4.3.2 Cognitive Explanations of Depression

The cognitive approach to explaining depression looks at our 'mental processes' (thoughts, attention, perceptions) and how they affect our behaviour. Cognitive Psychologists look at how irrational thinking (cognition) leads the patient to suffer from depression.

Beck's negative triad 

Aaron Beck (1967) explains depression as a  vulnerability that can be caused by the person's cognition (the way they think) and their negative schemas.

Beck suggested there were 3 parts to cognitive vulnerability:

Faulty information processing

• When depressed the person tends to ignore the positives in their lives and only focus on the negatives
• The depressed person will blow small problems out of proportion
• These cognitive biases cause the depressed person to constantly see themselves as worthless and useless

Negative self-schema

• A schema is a shortcut that acts as a mental framework for the individual
• A self-schema is the framework of information they have about themselves
• When depressed, the person will have a negative self-schema, which means they interpret all of the information about or around themselves negatively
• For example, they could have an ineptness schema, in which they believe they will fail, and/or a negative self-evaluation schema, where they constantly remind themselves of their worthlessness

The negative triad

•  Regardless of the reality, due to the person having depression and having both cognitive biases and negative self-schemas, the depressed person develops a dysfunctional view of themselves
• Beck suggests that a depressed person has three elements of negative thinking and these are called the negative triad:
  • Negative view of the self: I am worthless/ unimportant/ useless/ a waste of time 
  • Negative view of the world: Everyone is against me 
  • Negative view of the future: I am never going to amount to anything  

Ellis's ABC model 

• Albert Ellis (1962) had a slightly different view to Beck and suggested depression is caused by irrational thoughts and that rational thoughts cause good mental health.
• Ellis stated that these irrational thoughts interfere with happiness and cause the person to be unhappy.
• Ellis defined irrational thoughts as not logical or realistic thoughts. 
• Ellis developed the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect individuals: 
  • A: Activating event. This is a negative event that triggers the irrational thoughts, E.g. Losing your job 
  • B: Beliefs. The thoughts which the person associates with the event, and why it happened: These can be either rational (healthy), E.g. I didn't really like the job anyway and wanted a new one, or irrational (unhealthy), E.g. I am so useless, I will never get another job as I do not deserve one
  • C: Consequences. Rational beliefs lead to health consequences (new job or job searching), Irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy consequences (believing you will never deserve another job, which leads to depression) 
• It is important to note, in Ellis's ABC model, that unhealthy consequence always leads to depression.