Describe and evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression. This is essentially a full 16-mark question which is all you need for the exam, you can also use it to answer all 4,6,8, 12 mark questions in the exam all you have to do is break it down.
describe and evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression
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Describe and evaluate the cognitive approach to explaining depression. (16 marks)
Beck (1967) suggested the cognitive approach to explaining why some people have
depression, which has 3 components.
Beck found people are more likely to be depressed because of ‘faulty information
processing’ this when depressed individuals are more likely to focus on the negative aspects
of a situation, ignoring the positives. They also tend to blow small problems out of
proportion. Moreover, depressed people have ‘negative self-schemas’, schemas are
packages of information and ideas developed through experience about our self and the
world. A depressed person with a negative self-schema may develop the schema from bad
experiences and is likely to interpret all information about themselves in a negative way.
Finally, the ‘negative triad’, which is composed of 3 elements, negative view of the world,
the future and the self.
Whereas Ellis (1962) suggested a different cognitive explanation of depression and started
by explaining what is required for ‘good mental health’, which is the result of rational
thinking whereas depression is the result of irrational thinking. He proposed the ABC model
to explain how irrational thoughts can lead to depression. (A) ‘activating events’, according
to Ellis we get depressed when we experience negative events. (B) ‘beliefs’ a range of
irrational beliefs. Then (C) for ‘consequences’ when event triggers irrational beliefs there are
emotional and behavioural consequences, for example if you believe you must succeed, but
you fail, the consequence is depression.
A strength of Beck theory is there is supporting evidence for it. For example, Grazioli et al
assessed 65 pregnant women for cognitive vulnerability and depression before and after
birth. Their results showed those women judged to have been in high cognitive vulnerability
were more likely to suffer post-natal depression. Therefore, this is a strength to the theory,
because if cognitions can be seen before the devlopemnt of depression, suggests that beck
may be right about cognition causing depression.
A strength of the cognitive explanation and Ellis model for depression is application to
therapy. For example, cognitive ideas have been used to develop effective treatments for
depression, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Rational Emotive Behaviour
Therapy (REBT), which was developed from Ellis’s ABC model. These therapies attempt to
identify and challenge negative, irrational thoughts and have been successfully used to treat
people with depression. Thus, this is a strength as it provides further support to the
cognitive explanation of depression.
A limitation of Becks theory is it doesn’t explain all aspects of depression. For example,
Jarret (2013) said some depressive patients suffer hallucinations and bizarre beliefs, or
suffer from Cotard syndrome, the delusion they are zombies. This suggests that depression
is a complex disorder with many different symptoms unlike Becks theory that only focuses
on the basic symptoms of depression. Thus, this a limitation to Beck theory as it only focuses
on one aspect of the disorder and cannot explain all cases of depression.
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