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Define Beck's Model of Depression

American Psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck's model of depression proposes that individuals develop negative belief systems, called schemas, which cause the person to develop a negative view of themselves, the world and the future.

  1. Negative Schemas

    • Aaron T. Beck's basic assumption about depression is that depressed individuals develop negative schemas, or belief systems early in life. These belief systems develop from early negative experiences and lead to dysfunctional beliefs about the world.

    Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs)

    • Negative schemas about the world lead to negative automatic thoughts (NATs). These automatic thoughts are involuntary and are often interpreted as being true by the depressed individual. This process often leads to more NATs.

    Negative Triad

    • Negative schema are generally focused into 3 areas that Beck called the negative triad. These areas are negative views of the self, the world and the future. The "world" refers to a person's view that they cannot deal with the demands of their environment.

    Types of Cognitive Biases

    • Beck's depression model proposes that depressed individuals have negative cognitive biases or negative ways they view events. Some of these include arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization and magnification or minimization.

    Beck Depression Inventory

    • After developing his model of depression, Beck created a self-report inventory with twenty-one questions to determine the severity of the depression. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) has been revised several times since its development, with the current version used on individuals 13 and up.

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