Cognitive Approach to Explaining Depression: Beck's Negative Triad (AQA A Level Psychology)

Beck's negative triad

• The cognitive approach to explaining depression (Beck, 1967) involves the role of internal mental processes in determining behaviour

  • Thoughts, information processing and perception are examples of internal mental processes

  • Irrational thoughts, faulty information processing and distorted perceptions thus forms the cognitive approach to explaining depression

• The cognitive approach to explaining depression assumes that depression is a result of faulty or irrational thought processes and negative schema

Faulty information processing

• Faulty information processing includes:

  • irrationally personalising the world and events that happen to them e.g.

    • ‘The world hates me, even the bus hates me, it didn’t stop for me this morning’

  • seeking out the negative in any situation e.g.

    • ‘I may have got a promotion but it will mean I have to take on more work’ (an example of negative automatic thoughts)

  • catastrophising e.g.

    • ‘I got a low mark for this essay which means I’m going to fail my exams and end up homeless and broke’

  • overgeneralising e.g.

    • ‘I had a date last night but it didn’t go well so what’s the point of dating at all?'

The negative triad

• Beck (1963) developed an explanation of depression known as the negative triad

• The negative triad is divided into the following: 

  • 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  

Negative self-schema

• Negative self-schema are also a component of Beck's cognitive theory of depression:

  • A schema is a shortcut that acts as a mental framework which people use to organise their ideas and experience of the world into easily-categorised 'packets' of information

  • A self-schema is the framework of information an individual has about themselves e.g.:

    • 'I am worthy of love'

    • 'I am not worthy of love'

  • Depression involves the development of a negative self-schema which results in an individual only focusing on the negative, undesirable aspects of themselves

    • a depressed person may develop an ineptness schema, believing they will fail at everything they try

    • a depressed person may develop a negative self-evaluation schema, constantly reminding themselves of their own worthlessness

Evaluation of Beck's cognitive theory

Strengths

• Beck's theory has good application for treating depression, e.g.:

  • CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is used to identify, challenge and change irrational thoughts so that depression symptoms recede

    • this is a strength of the theory as it demonstrates its external validity i.e. it can be used in real settings to help real people suffering from depression

• There is strong supporting evidence for Beck's theory:

  • Grazioli & Terry (2000) found that pregnant women who showed vulnerability for depression were more likely to suffer post-natal depression than those without that specific diathesis

    • this means that the cognitive approach could be used to identify vulnerability in people and trigger interventions to delay or prevent the progress of depression

Limitations

• Beck’s theory is useful for highlighting what characterises irrational thinking but not why such thoughts occur, or where they come from

  • The above observation means that Beck's theory lacks explanatory power

• Beck’s theory does not consider the influence of biological factors in depression

  • There is ample research which indicates that genetics and neurotransmitters (particularly serotonin) play a key role in the development of depression

    • this means that Beck's theory does not take a fully holistic approach to explaining depression, viewing it as cognitive only