Beck's cognitive theory of depression

Aaron Beck (1967) suggested a  cognitive approach to explaining why some people are more vulnerable to depression than others; in particular, it is a person's cognitions that create this vulnerability, i.e. the way they think

Fauity information processing: when depressed, we attend to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives - this is sometimes called black-and-white thinking

Negative self-schemas: if we have a negative self-schema, we interpret all information about ourselves in a negative way

The negative triad: a person develops a dysfunctional view of the themselves because of three types of negative thinking that occur automatically: negative views about the world, the future and the self

Evaluation
Strength: supported by research evidence

• Grazioli and…