Explain Beck's cognitive theory of depression. What is the cognitive triad? Give examples of the different types of cognitive errors

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Aaron T. Beck suggested that depression may result from a tendency to interpret everyday events in a negative way. According to Beck, people with depression make the worst of everything; for them, the smallest setbacks are major catastrophes. In his extensive clinical work, Beck observed that all of his depressed patients thought this way, and he began classifying the types of "cognitive errors" that characterized this style. From the long list he compiled, two representative examples are arbitrary inference and overgeneralization. Arbitrary inference is evident when a depressed individual emphasizes the negative rather than the positive aspects of a situation. According to Beck, people who are depressed think like this all the time. They make cognitive errors in thinking negatively about themselves, their immediate world, and their future, three areas that together form the depressive cognitive triad.
Arbitrary inference is evident when a depressed individual emphasizes the negative rather than the positive aspects of a situation. A high school teacher may assume he is a terrible instructor because two students in his class fell asleep. He fails to consider other reasons they might be sleeping (up all night partying, perhaps) and "infers" that his teaching style is at fault. As an example of overgeneralization, when your professor makes one critical remark on your paper, you then assume you will fail the class despite a long string of positive comments and good grades on other papers. You are overgeneralizing from one small remark.