Cognitive - Beck
Depression is a result faulty thought patterns. An individual with depression has negative core beliefs that are formed during childhood. These negative core beliefs lead to automatic negative thoughts. The cognitive triad explains the negative way in which the depressed individual views themselves, the world and the future. A negative view of self means they see themselves as inadequate/unworthy ‘I am a bad person’. A negative view of the world is the feeling of being deprived, ‘My life is terrible’ and a negative view of the future is that the suffering will continue ‘Things will not get better’. This leads the individual to have negative schemata, which are patterns of maladaptive thoughts and beliefs. Their faulty thoughts mean that the depressed individual distorts and misinterprets information from the world. These cognitive biases include all or nothing thinking ‘if it isn’t done perfectly, I might as well not bother at all’, over generalisation ‘nothing ever goes well for me’, magnification ‘it was a disaster because one person didn’t have fun’, and minimisation ‘I was lucky to have done well in the test, the teacher marked it wrong’
Evaluation
The cognitive explanation has difficulty in establishing cause and effect – does negative thinking cause depression or vice versa?
Kuyken found CBT to lead to lower relapse rates than antidepressants (47% compared to 60%) This suggests that the cause is at least partially cognitive.
Ingram (2001) found adverse early experiences related to later depression as Beck predicted
Patient is to ‘blame’ this may mean an individual feels they are able to change their thinking and take control over their disorder. However it could also lead to increased dependency and the individual feeling more worthless
Hollon (2002) found that CBT works well and helps for as long as drug treatment – this suggests changing thought processes works
Watkins (2002) found knowing more about mental processes helped reduce relapse rates and helped to stop patients over thinking
Depression is a result faulty thought patterns. An individual with depression has negative core beliefs that are formed during childhood. These negative core beliefs lead to automatic negative thoughts. The cognitive triad explains the negative way in which the depressed individual views themselves, the world and the future. A negative view of self means they see themselves as inadequate/unworthy ‘I am a bad person’. A negative view of the world is the feeling of being deprived, ‘My life is terrible’ and a negative view of the future is that the suffering will continue ‘Things will not get better’. This leads the individual to have negative schemata, which are patterns of maladaptive thoughts and beliefs. Their faulty thoughts mean that the depressed individual distorts and misinterprets information from the world. These cognitive biases include all or nothing thinking ‘if it isn’t done perfectly, I might as well not bother at all’, over generalisation ‘nothing ever goes well for me’, magnification ‘it was a disaster because one person didn’t have fun’, and minimisation ‘I was lucky to have done well in the test, the teacher marked it wrong’
Evaluation
The cognitive explanation has difficulty in establishing cause and effect – does negative thinking cause depression or vice versa?
Kuyken found CBT to lead to lower relapse rates than antidepressants (47% compared to 60%) This suggests that the cause is at least partially cognitive.
Ingram (2001) found adverse early experiences related to later depression as Beck predicted
Patient is to ‘blame’ this may mean an individual feels they are able to change their thinking and take control over their disorder. However it could also lead to increased dependency and the individual feeling more worthless
Hollon (2002) found that CBT works well and helps for as long as drug treatment – this suggests changing thought processes works
Watkins (2002) found knowing more about mental processes helped reduce relapse rates and helped to stop patients over thinking