The psychological approach

This model, sometimes called the cognitive
approach, holds that many forms of psychopathology are best understood
by studying the mind. Some psychologists within this tradition believe
that the most important aspect of the mind is the unconscious. The Austrian
psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed that many forms of
psychopathology are due to intense conflicts of which the person is unaware
but which, nevertheless, produce symptoms of disorders.
Many psychological disorders are associated with obvious problems in
thinking. Schizophrenics, people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
(ADHD), and those who suffer from depression all show difficulties in
concentration. Memory problems are central in people who develop amnesia
in response to psychological trauma. People who are paranoid show
abnormalities in the way they interpret the behavior of others. Indeed, it is
difficult to find examples of psychopathology in which thinking is not disordered
in some way, be it mild or severe. Within the cognitive approach, depression
is one of the disorders that receives the most attention. People who
are depressed often show problems in emotion (feeling sad), behavior
(withdrawing from people), and thinking. The cognitive formulation assumes
that thinking is central, specifically the way depressed people think
about the world, themselves, and the future. Dysfunctional thinking is believed
to give rise to the other aspects of depression. Most of the research in
the field of psychopathology derives from the cognitive perspective. One of
the major challenges to this approach is determining whether thinking patterns
cause disorders or whether they are aspects of disorders that, themselves,
are caused by nonpsychological factors. For example, depressed people
have a pessimistic view of their futures. Does pessimism figure into the
cause of the depression, or might depression be caused by biological factors
and pessimism is just one of the symptoms of depression?