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Cognitive Approach on Depression, Theoretical Assumption - Coggle Diagram
Cognitive Approach on Depression
How individuals interpret different events that have occurred throughout their lives. The patterns of information processing influence the development of the disorder.
Aaron Beck (1967) identified
three mechanisms
responsible for depression
Negative Self-Schemas
Beck believes that individuals prone to depression develop a negative self-schema; she also claims that this may be acquired in childhood as a result of a traumatic event
These people posses a set of negative and pessimistic expectations and beliefs about themselves
Experiences contributing to negative schemas include
Death of a parent or sibling
Parental overprotection, criticism, rejection, abuse, or neglect
Exclusion from peer group or bullying at school
A negative self-schema may lead to depression, but having a cognitive triad doesn't guarantee it. Activation of this schema usually requires a major life stressor. Once negative schema is activated, irrational thoughts or cognitive biases take over.
Errors in Logic (faulty information processing)
Beck (1967) identified systematic negative bias' in information processing namely "logical errors" or "faulty thinking"
These thought patterns are self-defeating and are the source of anxiety or depression
Beck posited that these cognitive patterns become automatic. Depression is likely if someone's automatic thoughts are overwhelmingly negative. These pessimistic thoughts often persist despite contradictory evidence.
These thoughts exacerbate and are exacerbated by the cognitive triad
People with negative self schemas are prone to logical errors in their thinking and tend to selectively focus on certain aspects of a situation meaning they ignore equally relevant information
Arbitrary Inference
Drawing negative conclusions in the absence of supporting data
Selective Abstraction
Focusing on the worst features in any given situation
Magnification and Minimisation
Individuals make the problem appear bigger than it is and the solution smaller
Personalization
Individuals perceive negative events as their fault
Dichotomous Thinking
Seen as black or white while there is no in between
The Cognitive Triad (negative automatic thinking)
Negative thinking involves feeling helpless, worthless, inadequate, and critical. These thoughts tend to be automatic in depressed people as they occurred spontaneously.
Negative view on future
Negative view of the world
Negative view on self
These three factors work together to interfere with regular cognitive processing, impairing perception, memory, and problem-solving skills while making the person fixated on negative thoughts.
They interpret events in the world in a unrealistic defeatist way. Additionally they cannot handle the obstacles of the world. Finally, they see the future as totally hopeless because their worthlessness will prevent their situation from improving.
Case Studies
Alloy et al. (1999)
Observed and tested thinking styles of young Americans (early 20’s) for 6 years, either placed in “positive thinking group” or “negative thinking group”
After 6 years, findings were that 1% of the “positive group” developed depression compared to 17% of the “negative’ group” → Indicating a link between cognitive style and development of depression but it is correlational
This study may suffer from demand characteristics and the precise role of cognitive processes is yet to be determined. The maladaptive cognitions noticed in depressed people may be a consequence of depression rather than a cause.
Martin Seligman (1974)
Introduced a cognitive explanation of depression: learned helplessness
This theory states that depression occurs when someone learns that their attempts to escape negative situation make no difference.
Seligman based his research on dogs who were put in partitioned cages and learn to escape when the floor is electrified.
Dogs subjected to inescapable electric shocks later failed to escape from shocks even when it was possible to do so. They exhibited some symptoms of depression found in humans (passive in the face of stress, lethargy, appetite loss, and sluggishness).
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.
This fails to take into account
cognitions.
Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale (1978)
Reformulated learned helplessness in term of attributional processes (i.e. how people explain the cause of an event).
The mere presence of a negative event was not considered sufficient to produce a helpless or depressive state.
People who attribute failure to internal, stable, and global causes are more likely to become depressed > those who attribute failure to external, unstable and specific causes.
Due to attributional style (external, unstable and specific) people conclude that they are unable to change for the better.
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
Locus: whether the cause is internal (to do with a person themselves) or external (to do with some aspect of the situation)
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.
Theoretical Assumption
