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Cognitive Etiology of MDD - Coggle Diagram
Cognitive Etiology of MDD
Aaron Beck (1967) came up with three mechanisms that were responsible for depression.
Negative Self Schemas
Individuals with depression are prone to develop a negative self-schema as they develop a set of beliefs about themselves that are pessimistic and negative
The negative schemas could also be acquired as a result of a traumatic childhood event, from an early age on such as:
Parental abuse, rejection, overprotection, criticism or abuse
Bullying or social exclusion
Death of a parent or sibling
In order to activate the negative schema later in life, a stressful life event is required. Once activated, illogical thoughts and cognitive biases dominate the thoughts
It predisposes an individual to depression. Someone who acquires the cognitive triad may not necessarily develop depression.
Errors in Logic
These thoughts worsen and get worse because of the cognitive triad
The thoughts are automatic: A stream of automatic negative thoughts leads to depression
Magnification & Minimisation
Problems appear bigger than they are. Solutions appear smaller.
Personalization
Negative events are interpreted as their own fault.
Selective Abstraction
The focus on the worst aspects of situations
Dichotomous Thinking
Everything seems black and white without anything in between.
Arbitrary Inference
Drawing negative conclusions without of supporting data.
The Cognitive Triad
Are three forms of negative thinking that interact and interfere with cognitive processing, which is typical for individuals with depression as they occur spontaneously
As a result, the individuals suffer from impairments in perception, memory, and problem solving as the person creates an obsession with negative thoughts
Negative views of the world
Events are interpreted in a negative way and as obstacles for them
Negative views of the future
They see the future as hopeless, the feeling of being worthless worsen their situation
Negative views of oneself
They view themselves as worthless, hopeless, lonely and as not loved
Studies
Alloy et al. (1999)
Aim: To see if one's thinking patterns could be used to predict the onset of depression
Method: Longitudinal study for 6 years on randomly selected Americans
Procedure: Their thinking style was tested in the beginning of the study. They were placed in either the positive cognitive group (low risk) or the negative cognitive group (high risk) based on the number of tests such as the cognitive style questionnaire
Results: After 6 years, the researchers found that only 1% of those in the positive thinking group developed depression, compared to 17% in the negative thinking group. this indicates that there might be a link between cognitive style and the development of depression
Evaluation: Correlational no clear cause and effect, no control over daily lives, doesn't take genetics into consideration and the strong trend in one's thinking and development of depression
Martin Seligman (1974): Learned Helplessness
Is a cognitive explanation of depression.You feel like you have no way to escape, so eventually you just stop trying.As a consequence you become passive and will endure
aversive stimuli or environments even when escape is
possible.
The theory was based on dogs' behavior: Dogs would receive electric shock, where some were allowed to escape and some were not. The dogs that were not allowed to escape did not even try to escape, even when shown how.
This led Seligman (1974) to explain depression in
humans in terms of learned helplessness. An
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. If we increase control over some aspects of our lives, it leads to less anxiety and stress.
Evaluation: The theory explains depression to a certain extent, however it fails to take cognitions into account.
Abramson, Seligman, Teasdale (1978)
A cognitive version of the theory was introduced by reformulating the Learned Helplessness theory in terms of attributional processes
It is based on three dimensions:
locus (whether a cause is internal or external)
stability (whether the cause is stable/permanent or unstable/transient)
global or specific (whether the cause relates to the "whole" or a specific characteristic of a person)
They argued that people who fail to attribute failure to internal, stable, and global causes are more likely to become depressed than those who attribute external, unstable, and specific causes. This is because the attributional style leads to the conclusion that they are unable to change things for the better.
Other Studies
Nolen-Hoeksema (2000): Rumination appears to more consistently predict the onset of depression rather than the duration. However, rumination in combination with negative cognitive styles can predict the duration of depressive symptoms.
Farb et al (2011): Relapsing patients showed more activity in the frontal region of the brain (medial prefrontal gyrus). These responses were also linked to higher rumination.
Joiner et al (1996):Patterns of cognition alone are not enough to lead to depression, they must also be in response to environmental stimuli.