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The vulnerability of the human psyche is a phenomenon that has intrigued psychologists and human beings in general for thousands of years. The causes for disturbances in people’s emotional and behavioral state have also been explored by many different people throughout history. One of the most common abnormal mental states is depression in which a person finds itself trapped in negative situations that lead to the loss of hope in life. This loss of hope can be defined by learned helplessness. Learned helplessness is a condition of a human being or animal in which it has learned to behave helplessly, even when the opportunity is presented for it to restore itself. This condition basically describes how the depressed person feels. The different causes for being in this condition have been outlined by psychologists. One of them, known as the cognitive theory of depression states that people become depressed because of a negative view they possess of themselves. Depression is learned by people and it is reinforced because there is no positive aspects that will decrease those thoughts. Cognitive factors that cause depression are mostly having a low self-esteem and being constantly pessimistic about everyday situations. Psychologists have concluded that depressed people whose causes are closely linked to cognitive factors have deficient social skills.
This cognitive theory of depression can be linked to the idea previously presented of learned helplessness. When a person perceives information through his senses and later processes them in their mind, cognition is coming into play. When the perception of oneself is negative and degraded, this person reaches a point where they think that they have a myriad of faults and defects that they cannot change. For example, a person who gets a bad grade in a test may think that he is dumb and he will never be able to get a good grade. Therefore, he stops trying and no longer studies for other tests because he thinks his efforts are useless. This incursion into a learned helplessness state presents great probabilities that the person will eventually become depressed. Another example is when a guy is trying to flirt with a girl and get attention from the opposite sex. Constant rejection may lead him to think that he is ugly and he is not cool enough for girls to pay attention to him. He will eventually stop talking to women and will renounce to not having a girlfriend or a date. This lowers his self-esteem and this even reflected in other activities he does, following the pattern of learned helplessness. This degrading of his view of himself may also eventually lead to depression.

Depression Picture

Cognitive Theory of Depression

The Cognitive Theory of Depression basically states that the causes of depression are the negative view of oneself. They see themselves as worthless, defficient, unlovable and find in themsleves any possible defect. These people feel hopeless and cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. This hopelessness and misery ultimately leads to depression and in worst cases, to wanding to end your life. There are many different cognitive factors that have been identified in psychology.

These factors are: Self-evaluation in which we evaluate how we manage life taskts and whether we are doing what we should in the way we should and when people are depressed, they tend to blame themselves for everything that is wrong. Identification of Skill Deficits is when we point out our defects and the things we do wrong. People who are depressed have distorted perceptions about what they can't do and they accept the fact that they will never change and become better. Evaluation of Life Experiences occurs in a depressed person in the form of attributing negative thoughs and feeling to what used to be a rather positive events. Self-talk is when we talk to ourselves about the things that happen to us and the different situations we see ourselves in. When this talk is constantly putting you down and being negative, this may lead to depression. Automatic thoughts are self statements and opinions that are mad quickly without realistically evaluating situations. Having these be negative may also lead to a depressed state. Irrational ideas and beliefs, overgeneralizing or catastrophizing, cognitive distortions and pessimistic thinking are also activities that humans perform in their mind which constitute cognitive factors. A combination of these factors create a low self-esteem and a helplessness state that ultimately leads to depression and even suicide.
Source:
http://www.psychologyinfo.com/depression/cognitive.htm

Environmental Theory of Depression

The Environmental theory of depression states that the causes for this disorder are outside of ourselves. They are not genetic or linked to malfunctions or imbalances in the brain. These things that will cause depression are events that occur in our lives with the people that sorround us. They are sometimes referred to as sociological factors because they concern the outside world. The reason that these factors cause depreesion is demostrated by the fact that it has been proven that outside influences affect our inner state of mind. The things that happen with the outside world take a toll on our behavior and emotions. If the situations that sorround us are negative, it is most likely that this may lead to clinical depression.

The main environmental factors are stress at home or the office, traumatic events and childhood difficulties. The role that stress plays in the existence of depression can be understood by the concept of learned helplessness. When people experience chronic or repeated stressful events, they learn to feel helpless. This feeling of helplessness is strengthened when a person believes he or she has no control over the stressful situation. Traumatic events cause depression because they take away a sense of control and cause great emotional upheaval. Events like losing a loved one, divorce, medical illnessess and losing everything to a natural disaster upset the emotions of a person to a point where they may lose touch with the people around them and have a difficulty to reach out to others. This isolation is an obvious alert of possible depression. Difficulties that have been nurtured since childhood are also environmental factors that may cause depression. These difficulties may include sexual or physical abuse, a turbulent upbringing, separation from a parent, or mental illness in a parent. The reason these are linked to depression are because these kids have more difficulty adjusting to change and managing their emotions.
In any case, environmental factors are proven to be great catalysts of depression.
Sources
http://www.allaboutdepression.com/cau_04.html

Biological Theory of Depression

The Biological Theory states that the cause of depression is a biological one in which there is a shortage of Noradrenaline and Serotonin in the synaptic clepts of neurons in the brain. The study of imbalances of Serotonin is more common that that of other neurotransmitters. However, studies show that there is not only a decrease in these chemicals, but an imbalance in the regulatory patterns and consequent overactivity of certain transmitters in some areas in the brain. A molecular and cellular theory of depression states that stress causes vulnerability and the therapeutic action of antidepressant treatments occur via intracellular mechanisms that decrease or increase, respectively, the neurotrophic factors necessary for the survival and function of particular neurons.

Proof of the validity of the Biological theory of depression lie in the biological alterations that accompany depression. The corticosteroid overdrive and noradrenergic hyperactivity present in depression may impair the normal functions of the immune system. A correlation between depression and coronary heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and stroke has been established by a theory called the macrophage theory of depression. The most obvious proof of the Biological theory of depression is the aleviation that comes from taking antidepressants that try to minimize imbalances and other biological problems that are thought to cause depression.
Sources
http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9514270215/html/x294.html