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Cognitive Approach on Depression - Coggle Diagram
Cognitive Approach on Depression
Theoretical Assumption
The patterns of information processing (how an individual interprets various life events) influence the development of the disorder.
Aaron Beck (1967)
Negative self schemas
Negative Self-Schema
Experiences that 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
Definitions
Beck believed that depression prone individuals develop a negative self-schema.
Possess a set of beliefs and expectations about themselves that are essentially negative and pessimistic.
May be acquired in childhood as a result of a traumatic event.
A negative self-schema predisposes the individual to depression, and therefore someone who has acquired a cognitive triad will not necessarily develop depression.
Some kind of stressful life event is required to activate this negative schema later in life. Once the negative schema are activated a number of illogical thoughts or cognitive biases seem to dominate thinking.
Errors in Logic (i.e. faulty information processing)
Errors in Logic
People with negative self schemas become prone to making logical errors in their thinking and they tend to focus selectively on certain aspects of a situation while ignoring equally relevant information.
Beck (1967) identified a number of systematic negative bias' in information processing known as logical errors or faulty thinking. These illogical thought patterns are self-defeating, and can cause great anxiety or depression for the individual.
Types
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.
Such thoughts exacerbate, and are exacerbated by the cognitive triad.
Beck believed these thoughts or this way of thinking become automatic. 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.
The cognitive triad (of negative automatic thinking)
Cognitive Triad
Three forms of negative thinking that are typical of individuals with depression:
Negative thoughts about the self
Negative thoughts about the world
Negative thoughts about the future
These thoughts tended to be automatic in depressed people as they occurred spontaneously.
Examples:
Self: helpless, worthless, and inadequate.
World: unrealistically negative and defeatist, posing obstacles that can’t be handled.
Future: totally hopeless, because their worthlessness will prevent their situation improving.
As these three components interact, they interfere with normal cognitive processing, leading to impairments in perception, memory and problem solving with the person becoming obsessed with negative thoughts.
Alloy et al. (1999)
Aim
To examine the relationship between cognitive style and depression
Participants
Young Americans in their early 20s
Procedure
Longitudinal study over 6 years
Participants tested for thinking style
Divided into:
Positive thinking group
Negative thinking group
Results
1% of positive thinking group developed depression
17% of negative thinking group developed depression
Evaluation
Possible demand characteristics
Results are correlational
Cannot determine cause and effect
Maladaptive cognitions may be: a consequence, not a cause, of depression
Beck’s cognitive theory
Some people have a negative cognitive style, and this makes them more vulnerable to developing depression.
Depression is more likely when people interpret events negatively, and have pessimistic thinking patterns before becoming depressed.
Martin Seligman (1974)
Aim
To explain depression through learned helplessness
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.
Results of experiment on 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.
They exhibited some of the symptoms of depression found in humans: lethargy, sluggishness, passive in the face of stress and appetite loss
Seligman's Explanation of depression in humans in terms of learned
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.
Limitation
Although Seligman’s account may explain depression to a certain extent, it fails to take into account cognitions (thoughts).
Abramson, Seligman, and Teasdale (1978)
Aim
To introduce a cognitive reformulation of learned helplessness
Main Arguments
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 than those who attribute failure to external, unstable and specific causes.
Example: Someone stole your cellphone
External – you were in a notoriously unsafe environment
Unstable – you were randomly chosen for the theft
Specific – it happened during a Christmas rush sale
Attributional Style Theory: depression depends on how people explain failure
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)
Other studies on depression
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.