Two Explanations of Depression

Describe and evaluate two mental s meanss of first. (25 marks) There bugger off been several psychoanalytical theories of effect in that respect is no physical object view of impression. However, centre to all these distinguishable theories is the motif that unconscious forces and incurs during early puerility contribute to the beatment of falling off in adult life. The first possible action that provide be looked at is, Sigmund impostors theory, based on his 1917 essay regret and Melancholia. Here, Fraud related slack rear end to the oral examination stage of development during kidhood.The Oral stage, according to Fraud, this is the first of several psychosexual stages through which human infants develop towards maturity. It is characterised by dependency on their c begiver. It is possible to sour fixated (stuck) at any i of these stages and this has solvents for afterward development. Fixation apprize occur as the result of either over-or under-gratificat ion. This actually(prenominal) hooked nature makes them particularly venerable to depression in their adult life. They spend energy, cash and more than looking for love and concern and approval of early(a)s, this could lead to anger if their inevitably arent met.However, this anger is tell inwardly, at themselves instead of at others. An example of this is with the dismissal of a love one, their anger is directed inwardly at the loss of their love one, regressing back to the Oral stage. Fraud in addition distinguished between actual loss, 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 respective(prenominal) re-experiences a childishness end when they experienced loss of affection from a caregiver. There has as well been a amour between Low conceit and depression.Bibrings psychodynamic theory (1965) stated that low self-esteem brought intimately by a bumpy and critical upbringing could result in d epression. This perfectionist nurtureing style can produce a wide inconsistency between the childs true nature and its typecast nature, the singular fails to live up to his/her wild ego- radicall. This supports the theory that fixation on a childhood stage or experience can lead to depression afterwards in life. According to Fraud, in enact to avoid loss turning into depression, the soulfulness needs to engage in a period of mourning, work, during which s/he recalls memories of the disoriented one.This allows the individual to separate him/herself from the lost person, and so reduces the inner-directed anger. However, individuals very dependent on others for their star of self-esteem may be uneffective to do this, and so remain highly blue. There is some curtilage for the idea that a set of dependant personality traits characterise people with depression. However, these traits appear to falter with the level of depression so they cleverness be an effect of the disor der sort of than a causal factor. There is also support for the idea that the loss of a parent to death or split up can be linked to subsequently depression (Bifulco et al. 1987). Further research has shown that discourage people tend to be more aggressive than a control multitude of people who dont set up from depression. The strengths of the psychodynamic cuddle to depression are that, firstly, there is further empirical support provided by Waller et al (2000). Men who had lost their fathers during childhood s nubbled higher on a depression scale than those fathers who had non died. Furthermore, Bifulco (1992) effectuate shew that children whose mothers died in childhood were more possible to experience depression posterior in life.This suggests that there is wider academic credibility for the idea of depression universe caused by psychological factors. On the other hand, one flunk of Frauds expression is that there is contradictory evidence by cooper et al (1992). Loss probably apologizes plainly a relatively small percent of cases of depression only about 10% of those who experience early loss after twist dispirited. This produces refuting evidence for depression being caused by psychodynamic news reports. Another 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 everlastingly affective. Finally, Frauds theory is psychologically deterministic. The reason for this is because Fraud suggests that depression occurs cod to a dominant superego. However, just because an individuals superego is dominant, doesnt mean that they pass on develop depression. This suggests that Freuds theory does not take into consideration freewill.Another psychological write up of depression is the cognitive approach. Beck (1967) was struck by the detrimental idea shown by depressed clients and developed his own explanation. Here, he suggested that depressed is the depression is the result of blackball thinking and catastrophising, which he called cognitive errors, Beck (1991) believes that depression is a disorder of thought, preferably than of mood, he maintained that there are three components to depression, which he called the cognitive triad. This consisted of negative and pessimistic thoughts about themselves, the world and their future.In addition to the cognitive triad, Beck believed that depression addicted individuals develop negative self-schema. They make a set of beliefs and expectations about themselves that are essentially negative and pessimistic. He place this as being routed to an early traumatic childhood withalt. E. g. Death of a parent or sibling, parental rejection, criticism, overprotection or neglect. It could also be due to bullying. po t with negative self schemas hold out prone to making logical errors in their thinking and they tend to focus discriminatingly on certain aspects of a situation speckle ignoring equal relevant information.Beck referred to these errors as cognitive distortations, including drawing conclusions under the infrastructure of able or irrelevant information. E. g. hearting shadowy because the weather disturbed your plans to go to a concert. He called this arbitrary interference. Others include selective abstraction. This is focusing on a bingle aspect of a situation and ignoring others E. g. you feel responsible for your team losing a match, even though you are simply 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 well as personalisation. Beck (1983) has modified his theory over the years and he straightaway believes there are two types of negative schema t hat characterise depression 1. Sociotropy-This relates to social relationships, and individuals with this type of negative schema get the picture 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 shake up been extremely influential and pull in 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 begin 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 telephone the type of event that triggers depression could be used to explain some of the several(predicate) symptoms sub-type. However, it is difficult to determine the next point 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 nevertheless there is no convincing evidence that such thinking precedes a depressive episode. It seems liable(predicate) that negative thinking is a consequence of depression and that it might well coiffure 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 examine the effectiveness of Becks cognitive therapy and cerebrate 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 backup the proposition that depression has a cognitive b asis. This suggested that knowledge of the cognitive explanation can improve the quality of peoples lives.A major criticism of the cognitive explanation is that there is contradictory evidence from Lewinsohn (1981). He studied a group of participants forrader any of them became depressed, and found that those who later become depressed were no more in all probability 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, past they could get them. This suggests that this explanation does not for freewill. In conclusion, we have seen two different psychological explanations, one is Frauds psychodynamic approach, and the other is the cognitive approach. Both identify depression as underlying from a psychological problem.