Famous Theories of Depression

Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory of Depression

Psychologist Albert Bandura's developed a social cognitive theory of depression, which suggested that people are shaped and influenced by their interactions between behaviors, thoughts and environmental factors. He stated human behavior is largely a product of learning. Bandura emphasized how depressed people’s self concepts are different from those not suffering depression and those depressed tend to hold themselves responsible for every bad thing they had a fixation with self-blame. On the other hand people suffer from depression tend to view success as a triumph caused by outside factors, leading to levels of low self esteem. Due this people with depression usually set their goals too high and then feel hopeless when they don’t reach them. The repeated sense of failure overwhelms their life and leads to cognitive depression. Bandura believes the interaction between the outside world and their low-self esteem is the main cause for depression.

Julian Rotter’s Theory of Depression

Rotter’s theory focuses on the concept of locus of control. The concept of locus of control believes that people feel they can’t alter of affect their situations and they are manipulated and control by external factors. This is referred to as an external locus of control. Rotter believes people who suffer form depression believe they can’t control their situation and circumstances and are controlled by their environment leading to a continuous sense of helplessness and a low self-esteem. Rotter’s theory mainly believes in the sense of helplessness an external locus of control creates and causes in an individual leading to a state of depression.

Aaron Beck’s Theory of Depression

According to Aaron Beck, negative thoughts, generated by dysfunctional beliefs are the primary causes of depressive symptoms. He believes there is a direct relationship between the amount of negative thoughts someone has and the severity of their depressive symptoms. He strongly suggests the more negative thoughts someone has the more depressed that person will become. Beck also supports the idea that there are three main ways depressed people think

1) I am defective or inadequate

2) All my experiences result in failure

3) The future has no hope

The three of these thinking styles combined make up the Negative Cognitive Triad. Beck states that when these three beliefs are present depression most likely will occur. The negative trias beliefs lead to a sense of self-helplessness and self-failure, which dominates in a depressed persons state of mind. Beck also believes this thinking style makes depressed people focus more on the negative aspects of their reality to confirm their “failure”. Beck concludes that negative thinking style leads to negative lifestyle and self-helplessness, which dominates cognitive depression and blocks out any positive vibes.

Martin Seligman Theory of Depression

Martin Seligman accidentally discovered an unexpected relationship between human depression and dogs, while studying learning in dogs and fear. Seligman studied what happened when a dog was allowed to escape shock from a designated area, during the second part of his experiment Seligman positioned the conditioned dog into a box with two compartments divided by a low fence. Even though the dog could easily jump the fence, the dog lay down when the shock was being administered. The conditioned dog had learned that trying to escape the shocks was useless and learned to be “helpless”. This experiment form Seligman’s theory of learned helplessness, which was extended to human in order to explain depression. Seligman believes depressed people have learned to be helpless and depressed and feel they have no control over their environment, just like the dog had no control over the shocks. Seligman also concluded that depressed people tend to have a more pessimistic thinking style which leads to a predominating negative aura in your life. Seligman states that prolonged exposure to negative experiences contributes to a pessimistic thinking style and eventually depression.

Source:http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=13008&cn=5