Psychological disturbances came from irrational and illogical thinking.

Irrational beliefs such as “I must get 100% in every test” etc and “I didn’t get top marks in the last test” can lead to self-defeating conclusions “I’m stupid”

Cognitive distortions and biases in information processing

Schema Overgeneralization on negative event Non- logical Dichotomous thinking- black and white,

tend to recall negative consequences Negative cognitive schemas tend to

activate by stressful events

Alloy et al 6 years of observation on a group of

Americans in their 20s Positive thinking group, negative thinking

group 1% in positive developed depression, 17%

in negative group

Does depressive thinking patterns cause depression or are theses behaviors caused by depression?

If negative cognitive style causes depression then by replacing that with positive in theory could improve the situation of depressed patients.

Sociocultural Level of Analysis

Did a study on social origins of Depression in

women

Found that 29 out of 32 women who became

depressed had experienced a severe life event.

But 78 percent who did experience a severe

life event did not become depressed.

They discovered that life events that

resembled previous life experiences were more

likely to cause depression

Based on the previous study, brown suggested this

model of depression that was based on a number of

factors that could increase the likelihood of depression

Such factors are: Lacking employment away from home,

absence of social support, having several young children

at home, loss of mother at an early age, and history of

child abuse.

This model/study is similar to the widely accepted

diathesis-stress model which is an interactionist

approach to explaining psychological disorders – it

claims that depression may be the result of a hereditary

predisposition with precipitating events in the

environment.

• Research done by Prince (1968) claimed that there

was no depression in Africa, and various regions of

Asia. But he found that rates of reported depression

rose with westernization in former colonial countries.

• However, modern researchers argue that depression

in non-modernized settings have different ways of

expressing the disorder, which may escape the

attention of a person from another culture.

• Kleinman (1982) showed that somatization is a typical

channel of expression in China and that the Chinese

rarely complain of feeling sad or depressed. They use

their bodies as a medium of their distress.

“Women are two to three times more likely to become clinically depressed than men” (Williams and Hargreaves 1995)

Women are more emotional and vulnerable to being upset because of hormonal fluctuations

However, this may be due to the fact that women are more open about seeking help than men

Many researchers argue that the reason for this is rooted in social causes

Aim: To investigate the social origins of depression by comparing the relationship between social factors and depression in women.

Participants: 458 women in London (aged between 18-65 years). Among these women, there are those who have received hospital treatment for depression and those who visited their doctor seeking help for depression.

82% of those who were depressed had experienced at least one severe life event as compared to 33% of the people were non-depressed

Pronounced social class effect: In the past year, 23% of working-class women became depressed as compared to 3% of middle-class women.

Among the working class, women with young children were at higher risk of being depressed.

There was a link between marital status and the risk of being depressed across all social classes. Eg. Women who were widowed and divorced had high rates of depression

People differ in their vulnerability to depressedion (lack of confidence, early loss of parents, unemployment)

The presence of a partner was a protective factor against depression

Strengths-Large group of women-Wide range of age

Limitations-Participants were only women, cannot be

generalized to men-Only conducted in London, Camberwell. (Treatment

for depression may be higher than in a collectivist society, people are more likely to say they are depressed)

-There was no consideration of the depressed women’s previous life history (such as childhood stress)

Social stress plays a role in many depressive episodes.

Social factors may affect an individual’s vulnerability to depression.

Social support can offer protection against the effects of potentially stressful events

However, other factors such as cognitive and biological also contribute to an individual’s risk of being depressed

-Cognitive: how an individual evaluates their life events

-Biological: childhood stress might’ve affected the brain’s stress circuits