PSY20001 Assignment: Comparing Counseling Theories for Depression

This essay examines the application of two prominent counseling theories, Behaviorism and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), in the treatment of major depressive disorder. It begins by defining depression and its impact, then delves into the core principles of behaviorism, including the contributions of Skinner, Bandura, and Lazarus, and how it uses classical and operant conditioning to modify behaviors. The essay then explores CBT, highlighting the work of Ellis, Beck, and Meichenbaum, focusing on how it addresses dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs. A comparative analysis is provided, contrasting the approaches and discussing their respective strengths and limitations in treating depression, supported by relevant literature and research. The essay concludes by offering a critical evaluation of both theories, considering their applicability and effectiveness in the context of reactive depression and other related factors.

Running head: COUNSELING THEORIES
COUNSELING THEORIES
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1COUNSELING THEORIES
While it is common to feel low once in a while, it is certainly a matter of concern when it
is experienced often. Feeling sad most of the time can affect daily life and can lead to major
mental health disorders. Depression is a common however an acute mood disorder. It is a
disorder that affects the way an individual think, feel and perceive their life events and handle
their daily activities (O'Hara & Wisner, 2014). Depression is a condition that can be treated with
regular medicine and appropriate therapy along with making changes in the lifestyle that are
mostly recommended by the therapist. There are different theories and approaches that are used
by psychologist in order to help a person with depression disorder. In this paper, the main aim
will be to discuss the mental disorder, depression and the counseling theory or approaches that
are used by the counselor for the purpose of treating depression.
As per the World health organization, depression is a significant contributor to the global
burden of diseases that is affecting people in all communities across the globe. Depression can be
defined as a common mental disorder that presents with a depressed mood, loss of pleasure or
interest, feeling of guilt, decreased energy or low self-worth, disturbed sleep, disturbed appetite
and poor concentration. It is has been found that depression is mostly associated with the social
anxiety and it comes as its symptoms. The problem of depression can be a chronic or recurrent
and lead to substantial impairment in a person’s ability to take care of her or his everyday
responsibilities. Considering the severe consequences, depression can lead to suicide. According
to researches, in an year approximately 1 million lives are lost due to suicide that is interpreted as
3000 suicides deaths every day (World Health Organization, 2017).
Depression is found in multiple variations that an individual may suffer with most
common distinction being depression in people who possess or do not possess a history of manic
episodes. There are two most common forms of depression found mostly in the general

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population that are Major depression and persistent depressive disorder (Primack et al., 2017).
Major depression is can be defined as the depression that occurs most of the days and in most of
the time of the day for at least 2 weeks. These depressions interfere with the daily work and
causes hindrance in their ability to work for the person suffering from depression. A person
suffering from depression may face difficulty while doing their regular work, sleep, eat and
enjoy life. In a person’s lifetime, there can be an episode only one time however more often a
person has several episodes. In a persistent depressive disorder, the symptoms of depressions
can last for at least 2 years. An individual who is diagnosed with this form of depression, he or
she has the possibility of having episodes of major depression along with periods of less severe
symptoms (Young, Bruno & Pomara, 2014).
There are certain forms of depression which are differ slightly from the major forms of
depression. These kinds of depression are developed under unique circumstances such as
perinatal depression, seasonal depression, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and psychotic
depression. The perinatal depression is often found during pregnancy or after delivery. It is also
known as the postpartum depression. SAD is a form of depression that is seasonal, it comes and
goes with the season. It is associated typically with the late fall and early winter which goes
away by spring and summer. The depression that occurs when a person has severe depression
along with psychotic is called psychotic depression. The psychosis that is mainly associated with
the depression are commonly disturbing false fixed beliefs (Delusions) or seeing or hearing false
fixed beliefs which cannot be seen or heard by another person. This phenomenon is called
hallucination which is a result derived from depression (Dougherty et al., 2015).
There are some of the other types of depressive disorders that involve disruptive mood
dysregulation disorder and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. Depression can also be a single

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phase of bipolar disorder which was known as manic-depression. However an individual with
bipolar disorder also go through extreme high or extreme low moods called mania or less severe
form called hypomania.
The causes of depression have certainly been researched for several years by the
researchers. According to the researchers, a combination of biological, generic, environmental
and psychological factors play the major role in depression. Depression can happen due to some
other reasons as well which are associated with other illness. There are possibilities of illness and
situation that force people go under depression. Diseases such as diabetics, heart diseases and
cancers are some of the disease that makes conditions worse and vice versa. Often the
medications that are taken for the purpose of treating these illnesses may causes side effects
which are major contributors of depression symptoms. Some of the symptoms of depressions
can be elaborated on the large scale. Although feeling sadness is one of the profound symptoms
of depression, there can be some people who may not feel sadness at all. Depression is different
for different people and therefore produces different symptoms in different people. feeling
anxious, hopeless or pessimistic, guilty, worthlessness or helplessness are some of the symptoms
that can be derived from depression. Depression is also causes loss in interest, pleasure or
hobbies. Depression can lead to changes in the physical body where the person suffering from
depression may feel decrease in energy, fatigue or being slowed down, decrease in sleep,
appetite and weight. The severe symptoms of depression are when a person gets the thoughts of
suicide, suicide attempts, self harm or thoughts of death.
Treatment:

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The first step in getting the right treatment is to visit the healthcare providers or mental
health professionals such as psychologists and psychiatrist. There are many theories that are used
in counseling for treatment of the depression. However there will be only two theories that will
be discussed in this paper. The paper will discuss behavioral theory and Cognitive behavioral
theory as the treatment of the depression.
Behaviorism focuses on the significant of the environment in shaping an individual’s
behavior. Behavior therapy is a kind of psychotherapy that mainly focus on changing behaviors
that are undesirable. It is used by following the principles of classical and operant conditioning
that stresses the wanted behavior whiles it eliminates the unwanted behavior. The famous
psychologist B.F Skinner is one of the major contributors of behaviorism who have furthered the
behaviorist perspective (Kay & Kibble, 2016). According to Skinner, the most efficient method
of understanding a behavior is take closer in-depth look into the cause of the action and the
consequences of the action. This was the Skinner’s operant conditioning. The demonstration of
the effect of positive and negative reinforcement on behavior is done through the operant
conditioning. For an example when children are given extra candy for doing their homework on
time, it makes them do their homework on time in order to receive their rewards. Thus, it is a
way of reinforcing a certain behavior. It is also a way of strengthening behavior with positive
reinforcement (Bricker, 2017).
In Social learning theory Albert Bandura posits that people learn mostly from another
people by observing their action, imitating them and modeling them. The theory is often called
as the bridging theory between behaviorist and cognitive learning theory since it consists of
attention, memory and motivation. According to Bandura, most human behavior is learned
behavior that they observe around them. A person forms the idea of the ways a new behavior is

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formed and on a similar situation they model the same behavior. Social learning theory gives
explanation that human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive,
behavioral and environmental influences (Bandura, 2014).
Arnorld Lazarus developed a therapy based on behavioural psychology first which was
later expanded into cognitive behavior therapy and lastly into a multifacet psychotherapy known
as multimodal therapy. Lazarus can be called as the first psychologist who applied deseitization
techniques in order treat phobias in group therapy sessions. He was also the first one to apply
learning theory for the treatment of depression. He was also to initiate the cognitive behavior
theory that uses the patterns to change moods and behaviors (Deaton, 2015).
Altogether with the concept and theory developed by the psychologists over the year,
today behavior therapy is one of the most applicable and most widely used methods of treating
depression. As depression is an acute mental disorder that is largely associated with behavior, it
is one of the most effective treatments for the depression. As discussed above, the focus is on the
observational behavior and the conditions by which an individual start learning behavior.
According to behavior therapy, depression is the result of an individual’s interaction with their
environment.
Depressed people or people with depression become less socially active and therefore,
through these therapy the psychologist target the identified behavior that are the causes of the
depression and implement change in their behavior. For example, losing a loved one is also
losing a significant source of positive reinforcement which leads to inactivity. The prime source
of reinforcement then becomes attention and sympathy of friends and relatives. However, this
behavior has the tendency to reinforcing maladaptive behavior such as weeping, talking suicide

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and complaining. This is the behavior that even alienates close friends followed by increased
social isolation and unhappiness. Therefore, they are in need of behavior change which will help
them change their maladaptive behavior.
Cognitive behavior therapy is a kind of talking therapy that is used to treat people with a
wide range of mental health problems. The father of cognitive-behavioral therapy, Albert Ellis
founded the Rational emotive Behavior Therapy. It is based on the way people are strongly
affected by their emotions which was called irrational beliefs by him. The REBT is a form of
cognitive therapy that was first used for resolving emotional and behavioral problems. The prime
goal of the therapy is to change irrational beliefs to more rational ones. It encourages an
individual to identify their general and irrational beliefs such as the feeling of being perfect,
flawless and many others. REBT subsequently persuades the person challenge the irrational and
false beliefs by testing them in reality. The major aid in cognitive therapy is the ABC therapy.
this include activating event, belief and consequences (Meichenbaum, 2017).
Aaron T. Beck is to some extent similar to Ellis however this therapy is most widely used
in cases of depression. Cognitive therapists help clients to identify and recognize their negative
thoughts in order to fight them. The errors in their thoughts and logics are identified that make
them feel depressed. In the counseling sessions, the therapist guide client’s t question and
challenges their own thoughts which are mostly dysfunctional and help them try new
interpretations and ultimately apply alternative ways of thinking in their regular days (Beck,
Davis & Freeman, 2015).
The contribution of the Donald Meichenbaum was in the cognitive behavioral therapy.
The psychologist developed a therapeutic technique that is called cognitive behavior

7COUNSELING THEORIES
modification (CBM). The main focus of CBM is to identify dysfunctional self-talk in order to
change the undesirable and unwanted behavior. According to his theory, anxiety ridden thought
are the main factor of recovery when a person is suffering from depression. The theory involves
three phase which involves self-observation, staring new self-talk and learn new skill
(Meichenbaum, 2017).
Evaluating the theories from the critical point of view, there are several strengths as well
as weaknesses of the theories. Although these theories make sense considering the terms of
reactive depression, there are certain drawback to these theories. The theories are only applicable
when there are clear identifiable causes of depression. However, when the major problem of the
theory is that of endogenous depression which is not recognized. When there are depression
which have no prominent cause or not easily identifiable. In this situation, the psychodynamic
theory is the main source of understanding depression and treating it accordingly. In this
situation depression is understood in term of introjections of love object loss, inwardly directed
anger, severe super-ego demands, excessive narcissistic, oral and or anal personality or
deprivation of mother child relationship during the first year (Guntrip, 2018). Therefore, the
criticism that goes against the behavioral theories is that they are too simple to treat the complex
depression. They are not efficient in making the most useful result and treatment of the
depression.
Considering the cognitive therapy, the critical evaluation is mainly shows the positive
part of the therapy. The therapy has been found to be more successful than drugs and medicines.
The therapy had shown lower relapse rate and supported the proposition that depression had a
cognitive basis. According to this statement, it can be suggested that the knowledge of the
cognitive explanation has the potential to improve the quality of people’s lives. Looking at the

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limitations of CBT, the precise role of the cognitive role is not yet determined to the fullest. It
has not be clear weather flawed cognitions are only a cause of the psychopathology or only a
consequences of it. Also, the cognitive model is very narrow when its scope is considered.
Thinking is merely a function of human body and therefore, the wider issues need to be
addressed. Lastly, there are ethical issues that are associated with the RET. The therapy aimed at
changing cognitions with force often. Therefore, it may be considered unethical for many of the
responded (Lugmayr et al., 2016).
As discussed above, depression is a common however an acute mood disorder. It is a
disorder that affects the way an individual think, feel and perceive their life events and handle
their daily activities. Depression is a condition that can be treated with regular medicine and
appropriate therapy along with making changes in the lifestyle that are mostly recommended by
the therapist. Depression is found in multiple variations that an individual may suffer with most
common distinction being depression in people who possess or do not possess a history of manic
episodes. Behavioral therapy is a form of therapy that aims to change the undesirable behavior.
The behavioral therapy uses classical and operant conditioning that help in reinforcing wanted
behaviors and eliminate the unwanted behavior. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a type of talking
therapy that let the patient recognizes their flawed perspectives about life and self. They help in
making them try other perspective and overcome the false thinking. the two therapy work well
when they are combined together and help in giving the most efficient result.

9COUNSELING THEORIES
References:
Bandura, A. (2014). Social cognitive theory of moral thought and action. In Handbook of moral
behavior and development(pp. 69-128). Psychology Press.
Beck, A. T., Davis, D. D., & Freeman, A. (Eds.). (2015). Cognitive therapy of personality
disorders. Guilford Publications.
Bricker, W. A. (2017). Identifying and modifying behavioral deficits. In Behavior Therapy with
Children (pp. 103-109). Routledge.
Deaton, S. (2015). Social Learning Theory in the Age of Social Media: Implications for
Educational Practitioners. Journal of Educational Technology, 12(1), 1-6.
Dougherty, D. D., Rezai, A. R., Carpenter, L. L., Howland, R. H., Bhati, M. T., O’Reardon, J. P.,
... & Cusin, C. (2015). A randomized sham-controlled trial of deep brain stimulation of
the ventral capsule/ventral striatum for chronic treatment-resistant depression. Biological
psychiatry, 78(4), 240-248.
Guntrip, H. (2018). Psychoanalytic theory, therapy and the self. Routledge.
Kay, D., & Kibble, J. (2016). Learning theories 101: application to everyday teaching and
scholarship. Advances in physiology education, 40(1), 17-25.
Lugmayr, A., Stockleben, B., Scheib, C., Mailaparampil, M., Mesia, N., & Ranta, H. (2016,
June). A Comprehensive Survey on Big-Data Research and its Implications-What is
Really'New'in Big Data?-IT's Cognitive Big Data!. In PACIS (p. 248).

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Meichenbaum, D. (2017). Changing conceptions of cognitive behavior modification: Retrospect
and prospect. In The Evolution of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (pp. 32-38). Rout
Meichenbaum, D. (2017). Changing conceptions of cognitive behavior modification: Retrospect
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