A Study On Becks Theory Psychology Essay

A Study On Becks Theory Psychology Essay Beck’s theory states that Individuals with dysfunctional attitudes are likely to show increases in depressed mood following the occurrence of negative events. From the cognitive perspective, we can say that depression is caused by one’s thinking. Someone with dysfunctional attitudes tends to think negatively toward themselves. When a negative event occurs which relates to that person, it triggers the negative thoughts over and over again which can lead to depression. Beck believed that the cognitive symptoms of depression actually precede the affective and mood symptoms of depression, rather than vice versa. Beck’s main argument was that depression was instituted by one’s view of oneself, instead of one having a negative view of oneself due to depression. For example, Abela and D’Alessandro’s (2002) found that the student’s negative views about their future strongly controlled the interaction between dysfunctional attitudes and the increase in depressed mood. The research clearly backed up Beck’s claim that those at risk for depression due to dysfunctional attitudes who did not get into their college of choice then doubted their futures, and these thoughts lead to symptoms of depression. The other cause of depression would be a person’s interpersonal relationship with their surroundings and the people around them. Hammen and Brennan (2001) found that 13% of the sons and 23.6 % of the daughters who were depressed had depressed mothers as compared to 3.9% of the sons and 15.9% of the daughters who were depressed lacked a depressed mother. From the social perspective, we see that the child becomes depressed because of the interpersonal relationship with his or her mother which shows how the social environment around someone can influence the behaviour or thinking of the person. The depressed adolescents of depressed mothers were also more likely to evidence dysfunctional cognitions about their s ocial selves and worlds. (Hammen & Brennan, 2001, p. 8) This clearly contradicts beck’s argument that depression is cause by dysfunctional cognition but not vice versa. Hammen and Brennan (2001) discussed that adolescents gets depressed because of the interpersonal relationship with their mothers which then later lead them into dysfunctional cognitions. Whereas, beck states that dysfunctional attitudes comes first which then later on lead the person into depression. Another contradiction of these two concepts is that one states that depression is caused by the inner thinking without the influence of another person and on the contrary, the other is cause by the surrounding people and how they behave. Second Section Cognitive Theory Individuals with dysfunctional attitudes are likely to show increases in depressed mood following the occurrence of negative events which is stated in Beck`s theory. We can say that depression is caused by one’s thinking from the cognitiv e perspective. Someone with dysfunctional attitudes tends to think negatively toward themselves. When a negative event shows up, it triggers the negative thoughts over and over again which can lead to depression. The relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and increases in depressed mood following the occurrence of negative events is caused by negative views of the future . Beck’s cognitive theory of depression has generated a vast body of empirical research.Central to Beck’s theory is the construct of schemas(Beck’s (1967, 1983). Beck defines schemas as stored bodies of knowledge that affect the encoding, comprehension and retrieval of information. The content and organization of different individuals’ schemas vary according to their particular experiences. Once activated, depressogenic schemas provide access to a complex system of negative themes and cognitions which will lead to ‘negative cognitive triad'(Beck’s (1967, 1983). Beck de fines the negative cognitive triad as a negative view of the self, the world and the future. Beck hypothesizes that the negative cognitive triad is a sufficient cause of depression and will start showing some depressive symptoms such as deficits in affective, motivational, behavioural and physiological functioning(John R. Z. Abela,2000). Beck also states that there are three main dysfunctional belief themes (or â€Å"schemas†) that dominate depressed people’s thinking (Natalie Staats Reiss, Ph.D, 2007):