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Aetiologies of Depression
- depression - mood disorder; low
emotional state characterised by
significant levels of sadness; lack of
energy and self-worth, and feelings of guilt
- bipolar = extreme highs & lows,
unipolar = just extreme lows
- 90% of
depressive
people have
unipolar
- 90% of
depressive
people have
unipolar
- Biological: Genes
- Twin studies
- average rate of depression is 5%,
so would expect identical twins to
have a higher CR
- McGuffin (1996) - investigated the CR of depressive
twins; found 46% CR for MZ and 20% CR for DZ
- suggests that depression has a heritable component
- suggests that depression has a heritable component
- average rate of depression is 5%,
so would expect identical twins to
have a higher CR
- Adoption studies
- Wender (1986) - biological relatives of adopted
sufferers of depression are about 7x more likely than
their adopted relatives to have had major depression
- however, can't generalise as not everyone is adopted
- however, can't generalise as not everyone is adopted
- children are often placed in
adopted homes that are
similar to their birth family
- confuses the issue of
genes and environment
- confuses the issue of
genes and environment
- if depression was
completely due to
genetic factors, then
the CR would be 100%
- Wender (1986) - biological relatives of adopted
sufferers of depression are about 7x more likely than
their adopted relatives to have had major depression
- Comorbidity
- a relationship between depression
and other psychological conditions
- Kendler (1992) - a higher incidence of mental disorders
in twins when looking at depression and generalised
anxiety disorders rather than depression alone
- a relationship between depression
and other psychological conditions
- Twin studies
- Psychological: Cognitive Theories
- Learned
helplessness
- Seligman (1975) - first discovered learned helplessness in his
experiments on animals; dog was placed into a cage where one side
was an electrified floor; dog would receive a painful shock through the
floor and would quickly learn that to escape the shock he could jump
over the barrier; however if the barrier was too high for the dog to jump
then the dog soon accepted that the shocks were unavoidable and
passively accepted the shocks; when the barrier was lowered again and
escape became possible, the dog still did not try to escape
- they had learned to be helpless
- they had learned to be helpless
- Seligman argued that this
is what happens in
depressed people
- people experience several negative
life events, feel that they can't escape,
and learned to cope with it in that way
- people experience several negative
life events, feel that they can't escape,
and learned to cope with it in that way
- however, animals used so can't
generalise and ethical issues
- Abramson (1978) developed on learned
helplessness; stated that people
respond to failure in a number of ways
- attribute the failure to an...
- internal cause (something within
them such as personality / skill)
- external cause (other
people / circumstances)
- internal cause (something within
them such as personality / skill)
- cause of the failure is either...
- stable (likely to continue)
- unstable (might easily change)
- stable (likely to continue)
- attribute the failure to a...
- global cause
(applying to a range
of situations)
- specific cause
(applying to one
situation)
- global cause
(applying to a range
of situations)
- people with learned helplessness
= internal, stable, specific
- attribute the failure to an...
- Seligman (1975) - first discovered learned helplessness in his
experiments on animals; dog was placed into a cage where one side
was an electrified floor; dog would receive a painful shock through the
floor and would quickly learn that to escape the shock he could jump
over the barrier; however if the barrier was too high for the dog to jump
then the dog soon accepted that the shocks were unavoidable and
passively accepted the shocks; when the barrier was lowered again and
escape became possible, the dog still did not try to escape
- Beck's theory
of depression
- Negative self-schema -
negative feelings and info
that we have about ourselves
- once we have a negative
self-schema, it becomes difficult
for us to interpret any new info
about ourselves positively
- once we have a negative
self-schema, it becomes difficult
for us to interpret any new info
about ourselves positively
- when a person encounters a new
situation that resembles the original
conditions when the schemas were
learned, they will interpret it negatively
- Beck's cognitive triad -
negative self-schemas cause
us to view ourselves, the world,
and the future negatively
- however, Lewinsohn
(1981) concluded that there
was no relationship
between negative thoughts
and irrational beliefs and
future depression
- however, Lewinsohn
(1981) concluded that there
was no relationship
between negative thoughts
and irrational beliefs and
future depression
- Negative self-schema -
negative feelings and info
that we have about ourselves
- a strength - therapies based on
cognitive assumptions are quite
successful for depression
- Learned
helplessness
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