Causes of Depression

Causes of Depression

Ivelisse Ruiz

PSY 3002

Caused of Depression

Capella University

September, 2013

Introduction

To understand depression one has to know the meaning of it. Society believes that depression is something that teenagers develop and hold to until their adult years. Although that may be true it’s deeper than that. Depression is not just feeling down, blue, or even just a state of mind. Depression is defined as a physical change in the brain. (Elder, B, C& Mosack, V. 2011). Depression and the brain are connected by the imbalance of hormones that act like a chemical, which signals to the brain and nerves.

In the past unit, students were asked to participate in a debate about depression. We were asked to choose between two perspectives. One was the biological perspective, and the second one was the cognitive perspective. The perspective that was chosen was the biological perspective because the thought process was that depression is caused by or based on hormones and heredity. The truth is, depression can also be based on individual circumstances, history, environments, ect. This paper will discuss different causes of depression, for both biological and cognitive perspectives, and show that together they are both contributors to depression.

Genetics

Researchers say that biological elements play a significant role in depression. For example immediate family members of people who had depressive disorders were found vulnerable to depression in their life, like a set of twins. According to studies done with twins, there has been shown to be an increased risk