Preview

Psychology Notes

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2053 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Psychology Notes
Depression Revision

EXPLANATIONS OF DEPRESSION

BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS

* GENETICS (McGuffin & Kendler) * BIOCHEMICAL FACTORS (Amine Hypothesis)

PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS

- PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORIES (Freud)
- COGNITIVE BEHAVIOURAL THEORY (Seligman & Maier) – Learned Helplessness and Attributional style
- BEHAVIOURAL THEORY (Lewinsohn)
-COGNITIVE THEORY (Beck)

THERAPIES FOR DEPRESSIONS

BIOLOGICAL THERAPIES

* DRUGS (Monoamine-oxidase inhibitors & Tricyclic etc.) * ECT

PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPIES

* CBT (done by Beck) * PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPY (Freud’s dream analysis etc. & IPT)

BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF DEPRESSION

Genetics

McGuffin = Found that MZ twins (identical) if one has unipolar depression the chances are 46% the other twin getting it as well. This stat is 60% in bipolar disorder.

Kendler = Idea of genetic predisposition to stress which was part of the DIATHESIS STRESS MODEL. VIRGINIA TWIN STUDY. When faced with negative life events if you had a twin with depression you were much more likely to become depressed yourself than a set of twins where neither of them were depressed.

* It could be that social learning theory is an explanation for depression and not genetics because commonly families live around each other so it could be this way in which depression is caused. * Reductionist theory (too simple) * Nature vs. Nurture (it is impossible to change the way you are)

Biochemical

Amine Hypothesis = It is suggested that a cause of depression is low levels of certain Monoamine Neurotransmitters such as SEROTONIN, NORADRENALINE AND DOPAMINE. The Biochemical explanation states that use of drugs such as MAOI’S and Serotonin prevents the reuptake thus causing the neurotransmitters to continue along the nerve pathway preventing depression.

+ Evidence shows these drugs to be effective to a certain extent.
_ They target the effects not the cause
- They are extremely reductionist ideas

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Psych 101 Study Notes

    • 2199 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Avoiding physical punishment is to ________ morality as respecting the laws of society is to ________ morality.…

    • 2199 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    between being depressed, happy, sad, and even to regulate normal. This paper will evaluate the three…

    • 1375 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Biological explanation of depression can be explained by neurotransmitter dysfunction. Neurotransmitters such as noradrenalin and serotonin have been shown to be linked with depression.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    It is without question that DNA is the building blocks of any human being, recent studies have found that your genetic makup has a significant impact on how a person responds to stress, which can make certain people susceptible to mental illness, most notably depression. (Srijan Sen, 2011) It is believed that your DNA allows for a range of possible characteristics and tendencies that is then determined by your environment and daily activities. This last point of course leads to the heart of the controversy between genetic predisposition and environmental triggers, and which is more prominent. A study released by Livesley in 1993 is a perfect example of the attempt to link genetic predisposition strongly to mental illness and found that Narcissistic Personality Disorder had a 64% heritability rate. This study however was widely criticized as to having no consistency with its chosen participants and also failed to mention if any of the participants or their parents had a personality disorder. Due to these external variables, it was believed that the margin of error was too significant for the studies findings to hold any real merit in presenting a strong link between genetic predisposition and NPD in particular.…

    • 914 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ap Psych Notes

    • 3461 Words
    • 14 Pages

    someone at a computer analyzing data on whether adopted teens’ temperaments more closely resemble those of their adoptive/biological parents…

    • 3461 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Another explanation is a genetic problem. Through many family studies Gershon states there is a clear inheritable component to depression, especially in bipolar disorder. Weisseman et al supports this by saying that for if a child has a parent with depression, the risk of the child having depression is increased by three times compared to the general population. This is a strong finding but as the children share the same environment as their parents, there is a possibility that the child has learnt the behaviour through the social learning theory of imitating and observing and…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The third factor is biochemistry. Neurotransmitters are thought to be out of balance in the nervous system of individuals with certain psychological disorders. For example schizophrenia has been associated with an excess of activity in the neurotransmitter dopamine. Depression has been associated with decreased availability of serotonin.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Serotonin acts as a neurotransmitter, a type of chemical that helps relay signals from one area of the brain to another. (Bouchez, 2007) In depressed brains, the Serotonin signal had been somehow weakened because of a chemical imbalance in the neurotransmitters. (Mukherjee, 2012) Low Serotonin levels are often attributed to anxiety, depression, panic attacks, insomnia, obesity, eating disorders, migraines, and alcohol abuse.(Integrative Psychiatry, 2012)Treatment for increasing levels of Serotonin in the brain are medication like Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil. These medications are known to work by making more serotonin in the brain. (Carver, 2002) If we have too much Serotonin you will have this feeling of bliss and it can also produce a life threatening condition known as Serotonin Syndrome. To date there have been no recorded or documented studies proving that the brain levels…

    • 906 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Evidence most commonly used to prove that genes play a big role in autism; twin case studies are always used. Fraternal dizygotic twins have 50% genetic similarity, whereas identical monozygotic twins have 100% genetic similarity. MZ twins were most likely to get autism. Riveo et al studied 40 twin pairs for autistic symptoms. 23 pairs were MZ - identical and 17 were DZ – non-identical. He then concluded his results to find that 22 out of the 23 MZ twins had a 96% concordance and the DZ had a 23% concordance. This provides strong proof for genetics, as it shows that it plays a big role in autism.…

    • 723 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Carey, B. (2008, November 10). In a Novel Theory of Mental Disorders, Parents ' Genes Are in Competion. The New York Times Research.…

    • 1473 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    The biological approach is based on the idea that depression has a physical or organic cause. One explanation suggests that some people are simply more genetically inclined to develop depression, as Hecimovic suggested that it was caused by a mutation in the 5-HTT gene, which was responsible for coding for serotonin production, and that this mutation is inherited. Family studies, twin studies and adoption studies have all helped support the role of genetics in the development of depression. Gershon found that if a parent of a child had depression , that the child was then 2-3 times more likely to suffer from the disorder themselves. Twin studies, conducted by McGuffin found that the concordance rate of twins varied, depending if they were monozygotic or dizygotic. If depression is linked to depression, then it would be expected that MZ twins have higher concordance rates as they share 100% of the genetic information. He found that MZ twins had a concordance rate of 46%, while DZ twins had a concordance of only 20%. Lastly, twin studies done by Wegner found that children are 8 times more likely to develop depression if their biological parent also suffered than if their adoptive parent did, suggesting that depression is greater influenced by genetics rather than environmental factors.…

    • 738 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trimarchi, Maria. "Are mental illnesses genetic?." http://science.howstuffworks.com. How Stuff Works, 2012. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. .…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The two primary biological factors that have been explored are derived from genetics and hormone theories. The X-link hypothesis states that the genetics material that predisposes an individual for depression is located on the X chromosomes. Consequently, women have a larger chance of receiving a depression-prone X chromosome than men and all daughters of a depressed father and non-depressed mother should be depressed (Ernest and William 543). As a result, men just have few effects according to the genetics theory.…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    For years there has been an ongoing debate of nature versus nurture. Nature refers to genetics, inheritance and genes, and nurture refers to characteristics shaped by one’s environmental influences. For the purpose of this paper, the development of depression will be researched in terms of the nature versus nurture debate. Studies show that while some people are genetically predisposed to mood disorders, many people develop them through environmental factors. However, a different study looked at the relationship and interaction of nature and nurture. Therefore, the development of depression can not be pinpointed to one just one specific cause; it can be developed through genetics, environmental influences, or a mixture of both.…

    • 818 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The brain; whether of a human or an animal is an intricate piece of work. The human race has learned much about how it works and its functions yet at the same time know nothing about it as a whole. To understand fully the effect that anti-depressant medications have on the brain, one must first have some background knowledge in what is known about the brain and how it functions. It is common knowledge that the brain affects a person’s behavior, but how? Along with postsynaptic potentials; excitatory (when the voltage inside the cell becomes positively charged) and inhibitory (when the voltage inside the cell becomes negatively charged), synaptic transmissions and receptors play a role in producing and regulating one’s behavior (Sahley, 2002).…

    • 1340 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays