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Cognitive Etiology of MDD - Coggle Diagram
Cognitive Etiology of MDD
Negative Self-Schema
Beck believed depression-prone individuals developed a negative self-schema
Experiences that contribute to a negative self-schema
Death of a parent or sibling
Parental rejection, criticism, overprotection, neglect
or abuse
Bullying at school or exclusion from peer group
Predisposes individual to depression, meaning someone with a cognitive triad will not necessarily have depression
A stressful life event is required tot activate the negative schema later in life
Cognitive Triad by Aaron Beck
Negative view of the world
Interpret events in an unrealistically negative and defeatist way
"No one loves me"
Negative view of the future
See the future as totally hopeless because their worthlessness will prevent their situation from improving
"I'm hopeless because things will always be this way"
Negative view of the self
See themselves as helpless, worthless, and inadequate
"I'm ugly/worthless/a failure"
These three interfere with normal cognitive processing, leading to:
Impairments in perception
Impairments to memory
Impairments to problem solving
The person becoming obsessed with negative thoughts
Case Studies
Alloy et al. (1999)
Followed and tested the thinking styles of young
Americans in their early 20’s for 6 years. They were placed in either the positive or negative thinking group.
1% of the positive thinking group developed depression compared to the negative thinking group in which 17% developed depression
These results indicate there
may be a link between cognitive style and development of depression.
May suffer from demand
characteristics.
Results are correlational
Precise role of
cognitive processes is yet to be determined.
Maladaptive cognitions seen in depressed people may be a consequence rather than a cause of
depression.
Errors in Logic
People with a negative self schema are prone to making logical errors where they focus on certain aspects and ignore other relevant information
Beck (1967) identified a number of systematic negative bias in information processing known as logical errors.
Are self defeating and can cause great anxiety or depression
Logical Errors
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.
These thoughts exacerbate, and are exacerbated by the cognitive triad.