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Psychological Factors

Psychological Factors. Contributing to Major Depression. Psychological Factors. There are many psychological factors that contribute to the onset and maintenance of depression, including personality type, cognitive processes and the learning process. We are going to look at two …

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Psychological Factors

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  1. Psychological Factors Contributing to Major Depression

  2. Psychological Factors • There are many psychological factors that contribute to the onset and maintenance of depression, including personality type, cognitive processes and the learning process. • We are going to look at two… • Learned Helplessness • Stress – stressors and psychological responses to stress

  3. Cognitive theory of depression Aaron Beck (1960s) – specific cognitive distortions are present in people prone to depression Cognitive Triad The cognitive distortions experienced by depression sufferers cannot be treated by medication, so CBT is used to modify the distortions.

  4. LEARNED HELPLESSNESS • A learned feeling or belief by an individual that they are helpless and unable to have any effect on events in their lives, so they give up trying. • Links depression to the experience of uncontrollable events.

  5. Seligman’s research – p256-7 • Seligman (1967) found that when dogs were restrained in an apparatus and given electric shocks, they failed to initiate escape behaviour when the restraints were removed. • Moreover, they exhibited some of the symptoms of depression found in humans (lethargy, sluggishness, and appetite loss).

  6. Seligman’s research – p256-7 Group 1 ‘escape condition’ Group 2 ‘Yoked control’ Group 3 ‘CONTROL” Dogs strapped in a hammock Dogs strapped in a hammock Relaxed DOGS Given electric shocks Dogs couldn’t control shocks Dogs could control (stop) shocks with their heads After 24 hours dogs were placed in a ‘shuttle box’ Results – Dogs in group 1 and 3 easily escaped the shocks and jumped the barrier (27 sec) Dogs in group 2 took on average 50 sec to escape Behaved differently – lay down, passively accepted shocks – gave up trying – learned to be helpless

  7. Seligman proposed that depression results from a tendency to give up passively in the face of unavoidable stressors. The sufferer does not believe desirable outcomes are achievable, but that undesirable outcomes are probable, and that their own actions won’t affect the outcome.

  8. Attribution Theory – • Accounts for cognitive processes involved learned helplessness • When someone experiences failure, they try and attribute the cause of the failure • Those who interpret events in a more negative way are more likely to become depressed • This attributional style or judgement is a risk factor for developing depression

  9. attributional judgement Event is judged as… • Having an internalor external cause Within individual control or not • Being stable or unstable Likely to change or not • Global or Specific Widespread or here and now

  10. STRESS • There are many proposals for how major depression may develop as a consequence of stressful life experiences • Stress exposure model • Stress generational model • Reciprocal model

  11. Stress exposure model • Those people who have had more exposure to stressful experiences are more likely to develop major depression • Major depression is a response to stress • Stressors increase the risk factor for depression • Stressors maybe: • Discrete– stressful life events, rare - EG death of spouse, break-up, divorce, job loss, major illness • Continuous – ongoing stressors EG being in a bad relationship, long term financial difficulties

  12. Stress generation model • Individuals with major depression will contribute to the occurrence of stressors in their lives and therefore actually ‘generate’ stress. • They’ll have a higher level of dependent stressors (which occur because of their own behaviour) than those without depression.

  13. Reciprocal model • Stress can trigger depression, and depressed individuals also create or seek out stressful events • Stress is a predictor and a consequence of major depression • Most appropriate explanation of the relationship between stress and major depression

  14. Appraisals of stressors can also have an impact on whether an individual can take control of a situation or be left feeling helpless. • Feeling of helplessness can lead to depression Tale of two salesmen • You have two salesmen and neither of them closes a particular sale. The one salesman says ‘Oh, darn it, I’m useless as a salesman, I’ll never make it, I may as well just give up’. How is this man going to feel? Without a doubt he will feel down in the dumps. Whereas the other salesman who didn’t close the deal might say ‘Well I can learn from that experience. I think I need to polish up on some of my selling techniques so I can do better the next time’. These thoughts won’t pull him into depression.

  15. Level of high stress can also deplete serotonin levels in the brain. • This can lead to lower mood -> depression

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