Depression

1
Depression Learning Theory

• Depression is the result of a persons
  interaction with their environment
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning

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2
Learning Theory Depression

• Learned association between certain stimuli
  negative emotional states
• Removal of positive reinforcement from the
  environment
• Inadvertent reinforcement of depressed behaviour
  by others
• Learned helplessness

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3
Learned Helplessness

• If a person learns that their behaviour makes no
  difference to their aversive environment, they
  may stop trying to escape from aversive stimuli
  even when escape is possible.

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4
Learned Helplessness
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5
Learned Helplessness
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6
Learned Helplessness
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7
Learned Helplessness

• Seligman (1974)
• Dogs subjected to inescapable electric shocks
  later failed to escape from shocks even when it
  was possible to do so
• Maier Seligman (1976)
• People subjected to inescapable noise, insoluble
  problems later gave up trying in similar
  situations, similar to Seligmans dogs

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8
Learned Helplessness

• Learned helplessness does have similarities to
  depressed behaviour in humans
• Findings are inconsistent
• Unexplained gender differences
• Some studies show inescapable situations
  facilitate later escape behaviour
• Helplessness in humans depends a great deal on
  the cognitions people have about their situation

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