Cognitive Approach to Explaining Depression: Ellis' ABC Model (AQA A Level Psychology)

Ellis' ABC model

• Ellis' ABC model (1962) offers another cognitive explanation of depression

• Ellis claimed that irrational thoughts interfere with happiness

  • Ellis placed the emphasis on good mental health being the result of a lack of irrational thinking, therefore any thoughts which obstruct happiness are irrational

• Ellis developed the ABC model to explain how irrational thoughts affect mood and behaviour: 

  • A = Activating event:

    • The activating event is any occurrence which someone perceives as negative e.g.

      • losing one's job

      • a relationship breakdown

      • being 'ghosted' by a friend

  • B = Beliefs:

    • These beliefs are irrational thoughts associated with the event, and why it happened e.g.

      • Losing one's job leads to irrational thoughts such as, 'I lost my job because I'm so useless'

      • A relationship breakdown leads to irrational thoughts such as, 'This is proof that I'm unlovable and will die alone'

      • Being 'ghosted' by a friend leads to irrational thoughts such as, 'This person hates me, they've seen through me, I'm not worthy of their friendship'

    • Ellis identified 'musturbation' (e.g. 'I must never fail') and 'I-can't-stand-it-itis' (e.g. 'I can't stand this jerk being my boss') as features of B

  • C = Consequences:

    • The consequences of A + B will lead to C e.g.

      • Rational beliefs lead to healthy consequences, such as, 'So, I lost my job, no big deal, I'd better start looking for another one'

      • Irrational beliefs lead to unhealthy consequences, such as, 'I lost my job which means I'll never find another one which means I'll lose my home and my marriage will collapse'

      • Ellis claimed that unhealthy consequences always lead to depression

Evaluation of Ellis' ABC model

Strengths

• The ABC model assigns responsibility for the individual to manage their thoughts, allowing some degree of control as to how to manage the consequences of activating events and beliefs

  • This means that the theory takes an idiographic approach which is useful in the study of mental illnesses as no two experiences of depression are identical

• Ellis developed Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT, a form of CBT) which has been successful in treating depression and changing irrational thought patterns

  • This means that the therapy, based on cognitive theories, has good application

Limitations

• Research suggests that depressed people are examples of the 'sadder but wiser' effect

  • This effect can be seen in the tendency for depressed people to give more accurate estimates of the likelihood of disaster than the non-depressed

  • This effect essentially means that irrational thoughts are not, after all, irrational but are an unbiased, realistic, clear-eyed appraisal of a negative event or situation

• The ABC model can account for reactive depression, where the individual responds to an activating event but not for endogenous depression which develops without any accompanying activating event

  • This limits the external validity of the theory