Psychology involves studying the behavior, mental operations, and performance of people. Studying psychology is important as it allows people to gain better understanding of their minds and body and how the two work together. Understanding one’s mind can be especially useful in solving issues of stress, depression, and help with decision-making. The result is that one can experience better health especially with individuals that are suffering from mental illness. While psychology can be used to understand others and provide assistance, it can also be used to understand oneself better and tackle daily challenges better. The study of psychology is expected to enhance my life by enabling me to handle depression better.
Topic of Depression
The topic that has been chosen for the analysis and synthesis of psychological concepts is depression. I have chosen the topic because I find myself facing several challenges with depression from time to time. In the past, I have found myself in depressive situations and have been unable to handle it well. Different events in my life can trigger depression. I have especially found that events where I experience stress and conflict with friends or family have always resulted in depression. For instance, I had to work under pressure and a stressful environment in my place of work and found that it resulted in severe consequences on my psychological wellbeing. I felt inadequate when I felt that I could not handle the work adequately and this resulted in depression. Every time I experience conflicts with another person makes me unrealistically sad and would feel worthless especially when I am insulted. Learning about depression in applied psychology would provide a better understanding about how depression occurs and how to manage it.
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The study of depression showed that it has symptoms that include having an an unrealistic sadness and feeling worthless. Some of the symptoms that were found to be associated with depression include loss of interest, decreased energy, feeling that one is inadequate, poor appetite, and having a negative attitude (Kirsh, Duffy, & Atwater, 2014). Other symptoms of depression can involve the inability to function well both at work or home and the result is periods of hospitalization. Learning and understanding these symptoms provided a way to understand when one can be depressed and when to seek psychiatric assistance to help manage depression.
Another type of mental health that was studied was posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This is a severe anxiety disorder that is usually characterized by symptoms of avoidance and anxiety resulting from a past physical or sexually stressful event. The effects of PTSD were identified to be characterized by symptoms of immense fear, depression, flashbacks, and nightmares (Kirsh, Duffy, & Atwater, 2014). I had a difficult childhood where I was involved in a horrific car accident and the lesson regarding PTSD taught me that I could be suffering from one of its symptoms. This prompted me to further seek medical attention whenever I face depressive incidents characterized by flashbacks and intense fear.
Stress and Depression
The poor management of stress can be a pathway to depression. Mackin et al., (2019) analyzed the neural vulnerability factors in life stressed and the effect it has on depression. 467 never-depressed adolescent girls were investigated by having negative life events assessed and a total life stress index was examined. The results from the study showed that there was a follow-up depression as a result of life stress. Neural processing reward was also found to play a role in depression behaviors. The analysis of the article showed that stress can result in depression behavior. It is thus important for people that experience elevated levels of stress to seek psychiatric help. This would be useful as any experiences with stress either at work, school, or at home should be considered with utmost serious by seeking psychiatric help in order to prevent depressive behaviors.
Cognitive Therapy
The study of depression established that there are alternative approaches to treat depression such as cognitive therapy. Acute-phase cognitive therapy was studied to determine whether it is an efficacious treatment for major depressive disorder. The researchers identified that it produced benefits that is related to pharmacotherapy. However, there was a need to be able to detect early symptom changes for recurrent depression so as to determine whether therapy works or not. 679 participants facing symptoms of depression were analyzed to determine the effectiveness of cognitive therapy by observing their early symptoms. The results from the state showed that the nonresponse rate was 45.7% while the remission rate was 33.4%. The results of the study showed early symptom changes can be used to predict the effectiveness of cognitive therapy (Vittengl et al., 2019).
The results from the study provided a method that can be used to treat depression through self-improvement. Cognitive therapy is a behavioral training tool that can be used to change one’s basic thoughts and emotional patterns. Cognitive therapy is a well-established treatment that have benefits similar to the use of anti-depressant medications. When considering treatment with the use of cognitive therapy, the first step will involve learning about the cognitive therapy techniques in order to implement them. When faced with situations that can be considered depressive one can use the different techniques that have been learned.
Self-System Therapy
One of the other techniques that can be used to help with depression is self-system therapy. This is also a self-improvement technique (SST) that can be considered similar to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Eddington et al. (2015) analyzed the difference between CBT and SST and in order to determine the predictors of symptom improvement. From the study, 49 adults that did not take antidepressant medication used CBT and SST treatment and their symptoms were later analyzed. The self-system therapy is based on self-regulation and can include an ongoing process of analyzing and evaluating one’s goals. Various variables of promotion, prevention, focus, goal disengagement and engagement were analyzed. The results from the study showed that both CBT and SST techniques were effective in improving symptoms of depression and anxiety. The study showed that patients that had a low-goal reengagement realized better outcomes with SST while patients that had a high-prevention focus experienced better outcomes with CBT. The analysis of the results showed that SST was a short-term treatment that could be effective for patients that had self-regulatory deficits.
SST was identified as a practical self-therapy technique that would be useful when facing problems with depression due to promotional-type goals. When facing stress and may be depression as a result of a stress work environment, SST will be used to relieve the symptoms of depression. The treatment will work by increasing promotion-focused behavior through the use of psychoeducation, conducting situation and belief analysis, and moving towards a newer view of self. The technique will be especially helpful in situation where I may be feeling worthless.
In conclusion, learning about applied psychology will be applied in my life to enhance my understanding about depression, its symptoms, and various techniques that can be used to reduce the symptoms of depression. Learning about the symptoms of depression provided a better understanding regarding when I could be experiencing such symptoms necessitating me to seek professional help. Learning various behavioral techniques such as cognitive therapy and self-therapy technique could be applied to ease symptoms of depression.
References
Eddington, K. M., Silvia, P. J., Foxworth, T. E., Hoet, A., & Kwapil, T. R. (2015). Motivational deficits differentially predict improvement in a randomized trial of self-system therapy for depression. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 83 (3), 602.
Kirsh, S. J., Duffy, K. G., & Atwater, E. (2014). Psychology for Living: Adjustment, Growth, and Behavior Today . Pearson.
Mackin, D. M., Kotov, R., Perlman, G., Nelson, B. D., Goldstein, B. L., Hajcak, G., & Klein, D. N. (2019). Reward processing and future life stress: Stress generation pathway to depression. Journal of abnormal psychology , 128 (4), 305.
Vittengl, J. R., Clark, L. A., Thase, M. E., & Jarrett, R. B. (2019). Estimating outcome probabilities from early symptom changes in cognitive therapy for recurrent depression. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology , 87 (6), 510.
