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develops interpersonal relationships- a support network and interacts with others- social learning theory can be positive or negative here- having a larger support network helps more as tackles sociocultural aspects, but individual has more emphasis on the therapy and CBT to help cognitive influences.
Neither consider biological

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Cognitive theories rose to prominence in response to the early behaviorists' failure to take thoughts and feelings seriously. The cognitive movement did not reject behavioral principles, however. Rather, the idea behind the cognitive movement was to integrate mental events into the behavioral framework. Cognitive Behavioral theories (sometimes called "cognitive theories") are considered to be "cognitive" because they address mental events such as thinking and feeling. They are called "cognitive behavioral" because they address those mental events in the context of the learning theory that was the basis for the pure behavioral theory described above. The rise in popularity of cognitive behaviorism continues today; it forms the basis of the most dominant and well-research formed of psychotherapy available today: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, or CBT.

Cognitive behavioral theorists suggest that depression results from maladaptive, faulty, or irrational cognitions taking the form of distorted thoughts and judgments. Depressive cognitions can be learned socially (observationally) as is the case when children in a dysfunctional family watch their parents fail to successfully cope with stressful experiences or traumatic events. Or, depressive cognitions can result from a lack of experiences that would facilitate the development of adaptive coping skills.

According to cognitive behavioral theory, depressed people think differently than non-depressed people, and it is this difference in thinking that causes them to become depressed. For example, depressed people tend to view themselves, their environment, and the future in a negative, pessimistic light. As a result, depressed people tend to misinterpret facts in negative ways and blame themselves for any misfortune that occurs. This negative thinking and judgment style functions as a negative bias; it makes it easy for depressed people to see situations as being much worse than they really are, and increases the risk that such people will develop depressive symptoms in response to stressful situations.
Aaron Beck's Cognitive Theory of Depression
Different cognitive behavioral theorists have developed their own unique twist on the Cognitive way of thinking. According to Dr. Aaron Beck, negative thoughts, generated by dysfunctional beliefs are typically the primary cause of depressive symptoms. A direct relationship occurs between the amount and severity of someone's negative thoughts and the severity of their depressive symptoms. In other words, the more negative thoughts you experience, the more depressed you will become.

Beck also asserts that there are three main dysfunctional belief themes (or "schemas") that dominate depressed people's thinking: 1) I am defective or inadequate, 2) All of my experiences result in defeats or failures, and 3) The future is hopeless. Together, these three themes are described as the Negative Cognitive Triad. When these beliefs are present in someone's cognition, depression is very likely to occur (if it has not already occurred).

An example of the negative cognitive triad themes will help illustrate how the process of becoming depressed works. Imagine that you have just been laid off from your work. If you are not in the grip of the negative cognitive triad, you might think that this event, while unfortunate, has more to do with the economic position of your employer than your own work performance. It might not occur to you at all to doubt yourself, or to think that this event means that you are washed up and might as well throw yourself down a well. If your thinking process was dominated by the negative cognitive triad, however, you would very likely conclude that your layoff was due to a personal failure; that you will always lose any job you might manage to get; and that your situation is hopeless. On the basis of these judgments, you will begin to feel depressed. In contrast, if you were not influenced by negative triad beliefs, you would not question your self-worth too much, and might respond to the lay off by dusting off your resume and initiating a job search.

Beyond the negative content of dysfunctional thoughts, these beliefs can also warp and shape what someone pays attention to. Beck asserted that depressed people pay selective attention to aspects of their environments that confirm what they already know and do so even when evidence to the contrary is right in front of their noses. This failure to pay attention properly is known as faulty information processing.

Particular failures of information processing are very characteristic of the depressed mind. For example, depressed people will tend to demonstrate selective attention to information, which matches their negative expectations, and selective inattention to information that contradicts those expectations. Faced with a mostly positive performance review, depressed people will manage to find and focus in on the one negative comment that keeps the review from being perfect. They tend to magnify the importance and meaning placed on negative events, and minimize the importance and meaning of positive events. All of these maneuvers, which happen quite unconsciously, function to help maintain a depressed person's core negative schemas in the face of contradictory evidence, and allow them to remain feeling hopeless about the future even when the evidence suggests that things will get better.

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Cognitive Theories of Major Depression - Aaron Beck

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Cognitive theories rose to prominence in response to the early behaviorists' failure to take thoughts and feelings seriously. The cognitive movement did not reject behavioral principles, however. Rather, the idea behind the cognitive movement was to integrate mental events into the behavioral framework.

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Depression can be a result of a lack of social support- gives social support.

Therapist helps deal with negative cognitive thought- realizing you are not the only one that feels this way can have a positive influence on cognition.

May be both effective or damaging due to social learning theory.

cognitive restructuring - aims to change peoples though or 'schemas' that cause depression. CBT

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Alcoholics Anonymous is a part of our nation's fabric. In the seventy-six years since AA was created, 12-step programs have expanded to include over three hundred different organizations, focusing on such diverse issues as smoking, shoplifting, social phobia, debt, recovery from incest, even vulgarity. All told, more than five million people recite the Serenity Prayer at meetings across the United States every year.

Twelve-step programs hold a privileged place in our culture as well. The legions of "anonymous" members who comprise these groups are helped in their proselytizing mission by TV shows such as "Intervention" (now canceled), which preaches the gospel of recovery. "Going to rehab" is likewise a common refrain in music and film, where it is almost always uncritically presented as the one true hope for beating addiction. AA and rehab have even been codified into our legal system: court-mandated attendance, which began in the late 1980s, is today a staple of drug-crime policy. Every year, our state and federal governments spend over $15 billion on substance-abuse treatment for addicts, the vast majority of which are based on 12-step programs. There is only one problem: these programs almost always fail.

Peer-reviewed studies peg the success rate of AA somewhere between 5 and 10 percent. That is, about one of every fifteen people who enter these programs is able to become and stay sober. In 2006, one of the most prestigious scientific research organizations in the world, the Cochrane Collaboration, conducted a review of the many studies conducted between 1966 and 2005 and reached a stunning conclusion: "No experimental studies unequivocally demonstrated the effectiveness of AA" in treating alcoholism. This group reached the same conclusion about professional AA-oriented treatment (12-step facilitation therapy, or TSF), which is the core of virtually every alcoholism-rehabilitation program in the country.

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The pseudo-science of Alcoholics Anonymous: There's a better way to treat addiction

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Alcoholics Anonymous is a part of our nation's fabric. In the seventy-six years since AA was created, 12-step programs have expanded to include over three hundred different organizations, focusing on such diverse issues as smoking, shoplifting, social phobia, debt, recovery from incest, even vulgarity.

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Group therapy usually costs much less.

Meeting other people with similar problems can help with self-esteem and feelings of being "different."

Listening to other people helps clients to understand that they can handle problems in more than one way.

Other people can give encouragement and emotional support, rather than being dependent on a therapist.

Group therapy allows clients to work on their social skills while in therapy, rather than doing it as "homework."

The rapport with the therapist is not as important as in individual therapy; the fact that the therapist has not experienced what the clients have experienced is compensated for by the group dynamic. The therapist is a facilitator.

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1. Attrition is a problem in group therapy; clients stop coming for a wide variety of reasons, but don't feel that it is the same as canceling an individual appointment as there are "other people there."  The lower cost may result in less of a commitment.

2. Maintaining confidentiality may be problematic.

3. Group dynamics can play a negative role in group therapy.  This includes conformity effects and social hierarchies.  It is important that the therapist recognize these effects and address them.

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Bolton et al (2003) carried out a study of the role of group therapy of the treatment of depression in rural Uganda.
Four areas to be addressed in treatment: grief (due to death of a loved one), interpersonal disputes (disagreements with important people in one's life), role transitions (changes in life circumstances), and deficits (persistent problems in relationships).
The goal was to see if this type of therapy would be effective in alleviating the symptoms of depression.
The average reduction in depression severity was 17.47 points for intervention groups and 3.55 points for the control groups. After intervention, 6.5% and 54.7% of the intervention and control groups, respectively, met the criteria for major depression compared with 86% and 94%, respectively, prior to intervention.  The researchers concluded that group interpersonal psychotherapy was highly effective in reducing depression.

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There are several important factors that a therapist needs to consider when running group therapy sessions.

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There are several important factors that a therapist needs to consider when running group therapy sessions.

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1. The group needs to be cohesive. In order to do this, the members should have some common characteristics

2. The therapist needs to determine if any characteristics should exclude a client from the group. Exclusion may be necessary because the characteristic of the client may negatively affect the therapy sessions.

3. Confidentiality is a major concern in group therapy. It is important that the therapist makes it clear to members of the group that is important that all personal sharing is kept confidential.

4. Cultural factors may play a key role in whether group therapy is successful. Al Mutlaq & Chaleby (1995) have identified several problems with group therapy when applied in Arab cultures. Knowing about cultural differences may help therapists to better organize and facilitate the group.