Cognitive Theories Of Major Depression

Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness, and poor concentration. Depression can be long-lasting or recurrent, substantially impairing an individual’s ability to function at work or school or cope with daily

Depression is a common and serious mood disorder. It’s more than just feeling down or sad in response to life’s struggles and setbacks, depression causes people to lose pleasure from daily life, can increase the risk of many health problems, and can even be serious enough to lead to suicide. The disease must be given more attention and treated as a global public health priority. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 7.6 percent of people over the age of 12 have depression in any 2-week period. Depression is also the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain,according to a review of research.

“Recent data estimate the overall prevalence of depression at about 11.1% of the American population, or nearly 35 million individuals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). A predictive models suggest that up to 50% of the population will experience at least one episode of depression during their lives” (Life Extension, 2014). Depression has negatively affected the lives of many individuals throughout the world. Look around you there may even be someone close to you that is demonstrating signs of its stifling affects. Depression does not discriminate with its suffocating

Cognitive-behavioral therapy was developed by Aaron Beck (Hammen 141). It assumes that the patient's faulty thinking is causing the current depression and focuses on changing the depressed patient's thought patterns and perceptions. The therapist helps the patient identify negative or distorted thought patterns and the emotions and behavior that accompany them, and then retrains the depressed individual to recognize the thinking

Beck (1967) provides a psychological explanation of MD from a cognitive perspective. He proposes a cognitive theory of depression that includes the primary negative triad in depression, which reflects “three major cognitive patterns” that depicts how depressed individuals view themselves, the world and the future “in an idiosyncratic way”. This theory focuses on negative schema and dysfunctional attitudes contributing to MD, which can be clarified as inflexible cognitive structures that negatively filter and bias information (Hankin et al., 2009). Support for this theory is demonstrated by Boury et al (2001) in the exploratory study monitoring student’s negative thoughts with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), where it was found that “BDI-II

Major depression is a commonly diagnosed psychological disorder affecting individuals’ ability to feel happiness and peace of mind. Those who suffer experience negative emotions, lack of motivation, changes in behaviour and dysfunctional cognitive symptoms. Depression is classified by the Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders Fifth Edition (DSM-5) as five of more of the listed symptoms present persistently over the same two weeks. One of these symptoms must be depressed mood or loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities. Depression causes disruption to typical daily life such as inability to maintain friendships and jobs. Other symptoms outlined by the DSM-5 include; insomnia, fatigue and recurrent thoughts of death. There is much debate over what exactly causes depression. Biological explanations question hereditary and neurotransmitter factors. While psychological theories include the cognitive ideas of Beck’s negative triad and hopelessness theory. This essay will focus on the ways in which psychological and biological explanations contrast and how their theories can overlap to better understand depression.

Cognitive theories of depression try

Someone who is having negative feelings about himself and his life is said to be depressed. Major depression disorder occurs when at least five of these signs last for two weeks or more: Lethargy, feeling of worthlessness, loss of interest in family, friends and activities. With depression regression towards the mean tends to happen. This means that people always return to their previous behavior patterns or to a “new” normal with or without therapy. The use of cognitive therapy would help anyone with symptoms of depression because cognitive therapy changes the way you think. The therapy is based on the assumption that thoughts intervene between events and our emotional reactions, therefore it will attempt to change the negative thoughts that

Depression is a mental illness in which a person experiences deep, stable sadness and discontinued interest in nearly all activities. People also use the term depression to describe the temporary sadness, loneliness,

According to Nemeroff (2007), depression is a psychological illness that affects one’s feelings, thoughts and actions.

People of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life have felt depressed and unhappy at some time in their lives. These periods of sadness usually pass after a short time, but for some people, this feeling can remain for weeks, months, and even years. (1) This prolonged state of unhappiness is called major (or clinical) depression and is characterized by a persistent sad or "empty" mood, loss of interest in favorite activities, difficulty concentrating, and many other symptoms. It is not simply a mental state but an illness that interferes with the way people feel, function, and think.(2)

How is depression established and sustained? When looking at the cognitive perspective on depressive disorders, depression is simply developed and maintained by a client’s way of learning, thinking, and problem solving. One study proposes that there are three qualifiers when looking at the relationship between cognitive processing and depression and they are as follows: “inhibitory processes and deficits in working memory, ruminative responses to negative mood states and negative life events, and the inability to use positive and rewarding stimuli to regulate negative mood” (Gotlib & Joormann, 2010). Depressive disorders and cognitive processing are uniquely intertwined. Cognitive theorists that study depression suggest that “people’s thoughts,

At some point in time everyone has experienced depression. When one becomes depressed their thought process can turn negative. A common method of treating depression is cognitive therapy. Cognitive Therapy as it relates to depression was developed by Aaron Beck. Beck, a well known psychiatrist, served as a pioneer in the development of cognitive theory and therapy for depression. Beck’s cognitive theory of depression was created with the idea that a person’s experience directly affects their thoughts. These thoughts, then draw a parallel with the development of their beliefs. One’s beliefs assist in determining their emotions and behaviors. Beck considered the main trigger of depression to be negative thought processes.

A great deal of research and effort have gone into depression in the last few decades, which has resulted in the intellectual overthrow of some old, intransigent assumptions in the mental health world. Among these are: 1) Certain behaviors are not as mysterious or complicated to understand, therefor correct, as the Old School once thought, 2) We can learn to redirect conscious thought and minimize or mitigate many of these depressive episodes before they take hold in the first place. As a very general

Depression is the most common of all psychological disorders, affecting 100 million people worldwide. The depression ranges from mild feelings of uneasiness, sadness, and apathy to intense suicidal despair. (Kasschau) If left untreated, it could lead the