neglect or abuse
Bullying at school or exclusion from peer group
ACQUIRING a cognitive triad will not necessarily develop depression
Once the negative schema are activated a number of illogical thoughts or cognitive biases seem to dominate thinking
Arbitrary Inference, drawing a negative conclusion in the absence of supporting data
Selective Abstraction, focusing on the worst aspects of any situation
Magnification and Minimisation, if they have a problem they make it appear bigger than it is. If they have a solution they make it smaller
Personalization, negative events are interpreted as their fault
Dichotomous Thinking, everything is seen as black and white. There is no in between
When a person's stream of automatic thoughts is very negative you would expect a person to become depressed. Quite often these negative thoughts will persist even in the face of contrary evidence
RELATED STUDIES
Alloy et al. (1999)
followed the thinking styles of young Americans in their early 20's for 6 years. Their thinking style was tested and they were placed in either the 'positive thinking group' or 'negative thinking group'
after 6 years the researchers found that only 1% of the positive group developed depression compared to 17% of the 'negative' group. These results indicate there may be a link between cognitive style and development of depression
however such a study may suffer from demand characteristics. These results are correlational. It is important to remember that the precise role of cognitive processes is yet to be determined.
the maladaptive cognitions seen in depressed people may be a consequence rather than a cause of depression
Martin Seligman (1974)
proposed a cognitive explanation of depression called learned helplessness
According to Seligman's learned helplessness theory, depression occurs when a person learns that their attempts to escape negative situations make no difference
As a consequence they become passive and will endure aversive stimuli or environments even when escape is possible
Seligman based his theory on research using dogs
A dog put into a partitioned cage learns to escape when the floor is electrified. If the dog is restrained whilst being shocked it eventually stops trying to escape
Dogs subjected to inescapable electric shocks later failed to escape from shocks even when it was possible to do so. Moreover, they exhibited some of the symptoms of depression found in humans (lethargy, sluggishness, passive in the face of stress and appetite loss)
This led Seligman (1974) to explain depression in humans in terms of learned helplessness, whereby the individual gives up trying to influence their environment because they have learned that they are helpless as a consequence of having no control over what happens to them
Although Seligman's account may explain depression to a certain extent, it fails to take into account conditions (thoughts)
Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale (1978)
Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale (1978) consequently introduced a cognitive version of the theory by reformulating learned helplessness in term of attributional processes (i.e. how people explain the cause of an event)
The depression attributional style is based on three dimensions, namely:
LOCUS: whether the cause is internal - to do with a person themselves, or external - to do with some aspect of the situation)
STABILITY: whether the cause is stable and permanent or unstable and transient
GLOBAL or SPECIFIC: whether the cause relates to the 'whole' person or just some particular feature characteristic
the mere presence of a negative event was not considered sufficient to produce a helpless or depressive state
Abramson et al. argued that people who attribute failure to internal, stable, and global causes are more likely to become depressed than those who attribute failure to external, unstable and specific causes
this is due to the former attributional style (external, unstable and specific) leads people to the conclusion that they are unable to change things for the better
Example 1: Someone stole your cellphone (external)
Example 2: you were in a notoriously unsafe environment (unstable)
Example 3: you were randomly chosen for the theft (specific)
Joiner et al (1996)
Patterns of cognition alone are not enough to lead to depression, they must also be in response to environmental stimuli.
Nolen-Hoeksema (2000)
Rumination appears to more consistently predict the onset of depression rather than the duration, but rumination in combination with negative cognitive styles can predict the duration of depressive symptoms.
Farb et al (2011)
Relapsing patients showed more activity in a frontal region of the brain, known as the medial prefrontal gyrus. These responses were also linked to higher rumination.