With the economy of the world headed for shambles, there are many negative events that are associated with the phenomenon. This includes work lay offs, skyrocketing food prices, inflation of prices in everything, a cut in budget especially for luxurious stuff in order to allocate more money on the most necessary basic needs like food and shelter. These negative episodes of life carry with them different repercussions on human life. This includes diseases like depression. As people continue feeling the weight of the economic burden and getting no signs of a reprieve any soon, they tend to develop a bleak picture of their lives and eventually end up into depression.
There have been speculations that media contributes highly in the formation of depression in human beings. Several researches have been carried out to prove this statement so as to get a way in solving it. Though a debate rages on whether the speculations are true, a deep insight on the theories of depression can help one come up with an accurate decision on whether media can cause depression or not. This coupled up with the researches carried out by experts give a reason to argue that media plays a great role in the promotion of depression in human beings.
Several theories have been put up to try and explain the causes of depression. These theories try to explain the way the human brain works in different circumstances and under different environmental conditions and the symptoms associated with it. One of the theories that explain depression is Beck and Young’s cognitive triad of depression (Tyler parag. 10). In this theory, depression occurs when an individual starts developing a picture of himself, the environment and the future as negative. When one starts viewing himself as inadequate, not lovable, deficient and worthless, he is said to be in the first component of the cognitive triad of depression. Other components of the cognitive triad of depression are the aspect of seeing the environment as overwhelming and that one is too small to make an impact and also seeing the future as bleak and hopeless. When one sees the future to contain no remedy to hi s current problems, he is likely to develop depression symptoms.
Lack of reinforcements in one’s behavior can lead to depression. This occurs when one finds no gratification or positive outcomes in whatever he does in life. It is natural that a human being wants the world to appreciate what he does and acknowledge the effort that he has used to achieve it. Whenever one does exemplary actions to an unresponsive environment, he tends to becomes isolated and depressed. This behavioral approach to depression gives three problems that lead to depression. The first one is when the depressed person finds all the activities and events very boring and non gratifying. This makes him not stay idle something that will directly promote depression. Secondly, the depressed person might find himself in an environment that offers no reinforcement in whatever action taken by the depressed. This means that the depressed person might make effort to try and gain the appreciation from the people around him but due to the prevailing circumstances, he might fail to achieve the desired purpose of getting the congratulations. This leads to depression. The third problem is the depressed person’s lack of abilities or skills that can elicit positive compliments from the people around him. This would, as a result, lead to poor relationships with others. They will eventually resort to solitude as they fail to see reinforcements like attention, concern and sympathy.
Mischel, as quoted by Styler (parag. 17) gives another cause of depression as what is refered to as learned helplessness. This comes out in terms of hopelessness in an individual who believes that he is the cause of all the negative events that happen in his life and that he cannot control those bad lacks that befall him. In this theory, the individuals are characterized by an explanatory style that is very pessimistic and they also tend to view every negative event in their lives as a result of their own short comings. They never view the prevailing environmental conditions that would have greatly contributed to this. To them it is always them and not the environment. This group of people has three distinct and identical view of life. One is that they view misfortunes to be permanent affairs that are there to endure. Secondly, they view problems to be global and finally, they view all these things to be caused by them.
There is Dr. Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic theory also developed to explain the issue of depression (Nemade & Dombeck parag. 2). In the first half of the 20th century, this theory had great dominance within the realm of clinical psychology. Freud explains that the unconscious human mind is made up of several parts. There is the part that is irrational and impulsive, the super-ego which represents all the rules and norms that are expected by the society. Then we have the rational ego which tries to be the balancing effect between the two extremes. Freud gives describes a state called repression which he says is a conflict between the conscious part of the mind and the unconscious part of the mind. This is a kind of state where one is oblivious of certain motives and desires that are troubling but which influence him negatively. The evolution of psychodynamic theory has given birth to several approaches of the same. Among these new evolutions is the objects relation theory. Failure to develop a healthy relationship with the desired object can cause depression. This is what the depressed people go through. This theory has two patterns which are anaclitic and introjective patterns.
Anaclitic pattern is characterized by a person who wholly depends upon a certain relationship but then he sees a threat of loss or actually loses the relationship. This gives the individual a feeling of fear, weakness and hopelessness. He eventually struggles to hold onto the object which offers his gratification. In this topic, we shall dwell on the introjective pattern. This form of depression occurs when a person develops a feeling of being a failure because of having failed to achieve his own standards or the standards of someone else of whom he looks upon with owe and regards him as important. This feeling comes up as a result of a strong superego which eventually results into a feeling of worthlessness and failure. The individual then develops depression.
Before relating these theories to the media and feeling the effect of media on the psychological wellbeing of an individual, we will divide the approach to the relationship of media and depression into a two sided approach. Primack (2009) outlines that media can contribute to the development of depression in two ways. These are format and content. By format, one could develop depression through sitting for long hours on the television or other electronic media. This will leave him no time to engage in sports and other interactive activities that will contribute in alleviating depression. Eventually, the individual ends up developing depression. Content on the other hand is the materials and information being broadcasted by the media. The content of this news can give one a picture of desolation and hopelessness and thus bring depression.
Beck and Young’s cognitive triad of depression theory can be used clearly to support the argument that media can highly contribute to development of depression. In this theory, depression can develop when one starts developing negative images of himself, the environment and the future as negative. This is exactly what the media does. It imparts into our heads information of successful people, it tells us of the ills that are happening in the society and also tells us how the economy of the United States has gone bad during the economic crunch and that the situation is not likely to improve in the near future. Some media even predict doom of the superiority of the United States saying that Soviet Russia and China could be the next power house economically. This information gives a listener a chance to evaluate himself with the successful people he sees in news and therefore develops a feeling that he is a failure because he does not match up with the others in the TV. This coupled up with the fact that the society is painted black and evil, one can develop a feeling that everything starting from his life to the people around him are bad and worthless and that there is no hope for a life. A good example is of the journalist who had to commit suicide after photographing a young Sudanese baby crawling to an aid camp with vultures circling around waiting for the boy to die so that they could celebrate.
Most of the adverts in the media are designed to make one feel that he is not complete without a certain goods and services being advertised (Primack parag. 6). Without driving a super range rover then you are not in the class. If the person watching is without the goods being advertised, he might feel inferior and incomplete because he has been made to feel that only those people who own such a phone are worth being called people of class. In most of these adverts, they use a super star who is probably a role model to some individuals. According to the introjective pattern of the psychodynamic theory, one develops a negative attitude of himself and he regards himself as a failure if he fails to meet the standards of the person he adores and regards as important. This means that the super stars used to advertise in the media flossing with flashy cars and expensive jewellery could lead to people developing depression because they cannot measure to their standards.
The behavioral approach purports that one can develop depression by failing to have reinforcements in terms of concern or appreciation of his actions. Among the contributing factors of this theory is the individual’s perception of lack of abilities and skills to elicit positive compliments from the people around him. This approach can be strengthened by the media because it is from the media that successful people are portrayed and how they are loved and appreciated by people. A good example is Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller.” In the beginning of the album, scenes of funs literally crying simply for seeing Jackson would make someone who is less appreciated feel that he is worthless because he can’t sing like Jackson therefore, he will never be appreciated.
In Mischel’s learned helplessness theory, the depressed person views misfortunes to be permanent. He also sees problems to be global and unsolvable. This view of life will really be encouraged by the media. By hearing of droughts and hunger in Africa, wars in the Middle East, employee lay offs in Europe and the United States, and other negative news, the beliefs will be cemented. This will contribute in the development of depression.
Deeper days (2006) shows that there are more women getting depressed than men due to their physical status. Most girls want to be size 10 with a height of 5’8 and bright blonde to feel that they are well. This has been propagated by the media who show designer clothes for only those “perfect” chicks and no designers for women with a full body. They are rarely seen on the catwalk.
All said and done, research has shown that many hours with media can lead to depression. In his long term research, Primack, in 1995, researched 4,142 adolescents without signs of depression who were exposed to an average of 5.68 hours interacting with media and found that after 7 years, 308 of them had developed symptoms that were consistent to depression (physorg parag.2).
In conclusion, it is therefore arguable that the media promotes the development of depression. This is fanned by their portrayal of the stereo typical perfect person which makes viewers want to emulate and measure up with. Failure to which may lead to a case of depression. It is therefore important that parents check on their children’s exposure to the media so as to avoid being caught into the mix as WHO estimates that depression will be the greatest health challenge by the year 2020 (deeper days parag. 5)
Reference
Deeper days. Depression has Always been Rather Fond of the Ladies. 2009. Web.
Nemade, R., and Dombeck, M., Depression: Major Depression and Unipolar Varieties. Mentalhealth.net. 2009. Web.
Physorg.com. Teen media exposure Associated with Depression Symptoms in Young Adulthood. 2009. Web.
Primack, B., A different Kind of “Great Depression?” Center on Media and Child Health. 2009. Web.
Tyler, A., Theories of depression. Associated content. 2009. Web.