Occurrence of distress Essay Example for Free

Occurrence of distress Essay According to Bandura (1976), depression arises from frightful events that are anticipated rather than those that have occurred or are occurring. Hence, any person’s solution to depression is to plan in advance so that the events that occur are taken to be normal, with no adverse impacts. In much the same way, Beck’s theory highlights the future as a cause of anxiety among individuals. Beck (1971) noted that individuals who look at the future with diminished hope are likely to achieve little in their lives and live under perpetual fear. In addition, such individuals are prone to committing errors in their work and are full of negative beliefs about whatever they do. Random thoughts and distortion of thinking In relation to Bandura’s social cognitive theory, people act the way they do because of the patterns of thought and emotional reactions that they develop. Hence, the ability to tackle distressing events skillfully is vital in fending off conditions of depression. Bandura (2006) opined that random thoughts could make people to perceive some tasks to be too tedious, while the same thoughts can also make some people develop an urge to take more diverse and difficult tasks. Therefore, people’s performance in various tasks depends on how well their pattern of thought functions. This pattern of thought is nothing but the organization of the mind at any time in readiness for work. Bandura noted that individuals who are well prepared to work accomplish their tasks fast and derive much satisfaction. The converse is true for individuals who lack vigor and are always outdone by difficult situations. Seemingly supporting Bandura’s idea is a point in the description of Beck’s theory, which says that people usually have schemas of distress in their mind albeit in a latent state. Hence, if an individual if provoked, the schema becomes engaged and the person becomes irritated. Nevertheless, the level of irritation or depression depends on the character of the person involved. In this perspective, Beck (1979) noted that depression is usually a systematic dysfunction of the mind that leads to the development of negative opinions about oneself, other people or the environments, and the future. Further distortion of thinking hinders proper development of concepts in the mind and leads to depression. Comparing the two theories with reference to depression, it is notable that distress or depression arises among people because of failure to properly coordinate the faculties of their minds. Whilst adults are more affected by depression, both theories recommend that training children to overcome depression should be done early enough in order to avoid future occurrences of the problem. Inasmuch as the triads used as models for Bandura’s Cognitive Theory and Beck’s Cognitive Theory have different constituents, the arguments and illustrations to elucidate both theories seem to be unified in the context of behavior, personality, character and so on. Nonetheless, the two theories still portray differences, which are discussed in the next sessions.