Cognitive Explanation To Abnormality

Cognitive Explanation To Abnormality

1. 1) Assumptions

   • Psychological disorders are caused by faulty or irrational thoughts or perceptions.
     • A person can overcome their disorder by replacing their ‘faulty’ thoughts with more realistic ones.
   • Therapists are useful in helping patients to replace their faulty thoughts.

2. 2) Explanation

   • Faulty thoughts or perceptions are the basis of psychological disorder. The cognitive psychologist would explain depression in terms of an overly pessimistic outlook on life.
   • Becks (1967)
     • Describes the ‘cognitive triad’ in which a depressed patient has a negative view of themselves, the world and the future.
   • Ellis ABC Model
     • A
       • Activating agent (for example a spider)
     • B
       • Belief: (can be rational) Spider is harmless (or irrational) spider is a threat
     • C
       • Consequence (which can be healthy) ignore spider (or unhealthy) anxiety
     • Successes
       • Most successful in explaining and treating anxiety disorders such as phobias and stress due to irrational thinking and in explaining and treating depression because of the negative thinking.
     • Anxiety
       • Newmark et al (1973)
         • Found that patients suffering clinical anxiety were far more likely to suffer from negative self image.

3. The triad, biases and schemas

4. Evaluation

   • Lewinsohn et al (2003)
     • Followed a group of teenagers who had developed a negative pattern of thinking. A year later they were far more likely than a control group to have developed major depression. This would seem to suggest that the negative thinking is causing the depression as the cognitive model suggests.
   • Genetic factors are not considered even though we know there appears to be a genetic component to most psychological disorders most prominent with bipolar (or manic) depression.

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