Outline and Evaluate the Psychological Explanations for Depression

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Outline and evaluate the psychological explanations for depression (24) Two psychological explanations of depression are behaviourism and cognitive. Behaviourism explains depression as a learned condition and therefore does not perceive the disorder as a mental illness with a physical cause. Lewinsohn (1974) proposed that depression arises from a lack of positive reinforcement. Some people who are depressed do indeed seem to lack the social skills that enable them to get along with others. People who become depressed because of a major loss may be reinforced in being depressed by the sympathy and understanding shown by other people. Seligman’s (1975) theory and research on learned helplessness have probably been more influential than any other behavioural approach to depression. Learned helplessness refers to the passive behaviour shown when animals or humans believe that punishment is unavoidable. Learned helplessness is supported by Seligman’s experiments with dogs. Dogs were given inescapable electric shocks. Soon after receiving the first shocks, the dogs seemed to give up and passively accept the painful stimulation. Later, even though the shocks could now be avoided, the dogs stopped trying. Most of them lay in a corner and whined. A control group, which hadn’t received the inescapable shocks, learned the avoidance response relatively easily. From this research it appears that the most important factor in the animals’ behaviour was not the electric shocks, but the failure to learn avoidance. The dogs had learned that they were helpless, so they displayed inappropriate behaviour in the shuttle box and didn’t try to escape. Seligman went on to propose that depression in humans may be due to learned helplessness. For example, stressful situations may be experienced as unavoidable and not under the control of the individual. Although symptoms of

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