Symposium 94 - How should we talk about depression and mental health? Practical advice to improve Cognitive Behavioral Therapy from clinical and social psychology

Chair(s)

• AD

  Andrew Devendorf, MA (he/him/his)

  Doctoral Student
  University of South Florida
  Tampa, Florida
• HS

  Hans Schroder, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Clinical Assistant Professor
  University of Michigan Medical School
  Ann Arbor, Michigan

Discussant(s)

• AD

  Andrew Devendorf, MA (he/him/his)

  Doctoral Student
  University of South Florida
  Tampa, Florida

Presenter(s)

• AD

  Andrew Devendorf, MA (he/him/his)

  Doctoral Student
  University of South Florida
  Tampa, Florida
• 

  Isaac Ahuvia, M.A. (he/him/his)

  PhD Student
  Stony Brook University
  Port Jefferson station, New York
• 

  Laura Knouse, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

  Professor of Psychology
  University of Richmond
  Richmond, Virginia
• HS

  Hans Schroder, Ph.D. (he/him/his)

  Clinical Assistant Professor
  University of Michigan Medical School
  Ann Arbor, Michigan

The framing of mental health can influence how patients perceive, process, and cope with their mental health conditions, which can affect treatment trajectories. Social psychology research has demonstrated that specific mental health framings (e.g., presenting mental health as malleable vs. fixed, biological vs. psychological, strengths-based vs. deficits-based) can influence outcomes like symptom severity, help-seeking behaviors, hopefulness for recovery, and stigma. Despite the potential for this work to enhance therapy, clinical psychology has not yet integrated this research into practice. This symposium will review theory and research on mental health framings to showcase the benefits and consequences of specific framings, while providing practical guidance on how the field can enhance cognitive-behavioral interventions.

Andrew Devendorf will start the symposium by introducing the Common Sense Model (CSM) of mental illness. The CSM describes how specific health framings from varying sources (e.g., media, experts) affect how patients construct beliefs about their illness about its cause, chronicity, controllability, consequences, and relation to the patients’ identity. He will draw on empirical and theoretical work on the CSM before describing a case series of patients with depression, substance use disorder, and borderline personality disorder and how framing these experiences in particular ways shaped their treatment.

Next, Isaac Ahuvia will present data on adolescents’ beliefs about the causes of depression (N=281). Among a national sample of community adolescents, he finds that beliefs about depression (e.g., depression is caused by adverse childhood experiences) are different about one’s own depression versus other people’s depression. Moreover, these causal beliefs are differentially related to treatment attitudes. Results are discussed in terms of how best to frame and talk to adolescents about depression.

Dr. Laura Knouse will then present data from a meta-analysis (N = 17,692) examining growth vs. fixed mindset framings of various mental health disorders. She finds that a novel compensatory message has benefits in terms of stigma and efficacy beliefs for recovery. She will discuss how these findings help clinicians talk about mental health to improve CBT.

Finally, Dr. Hans Schroder will present data from two studies (correlational Study 1 N = 723, experimental Study 2 N = 844) on strengths-based vs. deficit-based framings of depression. He finds that a novel framing of depression (that it is a “signal” alerting one to something wrong in their life) has positive impacts on self-efficacy, beliefs about psychotherapy, and stigma. He will discuss how clinicians in different settings can shift the way they talk about depression to improve readiness for therapy.