Two Explanations of Depression

see and evaluate two psychological explanations of depression. (25 marks) There choose been several psychoanalytic theories of depression in that respect is no objective view of depression. However, centre to exclusively these diverse theories is the idea that unconscious forces and experiences during early childishness contribute to the tuition of depression in adult life. The first theory that will be looked at is, Sigmund crafts theory, based on his 1917 essay regret and Melancholia. Here, Fraud related depression back to the Oral stage of ontogeny during childhood.The Oral stage, according to Fraud, this is the first of several psychosexual stages through which humans infants give towards maturity. It is characterised by dependency on their caregiver. It is possible to become fixated (stuck) at any cardinal of these stages and this has consequences for subsequent development. Fixation can occur as the result of either over-or under-gratification. This actually de pendant nature makes them particularly elderly to depression in their adult life. They spend energy, money and more tone for love and attention and approval of others, this could lead to anger if their needs arent met.However, this anger is directed inwardly, at themselves instead of at others. An example of this is with the spill of a loved one, their anger is directed inwardly at the sack of their loved one, regressing back to the Oral stage. Fraud withal distinguished amid actual way out, in the case of the loss of a loved one and symbolic loss, loss of a job. However, both do lead to depression, as the individual re-experiences a childhood episode when they experienced loss of ticker from a caregiver. There has also been a link betwixt confused egotism-esteem and depression.Bibrings psychodynamic theory (1965) stated that low self-esteem brought close by a harsh and critical upbringing could result in depression. This perfectionist parenting style can produce a wide inconsistency between the childs true nature and its ideal nature, the individual fails to brisk up to his/her unrealistic ego-ideal. This sanctions the theory that fixation on a childhood stage or experience can lead to depression ulterior in life. According to Fraud, in order to avoid loss twist into depression, the individual needs to engage in a period of mourning, work, during which s/he recalls memories of the lost one.This allows the individual to sepa say him/herself from the lost person, and so reduces the inner-directed anger. However, individuals very dependent on others for their sense of self-esteem may be ineffective to do this, and so remain extremely depressed. There is some recount for the idea that a set of dependant personality traits characterise tribe with depression. However, these traits appear to fluctuate with the level of depression so they might be an effect of the disorder rather than a causal factor. There is also support for the idea that the los s of a parent to death or divorce can be linked to later depression (Bifulco et al. 1987). go on research has sh profess that depressed people persist to be more obstreperous than a control group of people who dont maintain from depression. The strengths of the psychodynamic approach to depression are that, firstly, there is further empirical support provided by Waller et al (2000). Men who had lost their fathers during childhood scored higher on a depression scale than those fathers who had non died. Furthermore, Bifulco (1992) nominate evidence that children whose mothers died in childhood were more credibly to experience depression later in life.This suggests that there is wider academic credibility for the idea of depression being movementd by psychological factors. On the other hand, one weakness of Frauds expression is that there is contradictory evidence by Cooper et al (1992). Loss probably explains only a relatively small pct of cases of depression only about 10% of those who experience early loss later become depressed. This produces refuting evidence for depression being caused by psychodynamic explanations. a nonher(prenominal) weakness of Frauds theory is that there are methodological problems.The associated therapy (psychoanalysis) has not proven very effective with treating depression (Comer, 2002). This may be because of the difficulty depressed patients having in communicating during psychoanalysis this proves that psychoanalysis is not always affective. Finally, Frauds theory is psychologically deterministic. The reason for this is because Fraud suggests that depression occurs due to a dominant superego. However, just because an individuals superego is dominant, doesnt mean that they will develop depression. This suggests that Freuds theory does not take into consideration freewill.Another psychological explanation of depression is the cognitive approach. Beck (1967) was struck by the disconfirming thinking expressn by depressed clients and developed his own explanation. Here, he suggested that depressed is the depression is the result of negative thinking and catastrophising, which he called cognitive errors, Beck (1991) believes that depression is a disorder of thought, rather than of mood, he hold that there are three components to depression, which he called the cognitive triad. This consisted of negative and disheartened thoughts about themselves, the world and their future.In addition to the cognitive triad, Beck believed that depression prone individuals develop negative self-schema. They possess a set of beliefs and expectations about themselves that are essentially negative and pessimistic. He identified this as being routed to an early traumatic childhood event. E. g. Death of a parent or sibling, parental rejection, criticism, overprotection or neglect. It could also be due to bullying. People with negative self schemas become prone to making logical errors in their thinking and they tend to focus selectively on certain aspects of a situation composition ignoring equal relevant information.Beck referred to these errors as cognitive distortations, including drawing deaths under the substructure of sufficient or irrelevant information. E. g. recovering worthless because the weather impress your plans to go to a concert. He called this arbitrary interference. Others include selective abstraction. This is management on a single aspect of a situation and ignoring others E. g. you feel responsible for your team losing a match, even though you are scarce one player on the field. Thirdly, is overgeneralisation.This is making a sweeping conclusion on the basis of single event. Others include magnification and minimisation, as considerably as personalisation. Beck (1983) has modified his theory over the years and he flat believes there are two flakes of negative schema that characterise depression 1. Sociotropy-This relates to interpersonal relationships, and individual s with this persona of negative schema perceive themselves as failing at relationships. Their core belief could be something like, If I am not liked by everyone, I am worthless 2.Autonomy-This relates to personal achievement, and individuals with this type of negative schema perceive themselves as failing to achieve work- or study-related goals. Their core belief could be something like, If I am not successful and in control, I am worthless. Cognitive theories of depression stool been extremely influential and have stimulated huge amounts of research that have contributed to our understanding of the disorder and how to treat it. They have given rise to a range of therapies and, on the whole, these seem to have been very helpful for people with depression. Becks later idea that ndividual personality differences can predict the type of event that triggers depression could be used to explain some of the different symptoms sub-type. However, it is difficult to determine the next ex tent to which distorted cognitive patterns cause depression. Numerous studies have shown that depressed people do indeed show more negative thinking than the control groups. However, as yet there is no convincing evidence that such thinking precedes a depressive episode. It seems likely that negative thinking is a consequence of depression and that it might comfortably serve to maintain the disorder rather than explain its origins.One strength of the cognitive approach is that it has practical applications provided by Butler and Beck (2000). They reviewed 14 meta-analyses investigating the effectualness of Becks cognitive therapy and concluded that about 80% of adults benefited from the therapy. It was also found that the therapy was more successful than drug therapy and had a lower relapse rate supporting the proposition that depression has a cognitive basis. This suggested that knowledge of the cognitive explanation can improve the quality of peoples lives.A study criticism of the cognitive explanation is that there is contradictory evidence from Lewinsohn (1981). He studied a group of participants before any of them became depressed, and found that those who later become depressed were no more likely to have negative thoughts than those who did not develop depression. This suggests that hopeless and negative thinking may be the result of depression rather than the cause of it. Another criticism is that it is reductionist. It doesnt regard other factors as responsible for depression, but focuses on the psychological approach to depression.A final weakness is that the psychological explanation of depression is psychologically deterministic. This is because the information suggests that individuals with no social network will become depressed. In reality, this is not always true. If the individual did want a group of friends, consequently they could get them. This suggests that this explanation does not for freewill. In conclusion, we have seen two differe nt psychological explanations, one is Frauds psychodynamic approach, and the other is the cognitive approach. twain identify depression as underlying from a psychological problem.