Diathesis Stress Models of Depression

At the previous post, I already mentioning a bit about Diathesis Stress Models. Diathesis for depression can take the form of psychological vulnerability involves a style of thinking that tends to depression , which is characterized by a tendency to exaggerate the consequences of negative events , stacking faults in yourself , and perceive themselves as helpless to accept the impact of positive change . This cognitive diathesis may increase the risk of depression when faced with negatives life's event. This cognitive influences can also interact with a genetic diathesis -based on increasing the risk of depression is further in the aftermath of stressful life events. The availability of social support from others can help improve a person's resistance to stress during difficult times. People with more effective social skills may be able to collect and maintain social reinforcement from others that are better able to defend against depression than people who lack social skills. However, the biochemical changes in the brain can complicate a person to overcome the problems effectively and bounce back from stressful life events. Biochemical changes and feelings of depression that continues to happen would exacerbate feelings of helplessness, combined with the effects of the initial stressor and so on.

Gender-related differences in coping styles may also come into play. Men and women may respond differently to feelings of depression. According to Nolen - Hoeksema, women are more inclined to contemplate the face of emotional problems, and men are more likely to seek refuge in a bottle ( liquor ). These differences or the other in coping styles may encourage women to periods of depression longer and more severe while in men can form the stages of the development problems associated with liquor.

Attributional Theory

Learned helplessness models put forward the view that people can become depressed because he learned to regard themselves as helpless in controlling reinforcement - reinforcement in the environment or to change lives for the better. The first person who compile theory of powerlessness, Martin Seligman changed the theory of powerlessness within the framework of social psychology on attributional style ( attributional style ). Attributional style is a personal style in explaining something.

When disappointment or failure to appear, we may explain it in a variety of ways that have various characteristics. We can blame ourselves ( internal attribution ), or we can blame the situation we are facing ( external attribution ). We can see a bad experience as events inherent with personality characteristics ( stable attribution ) or as separate events ( attribution unstable ). We can see it as evidence of a wider problem ( global attribution ) or as a proof of particular weakness are limited ( specific attribution ). 

There are three types of attribution of the most vulnerable to depression:

1. Internal factors, or the belief that the failure to reflect the personal incompetence, and not external factors, or the belief that failure is caused by environmental factors.

2. Global factors, or the belief that the failure to reflect all errors in personality and not specific factors, or the belief that the failure to reflect the limited area of ability to function.

3. Stable factors, or the belief that the failure to reflect the personality factor that settled and not factors that are unstable, or the belief that the factors that led to the failure of it can be changed.

4. Combined Various Views

Depression and other mood disorders involve a variety of factors that influence each other. Consistent with the diathesis - stress model of depression may reflect an interaction between biological factors, psychological factors, as well as social and environmental stressors.

Stressful life events, such as long idle or divorce, can have a depressing effect by lowering the activity of neurotransmitters in the brain. This biochemical effect is more likely to occur, or more uncertain in people with a certain genetic predisposition, or diathesis for depression.However, a depressive disorder may not be developed, or can develop in a milder form, in people who have the coping resources more effectively to overcome stressful situations. For example, people who receive emotional support from others may be better able to cope with the effects of stress than those who have to deal with it themselves. Similarly, the person on active coping seek to resolve the challenges they face in life. Sociocultural factors can be major sources of stress that affect the development of mood disorders. These factors involve poverty, density, exposure to racism, gender discrimination, and prejudice, violence in the home or in the community, unequal stress burden imposed on women, and family breakdown. These factors are clearly involved in both the trigger mood disorders or be the cause of the recurrence of the disorder.

Psychodynamic Theory in Major Depression

Classical psychodynamic theory about depression from Freud (1917-1957) , believed that depression represents anger directed into oneself and not against those who are loved . Anger can be directed to self after experiencing the actual loss or threat of loss of those who considered this important .

Freud believed that mourning ( grieving ) is a healthy process for the bereaved person can finally detach themselves psychologically from someone who is lost due to death , separation , divorce , or other reasons . However , pathological grief that does not support a healthy separation . However , pathological grief that does not support a healthy separation . Instead , it will foster an endless depression . Pathological grief tends to occur in people who have a strong ambivalent feelings ( a combination of positive feelings ( love ) and negative ( anger, hostility ) ) against those who have gone or feared his departure . Freud theorized that when people feel lost , or even the fear of losing , an important figure of the person to whom they have ambivalent feelings , their angry feelings toward that person turns into extreme anger . However , extreme anger is triggered guilt , which actually prevents them to direct anger directly to people who have gone

To maintain a psychological relationship with the lost object , they use intro-injection , or brought into , a mental representation of the object . They then unite others into the self . Now anger inward , dealing with a part of the self that represents representation in of missing persons . This gives rise to self - hatred , that would cause depression .

Although also stressed the importance of the loss, the latest psychodynamic models focus more on issues related to feelings of self - worth individual will or self - esteem . A model , called the model of self - focusing , consider how people allocate their attentional processes after a loss ( death of loved ones , personal failures , etc) . According to this model , people who are susceptible to depression have a period of self - examination (self - focusing ) intense after the occurrence of a loss or a big disappointment . They become fixated on thoughts about the object ( the loved one ) or missing an important goal and still can not give up hope of somehow a way to get it back .

Humanistic Theory in Major Depression

According to the framework of the humanistic , people become depressed when they can not fill their existence with meaning and can not make choices that produce authentic self -fulfillment. If we think our lives are drab maybe we have prevented the achievement of our need for self - actualization .

Humanistic theorists also focus on the loss of self - esteem that can occur when people have lost a friend or family member , or a decline or loss in jobs . We tend to connect personal identity and sense of self - worth us with our social roles as parents , spouse , student , or worker . If this role is lost identity , through the death of a spouse , the children had gone to college , or the loss of a job , a sense of purpose and self - worth we can be shaken . Depression is a frequent consequence of such loss . Especially if we base our self- esteem on the job role or success . Lost jobs , lower rank , or the failure to achieve a sale is the usual trigger of depression , especially when we are brought up to judge ourselves by the success of the work .