A Level Psychology in Year 1 (AS)

Transcription

1 New to Teaching A Level Psychology in Year 1 (AS) Resources for Courses

2 Jackanory Resources for Courses What s the story Jackanory This resource is a main activity that can be adapted to teach many areas of psychology it involves students completing individual research then using this to feedback to their group. They then use pictures to help to explain what they have just learnt eventually putting the pictures together into a story (which is the study) in this case Beck s Cognitive Triad. Teacher Instructions Sit the students in groups of four. You can either put them in groups based on ability or mix the abilities. Give each student a number from 1-4 with one being the most able. Then tell them they have 10 minutes to make notes on Beck s cognitive triad as an explanation of depression. Each student has different information (provided below) that they need to use to answer the following questions. Tell them that they might not be able to answer all of the questions with the information they have but they should try to answer as many as possible to help their group. 1 What is the principle behind the theory? 2 According to Beck why are people depressed? 3 What are the three parts of his theory? 4 Any evidence to support this? 5 Any evaluation?

3 Jackanory Resources for Courses After the 10 minutes the students return back to their original table and they have a set of pictures that are face down. You get the students to take it in turns, number 1 goes first, and picks up the first picture and has to use their knowledge to explain how this links to Beck s cognitive triad (e.g. a picture of a triangle, this is showing the three parts of Beck s negative triad which are...) there is no right or wrong it is down to the students perception and is to help them develop their explanation. Then the next student takes the next picture and this continues until all of the pictures are used (there are 8, two each) this should take 10 minutes. For the next 10 minutes the students need to put the pictures into an order that could create a story to explain Beck s theory about depression. The pictures can be in any order but they need to have a clear narrative that goes with the order that they have chosen. You then ask the students to take it in turns to share their story with the class.

4 Jackanory activity instructions Part 1 Each take a picture from the pile and explain how this links to Becks cognitive explanation from the research that you have just done. (You all need to take this in turns). Part 2 Now organise the pictures into a story to explain Beck s theory of depression. Stretch yourself!...to get the highest marks try to include some evaluation of this theory, if there is not picture you can create your own on the plain paper. Part 3 Get ready to present your story to the class you might have to do all of it or just one picture so make sure you know what each picture represents.

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8 Aaron Beck noticed that many of his clients who came to see him with depression showed negative thinking patterns. He believed that there were three areas of negative thinking: The cognitive triad, faulty information processing, negative self schemas. He created the cognitive triad (1976)of impairments showing how people with depression have three negative thoughts. The self, the future and the world. This stops them from being able to move forward as they believe there is no point. The self (I am hopeless) The future (nothing will get better) The world (is a horrible place) Beck believed that when people think negatively they feel and act depressed so CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) attempts to identify the negative thoughts and beliefs and alter them.

9 Aaron Beck noticed that many of his clients who came to see him with depression showed negative thinking patterns. He believed that there were three areas of negative thinking: The cognitive triad, faulty information processing, negative self schemas. Cognitive Triad He created the cognitive triad (1976)of impairments showing how people with depression have three negative thoughts. The self, the future and the world. This stops them from being able to move forward as they believe there is no point. Negative view of the self I am incompetent and undeserving Negative view of the world It is a hostile place Depression Negative view of the future problems will not disappesr, there will always be emotional pain Faulty information processing People with depression have distorted thinking. Beck believed that people with depression selectively attend to negative stimuli and ignore positive stimuli. This is one way that their information processing is distorted or faulty. He also believed that one they have attended to this negative information they magnify the event or overgeneralise the information. An example would be a student who receives an essay back from their teacher and has received a C grade. The teacher has praised their description of the theory but has said that there is not enough A02 to gain the higher grades. A person who is depressed believes that they have done everything wrong and that their essay was rubbish as they only process the negative information. Beck believed that this fault in information processing would make an individual prone to becoming depressed and one they are depressed they would struggle to change their negative thinking and cognitions leading to depression. Evaluation Very difficult to establish cause and effect as it is unclear whether the negative thinking causes depression or the depression causes negative thinking. If depression is due to cognitive processes as Beck believed then CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) can be used to treat depression which is a practical application.

10 Aaron Beck noticed that many of his clients who came to see him with depression showed negative thinking patterns. He believed that there were three areas of negative thinking: The cognitive triad, faulty information processing, negative self schemas. Cognitive Triad He created the cognitive triad (1976)of impairments showing how people with depression have three negative thoughts. The self, the future and the world. This stops them from being able to move forward as they believe there is no point. Negative view of the self I am incompetent and undeserving Negative view of the world It is a hostile place Depression Negative view of the future problems will not disappesr, there will always be emotional pain Faulty information processing People with depression have distorted thinking. Beck believed that people with depression selectively attend to negative stimuli and ignore positive stimuli. This is one way that their information processing is distorted or faulty. He also believed that one they have attended to this negative information they magnify the event or overgeneralise the information. Beck believed that this fault in information processing would make an individual prone to becoming depressed and one they are depressed they would struggle to change their negative thinking and cognitions leading to depression.

11 Negative self-schema A schema is a mental representation that helps us to make sense of the world and process information selectively and quickly due to a pre-conceived expectation. A self-schema is the beliefs about the self. As schemas can alter the way that we process information leading us to only process information that fit with the existing schema and ignoring information that does not fit with the schema this can lead to dysfunctional (faulty) processing. If an individual has a negative self-schema then the information that is selected (processed) will be information that matches this schema as this confirms the negative beliefs. This means that they will ignore any contrary (positive) evidence. Key study: Weissman and Beck 1978 AIM to investigate the thought processes of depressed people to establish if they make use of negative schemas. METHOD thought processes were measured using the dysfunctional attitude scale (DAS). Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire by ticking whether they agreed or disagreed with a set of statements. For example, people will probably think less of me if I make a mistake. RESULT they found that depressed participants made more negative assessments than nondepressed people. When given some therapy to challenge and change their negative schemas there was an improvement in their self-ratings. CONCLUSION Depression involves the use of negative schemas.

12 Aaron Beck noticed that many of his clients who came to see him with depression showed negative thinking patterns. He believed that there were three areas of negative thinking: The cognitive triad, faulty information processing, negative self schemas. Cognitive Triad He created the cognitive triad (1976)of impairments showing how people with depression have three negative thoughts. The self, the future and the world. This stops them from being able to move forward as they believe there is no point. Negative view of the self I am incompetent and undeserving Negative view of the world It is a hostile place Depression Negative view of the future problems will not disappesr, there will always be emotional pain Faulty information processing People with depression have distorted thinking. Beck believed that people with depression selectively attend to negative stimuli and ignore positive stimuli. This is one way that their information processing is distorted or faulty. He also believed that one they have attended to this negative information they magnify the event or overgeneralise the information. Beck believed that this fault in information processing would make an individual prone to becoming depressed and one they are depressed they would struggle to change their negative thinking and cognitions leading to depression.

13 Negative self-schema A schema is a mental representation that helps us to make sense of the world and process information selectively and quickly due to a pre-conceived expectation. A self-schema is the beliefs about the self. As schemas can alter the way that we process information leading us to only process information that fit with the existing schema and ignoring information that does not fit with the schema this can lead to dysfunctional (faulty) processing. If an individual has a negative self-schema then the information that is selected (processed) will be information that matches this schema as this confirms the negative beliefs. This means that they will ignore any contrary (positive) evidence. Key study: Weissman and Beck 1978 AIM to investigate the thought processes of depressed people to establish if they make use of negative schemas. METHOD thought processes were measured using the dysfunctional attitude scale (DAS). Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire by ticking whether they agreed or disagreed with a set of statements. For example, people will probably think less of me if I make a mistake. RESULT they found that depressed participants made more negative assessments than nondepressed people. When given some therapy to challenge and change their negative schemas there was an improvement in their self-ratings. CONCLUSION Depression involves the use of negative schemas. Critical life event Beck did not believe that cognitive dysfunction automatically led to depression. He believed that there needed to be a trigger to these events which he called a critical life event. This could be a death of someone close, divorce, losing a job etc. Beck believed that this would trigger dysfunctional thinking and would lead to the triad of negative thinking developing. Evaluation Depressed people undoubtedly have negative thoughts but do the negative thoughts help cause depression, or do they merely occur as a result of being depressed? This approach may succeed in changing the depressed person s thinking, but may not discover the underlying cause of the depression. Past events, which have a powerful influence on the individual, are often neglected. The cognitive explanation cannot account for the physical symptoms of mood disorders. With unipolar these include aches and pains, a lack of energy, palpitations, headaches and stomach upsets. For women there may be menstrual changes. Sleep disturbance is another possible symptom. Sufferers can experience loss of appetite or weight. With bipolar, during the manic phase the sufferer will tend to sleep very little and have increase in energy levels how can irrational thought processes cause these symptoms? The cognitive approach also does not distinguish between the different types of depression (unipolar/bipolar), but gives the same basic explanation.