Research conducted and collected throughout the decades has found that a substantial amount of factors are involved with the aetiology of the depression (Burton, Westen & Kowalski, 2009). Depression can refer to a mood or to a clinical syndrome, consisting of emotional, cognitive and behavioural symptoms (Oltmanns & Emery, 2015). Cognitive theories of depression focus on identifying the origins of depression in dysfunctional patterns of thinking while behavioural theories of depression aim to explain the aetiology of the disorder while stressing the role maladaptive actions play in the onset and maintenance (Otto et al. 2007). This essay aims to use cognitive and behavioural models to assist in understanding the aetiology of depression. This
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It does not explain why people who become depressed through such a process make internal explanations for failure. You could say that tendency to assume personal responsibility for failure goes against the idea that depressed people regard negative events as beyond their control. Seligman’a (1975) model looked solely at depression as a consequence of uncontrollable events unlike a study conducted by Lazurus (1966) which looked at the effects of stress and proposed that depression caused by stress is dependent on a situation as well as the individual involved. Seligman and his colleagues reformed the learned helplessness model to account for attributions individuals make to describe their worlds (Seligman, Abramson, & Teasdale, 1978). It was contended that those predisposed to develop depression associate negative outcomes to internal factors in opposition to external ones as well as success to external factors as opposed to internal factors (Lilienfeld et al. 2012). They believed that depression prone individuals make assumptions that are global and stable: they are inclined to see their mistakes as general traits of their personalities (Seligman et al. 1978; Burton, 2009). Though, according to Harvey and Weavy (1984), internal, global and stable attributions may be seen more as consequence than a cause of …show more content…
One of the first learning theory theories of depression, Lewinsohn (1974) reinforcement model posited that depression stems from a low level of response-contingent positive reinforcement (Lilienfeld, 2012). When positive behaviours are not rewarded in a way that is deemed suitable, those select behaviours do not happen as often and eventually become non-existent (Lewinsohn, 1974). The elimination of certain behaviours minimises the repertoire of behaviour exhibited by the individual resulting in a decrease of responsibilities and arousal linked with depression. The lack of reinforcement can be factors like: the reinforcing even may not exist anymore, this could involve losing an important job. Also, the behavioural capacity of the individual may decrease resulting in an inability to perform activities that once produced positive reinforcement such as a major injury (Mathews, 1977). Aetiology comes into play when the reinforcements are removed and the individual views their behaviour as pointless because of an absence of clear
It does not explain why people who become depressed through such a process make internal explanations for failure. You could say that tendency to assume personal responsibility for failure goes against the idea that depressed people regard negative events as beyond their control. Seligman’a (1975) model looked solely at depression as a consequence of uncontrollable events unlike a study conducted by Lazurus (1966) which looked at the effects of stress and proposed that depression caused by stress is dependent on a situation as well as the individual involved. Seligman and his colleagues reformed the learned helplessness model to account for attributions individuals make to describe their worlds (Seligman, Abramson, & Teasdale, 1978). It was contended that those predisposed to develop depression associate negative outcomes to internal factors in opposition to external ones as well as success to external factors as opposed to internal factors (Lilienfeld et al. 2012). They believed that depression prone individuals make assumptions that are global and stable: they are inclined to see their mistakes as general traits of their personalities (Seligman et al. 1978; Burton, 2009). Though, according to Harvey and Weavy (1984), internal, global and stable attributions may be seen more as consequence than a cause of …show more content…
One of the first learning theory theories of depression, Lewinsohn (1974) reinforcement model posited that depression stems from a low level of response-contingent positive reinforcement (Lilienfeld, 2012). When positive behaviours are not rewarded in a way that is deemed suitable, those select behaviours do not happen as often and eventually become non-existent (Lewinsohn, 1974). The elimination of certain behaviours minimises the repertoire of behaviour exhibited by the individual resulting in a decrease of responsibilities and arousal linked with depression. The lack of reinforcement can be factors like: the reinforcing even may not exist anymore, this could involve losing an important job. Also, the behavioural capacity of the individual may decrease resulting in an inability to perform activities that once produced positive reinforcement such as a major injury (Mathews, 1977). Aetiology comes into play when the reinforcements are removed and the individual views their behaviour as pointless because of an absence of clear