The Cognitive Theory of Depression

The Cognitive Theory of Depression

            The cognitive approach of abnormal behavior is relatively modern and focuses on how people think, assuming that our behavior is affected by our thought processes. The model, supported by the works of Aaron Beck, George Miller, Ulrich Neisser, and Albert Ellis, was developed due to the failure of the early behaviorists in acknowledging feelings and thoughts. It illustrates the significance of cognition in understanding behaviors, ideas, and emotions, and in psychopathology, the tendency of people to create their problems depending on their interpretation of events they experience in their environment (Beck, 2002). Cognitive theorists propose distorted judgments and thoughts lead to depression. Therefore, any individual suffering from depression thinks differently in comparison to people without depression. The focus of this paper will be to demonstrate the causes and symptoms of depression based on the cognitive theory by different behavioral theorists.

There are different variations by behavioral theorists on the cognitive way of thinking. Aaron Beck explains that negative thoughts due to dysfunctional beliefs are the leading cause of symptoms of depression. He further analyses that there is a positive and direct relationship between the severity of an individual’s negative thoughts and the severity of the symptoms of depression experienced by the individual. This narrows down to the more someone has negative thoughts, the higher the chances of them becoming depressed. Three mechanisms are the main reasons for depression: the cognitive triad of automatic negative thinking, errors in logic and negative self-schemas (Beck, 2002)

The negative cognitive triad consists of three themes of the dysfunctional belief that mainly dominate the thoughts of people with depression. The presence of these maladaptive beliefs in an individual’s mind indicates that depression, if not already occurred, is most likely to occur in the individual. These forms of negative thoughts are towards oneself, the future, and the world, and they occur spontaneously in people with depression (Kovacs, Beck, 1986). For example, a depressed person would often view himself or herself as worthless, helpless, and inadequate. They would further interpret world events in an exaggerated negative way and perceive the world as having obstacles that cannot be overcome. Moreover, their vision of the future is bleak as their feelings of worthlessness overshadow their potential for improvement. If a person whose thoughts are dominated by the negative cognitive triad is laid off, instead of thinking that it could have been due to the economic problems faced by their employer, they immediately blame themselves for the failures. This then leads to them feeling depressed.

According to Beck, people with higher chances of getting depressed have a negative self-schema. Their expectation and beliefs about themselves are mainly pessimistic and undesirable, interpreting minor impediments as substantial. This could be triggered early on in life by a traumatic event such as the death of a loved one, abuse, or discrimination. What follows are negative biases against themselves, dominating the mind of the individual. Although an individual with a cognitive triad may not essentially become depressed, a negative self-schema predisposes one to depression (Beck, 2002).

Beyond having negative thoughts, these dysfunctional beliefs can influence what people prone to depression focus on. Beck detailed that depressed individuals selectively pay more attention to parts of events in their environment that match what they already expected, even when evidence that proves otherwise is right in front of them. They focus on the erroneous aspects of events, even when there is the presence of equally important positive information. This is defined as logical errors or faulty information processing. Examples of logical errors include; arbitrary inference where a depressed individual draws to a negative conclusion if supporting data is absent or even if it is contrary; magnification of problems or failure and minimization of solutions or achievements; and personalizing negative occurrences (Tomlinson, Slater, 2017). The negative parts of things, no matter how insignificant they can be, are often given more weight hence overshadow any positive events that may take place in the life of a depressed person. This eventually affects their expectations of the future as they always envision is as full of despair and pain, even when there is a lot of evidence that promises positive experiences and opportunities.

Dr. Albert Ellis explains that people with depression have irrational beliefs that are in the form of absolute assertions. These are; “I must be completely competent in everything I do, or I a worthless”; “Others must treat me considerately, or they are absolutely terrible”; and “The world should always give me happiness, or I will die,” (LeMoult, Gotlib, 2019). As a result of these beliefs, depressed individuals tend to demand more from others or exaggerate their needs that absolutely have to be met, a tendency that Ellis refers to as ‘Musterbation.’ In support of Beck, he also noted that people with depression ignored information that is positive and leaned towards negative information. Overgeneralization is also common, where an individual concludes that since a single event turned out badly, then all other events will be failures. For instance, a depressed individual will fail to see that they have had successes in their lives or at least have a few people who love them and instead focus on the hurdles they face.

Bandura’s social cognitive theory implied that interactions between people and their thoughts, behaviors, and environment shape who they are. This thus suggests that humans are eventually a product of learning, which can take place through observation or direct experience. Bandura observed that there is a difference in the way people with clinical depression perceive themselves and the way those without do. Depressed individuals tend to place full blame on themselves when things go wrong, while any form of success is attributed to external factors. This self-blame is coupled with a sense of belief that they are incapable of influencing any situation they are in. Moreover, they have a flaw in their process of judging issues. Personal goals are usually set too high, and thus individual always falls short of them. Constant failure leads to feelings of inadequacy and, eventually, depression.

Martin Seligman’s cognitive explanation proposes depression being a result of learned helplessness. When an individual learns that an attempt to escape their negative situation is futile, they become depressed. They consequently become passive and tend to tolerate an aversive environment or stimuli even if there is a chance of escape (Seligman, 1974). Seligman’s research on dogs led to this discovery. A dog was placed in a partitioned cage, and when one side of the partition was electrified, the dog was allowed to escape to the other side, which they did. When the dog was restrained and after several tries of escape failed, the dog eventually stopped trying to escape to the separate partition and endured the shock. Seligman related this to depression in humans where a person gives up trying to influence the outcome of their environment as they have learned to believe that they are helpless and have no control over their environment.

This initial theory failed to explain why other people did not become depressed even after going through many difficult situations. Seligman, Abramson, and Teasdale modified the theory in 1978, by factoring in a person’s thinking style in learned helplessness. The reformulation of the approach incorporated the attributional processes, which involve the way an individual explains the cause of an event. The attributional style related to depression includes three dimensions; locus, whether the reason is internal or external; stability, whether the cause is unstable and temporary or stable and long-lasting; and global, whether the cause entirely relates to the individual or just a part of it (Overmier, Molet, 2017). People with depression often explain reasons for stressful things or events in a pessimistic way, viewing the cause as internal, stable, and global. Contrarily, those without depression tend to be optimistic, considering the reason as external, unstable, and specific.

The cognitive model supports the cognitive process as having an essential role in the feelings, thoughts, and behaviors of individuals. Therefore, people with depression or those highly likely to get depressed lean towards negative personal information, deem themselves unworthy of social attention that is positive, and they often have pessimistic expectations. These cognitive features further increase the vulnerability for depression when such a person faces stressful situations.

References

Beck, A. T. (2002). Cognitive models of depression. Clinical advances in cognitive psychotherapy: Theory and application, 14(1), 29-61.

Ingram, R. E., Miranda, J., & Segal, Z. V. (1998). Cognitive vulnerability to depression (pp. 88-115). New York: Guilford Press.

Kovacs, M., & Beck, A. T. (1986). Maladaptive cognitive structures in depression. Essential papers on depression, 240-258.

LeMoult, J., & Gotlib, I. H. (2019). Depression: a cognitive perspective. Clinical Psychology Review, 69, 51-66.

Overmier, J. B., & Molet, M. (2017). Learned helplessness. In Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior (pp. 1-5). Springer, Cham.

Seligman, M. E. (1974). Depression and learned helplessness. John Wiley & Sons.

Tomlinson, G., & Slater, D. (2017). Depression: A Cognitive Approach. Routledge.