An Overview Of Beck's Cognitive Theory Of Depression In Contemporary Literature

Beck's Cognitive Theory of Depression Features Underlying Dysfunctional Beliefs

Beck's main argument was that depression was instituted by one's view of oneself, instead of one having a negative view of oneself due to depression. This has large social implications of how we as a group perceive each other and relate our dissatisfactions with one another. Abela and D'Alessandro's (2002) study on college admissions is a good example of this phenomenon. In their study they found that the student's negative views about their future strongly controlled the interaction between dysfunctional attitudes and the increase in depressed mood. The research clearly backed up Beck's claim that those at risk for depression due to dysfunctional attitudes who did not get into their college of choice then doubted their futures, and these thoughts lead to symptoms of depression. Therefore, the students' self-perceptions became negative after failing to get into college, and many showed signs of depression due to this thinking. Other aspects of this study did not match up well with Beck. They elaborate: "As for participants' more enduring mood reactions, our findings are incongruent with Beck's...theory.... Therefore, one possible explanation of discrepancies between these studies is that immediately following the occurrence of a negative event, cognitively vulnerable individuals show marked increases in depressed mood. At the same time, the do not yet exhibit increases in other symptoms of depression.... However, in vulnerable individuals…such depressed mood may be to be accompanied by a host of other depressive symptoms.... Their level of depressed mood, however, was simply not more severe than individuals who did not possess dysfunctional attitudes" (Abela & D'Allesandro, 2002, p.122). What occurred is that the requirements, according to Beck, for depressive symptoms were there but they did not occur regardless. Findings like this show that Beck's theory may not be as complete as we would like, and there is likely to be factors which are unaccounted for in play in situations like this.

Another study, which was performed on Beck's Theory, was Sato and McCann's (2000) study on the Beck sociotropy-autonomy scale. The scale had originally meant to identify self-feelings that would lead to depression, mainly solitude/interpersonal insensitivity, independence, and individualistic achievement. However, the results of the study showed that the independence did not correlate with depression, and the sociotropy, not autonomy was a precursor of depression. As they described, "sociotropy can be characterized by an individual's emphasis on interpersonal interactions involving intimacy, sharing, empathy, understanding, approval, affection, protection, guidance, and help…tend to place importance on seeking approval from others and on trying to avoid disapproval from others as much as possible." (Sato, & McCann, 2000, p.66) So it is seen that a strong correlation with sociotropy and depression was found, which is a trait that is strong when relating to underlying thoughts and emotions. This support for cognitively caused depression is an interesting use of Beck's Theory.

Moilanen's (1995) study of adolescent depression also attempts to validate Beck's theory in a new way, as Beck worked mostly with adults. Indeed, she found that the student's depression was often associated with dysfunctional beliefs and negative future attitudes. She suggests that the cognitive theory has reasonable validity for describing the symptoms of depression for nonreferred adolescents, and that the subject's depression is closely correlated with his or her ability to deal with dysfunctional attitudes and beliefs, as well as doubt towards the future. Her findings may not sound truly convincing, because she did find some discrepancies: "However, the results of this study were not entirely consistent with Beck's theory, particularly the proposition that a predominantly negative self-schema underlies the information processing of depressed individuals." (Moilanen, 1995, p.440) We see how perhaps, at least in adolescents, the idea of the negative self-schema is not a clear as Beck wishes it to be.

An earlier study by Molianen (1993) showed even stronger results when evaluating college students. This study showed much more clearer results: "In support of Beck's cognitive theory of depression, the student's current depressive states were consistently found to be related to their negative processing of personal information" (Moilanen, 1993, p.345). The students' cognitive thoughts were shown to be affecting them, and as a result they developed symptoms of depression. Molianen, impressed by the findings, seems to suggest that Beck's theory should be used in further research in the college student population and how depressed students are treated, as counselors and therapists would do well to closely look at a student's cognitive thoughts as a way of assisting the student in recovery. These results are positive, because there is enough evidence for Molianen to suggest a cognitive treatment for depression via Beck's Theory. Molianen's work with Beck's Theory is no doubt a welcome look at cognitive thinking.

Beck's Negative Cognitive Triad

Another way to look at these cognitive thoughts is through Beck's Negative Cognitive Triad, which explains that negative thoughts are about the self, the world, and the future. For example, in a study done by Brown et al (1995) they centered their focus on college students receiving poor exam scores. Brown reported, "The results suggested that a specific construct measured by the DAS…interacted with a congruent stressor (poorer than expected performance on a college exam) to predict increases in depressive symptoms." (Brown et al., 1995, p.434) In this study we would say that the students are having negative thoughts about their future, because they may not pass the class. Negative thoughts about the world, meaning they may come to believe they do not enjoy the class. And finally negative thoughts about themselves, as in they do not deserve to be in college.

The Beck Depression Inventory

A study done by Boury et al. (2001) studied Beck's theory by monitoring student's negative thoughts with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). They gave an overview of Beck's ideas: "Individuals who are depressed misinterpret facts and experiences in a negative fashion, limiting their focus to the negative aspects of situations, thus feeling hopeless about the future.