Theories of Depression

Albert Bandura: Developed the Social Cognitive Theory of Depression that states that an individuals personality is molded by behavior, thought, and the environment . Each piece in a puzzle can and does affect the shape of the other pieces . Bandura believes that environment plays a greater role in shaping our behavior than genetics , because human behavior ends up being largely a result of learning , which may occur by observation and through direct experience . 

Juliann Rotter:Developed the social learning theory that stated that personality represents an interaction of the individual with his or her environment . One cannot speak of a personality , internal to the individual , that is independent of the environment . One cannot focuses on behabior as being an automatic response to an objective set of a environmental stimuli. Rather to understand behavior , one must take both the individual , his or her life history of learning experiences and the environmental those stimuli that the person is aware to respond to . Rotter describes personality as a relatively stable set of potentials for responding to situations in a particular way.

Martin Seligman:Learned helplessness is the state of mind created when an animal or human being learns to behave helplessly, even with the means to escape or avoid an unpleasant situation. According to Seligman the learned helplessness theory holds that clinical depression and other mental illnesses may arise from the perceived lack of control over a situation.

Aaron Beck: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.

Bib:

http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=13006&cn=5

http://directory.leadmaverick.com/Helping-Psychology/DallasFort-WorthArlington/TX/10/9748/index.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learned_helplessness