Does Dependency Lead to Depression

My paper will be on D.M. and the improper thoughts and behaviors which she continues to portray in her life. D.M. is 29 year old female of biracial origin, who is the oldest of three siblings. She was raised with punitive, authoritarian parents who utilized excessive corporal punishment. D.M.'s parents (especially her mother) raised her with the strict belief that a woman's place was in the home (inferior), in service to her mate, and men were superior. Devotion, loyalty and dependence were expected from D.M. and independent thought was not tolerated. Education was considered a waste of time because she was expected to marry and be provided for by her husband. At the age of 15, four years after her parents' divorce, D.M. was thrown out of her home at the request of her mother's boyfriend, who was the "man" of the house.

D.M. remains unwed but has sustained an 8-year live-in relationship with the father of her two children, aged 5 and 7. She demonstrates complete dependency on this relationship for her basic day-to-day necessities, her happiness, and her reason to be. She is chronically unemployed and unrealistic in setting goals for herself. Her dependency also extends to governmental assistance, which is received fraudulently and to which she feels entitled. When the fraud was discovered, she was "forced" into obtaining her GED and was given the choice of getting a job, continuing her education or losing her benefits. She attempted to attend community college full-time but upon failing, unofficially withdrew halfway through her second semester. She self-medicates with alcohol and illegal substances and is lacking in parental skills with an obvious preference given to her son. She appears to be self-sabotaging in her efforts to establish and fulfill goals, and is considered emotionally and financially dependent. It is my belief that her dependency was learned from her parent's actions in modeling behavior. She continued the behaviors and dependency into her adult relationship, which lead to depression and low self-efficacy. She displays aggression and feels "trapped" in her present situation, but unwilling to want to change the behaviors that contribute to her depressive state.

The goal of my paper is to examine D.M.'s behavior(s) utilizing the views and theories of Aaron Beck, Albert Bandura and Walter Mischel to see if dependency learned in childhood contributes to adult depression. Bandura and Mischel promoted the social-cognitive theory that utilizes the concept of reciprocal determinism. This concept states that the person, her behavior and her environment all influence each other and each component can change or alter the other two components. They also stated that people learn by observing the consequences of their own actions or observing the consequences of other people's actions, but that we only utilize the learned information in performance if we feel that the incentive is worth it. If negative reinforcement is utilized within any of the components, if may lead to dysfunctional thinking or behaviors. The social-cognitive theory maintains that most of our behavior is self-regulated. Aaron Beck's Cognitive Theory states that how we interpret the world influences our mood, and if we change those interpretations, our behaviors will also change. Irrational or illogical thoughts may lead to unproductive emotions, which in turn may lead to unproductive behaviors. There are various types of dysfunctional thinking or cognitive distortions utilized by D.M., including overgeneralization, dichotomous thinking, magnification and fortune telling. Beck stated that we have automatic thoughts (unconscious) that occur because of basic assumptions (unconscious) and rules that we make up about the world, which in turn affect our core beliefs (unconscious). Beck's cognitive theory focuses on identifying the automatic thoughts, which are accessible if some attention is paid to them, and restructuring them to be productive.

In applying the theory of Bandura and Mischel to D.M., it should be noted that "It is not only one's competencies that are learned from observational learning but also one's encoding strategies, expectancies, values, and self-regulatory systems and plans" (p.334). These cognitive social learning person variables provide reciprocal relationships among the person, the person's behavior, and the environment. D.M.'s parents modeled irrational thinking and behavior, which was learned by D.M. through both direct and vicarious reinforcement and punishment. The parent's use of corporal punishment modeled aggression, which D.M. was forced to internalize to avoid more punishment. She was motivated to remain meek, compliant and dependent because doing so provided her with safety (value) and allowed her to avoid physical and emotional pain (aversive). A form of delayed modeling may have contributed to the dependency noted in D.M.'s adult relationships.

Her parents were both high school dropouts and set minimal performance standards, which heavily influenced D.M.'s goal making and planning skills. She does not have an internal system that enables her to develop sub-goals and often feels frustrated and depressed when her major goals are not readily or easily achieved. Her perceived self-efficacy was lowered and she thinks that she is incapable of achieving any of her goals. This distortion of her self-efficacy results in dysfunctional self-expectancies, which lead to her psychological problems. Her fear, dependency, abuse of drugs/ alcohol, maternal incompetence, lack of coping skills and depression indicate her lowered self-efficacy. Because D.M.'s standards of right and wrong (moral conduct) were derived from her parent's modeling, she often uses several self-exonerating mechanisms to justify many aspects of her adult life and therefore suffers the consequences of her actions. Her fraudulent acceptance of governmental benefits is explained with moral justification and often diffusion of responsibility. Limited experiences outside the home in childhood and adulthood have limited D.M.'s freedom and she has developed dysfunctional expectancies. Because she thinks that she is incapable of functioning, whether it is at school (which was reinforced by her failure) or at a place of employment (frequently fired), she disregards both as valueless and is averse to them. She focuses all of her attention and energy into her relationship, which affords her the comfort of being isolated and sheltered. Her home is her safety net and the speculation and fear of independence dissuades her from attempting new things, which denies her the necessary experiences from which to learn.

It does appear that D.M.'s childhood dependency was learned and has extended into her adult life causing depression. Bandura