ABSTRACT
We have already noted Beck's concept of psychopathology as having the nature of a `stress-diathesis' (`stressor-vulnerability') concept. Such a model acknowledges that the aetiology of such complicated human problems as depression is likely to be multi-causal. Multi-causal factors are likely to be many but may be conveniently grouped into two main categories: ®rstly, stressors ± current life events ± that act as triggers for the second set of factors ± connected with underlying vulnerabilities. Having been criticised for overstressing the role of current cognitions (Weishaar, 1993), Beck clari®ed that cognitive factors were only one set of factors in his 1991 paper on depression. According to this paper, underlying factors were likely to include life and socio-economic factors, physiology, health and genetics, as well as the cognitive factors that he had mapped so carefully in his key publications on depression (Beck, 1967; Beck et al., 1979b). He nonetheless argued, and has continued to argue since, that cognitive factors play a lynchpin role in determining the way the depressive reaction unfolds. In the next Point ± 5 ± we will look at another set of underlying factors proposed by Beck: those connected with evolutionary theory. In Points 6±9, we will examine various layers or levels of cognition (core beliefs, assumptions and automatic thoughts) and the way they are involved ± alongside the matter of consideration in this section ± schemas ± in the activation and maintenance of the symptoms of psychopathology.
