Cognitive Theories include insight (getting hit by lightening), problem solving, thinking and information processing. The focus is on how our thinking (and mis-thinking) impacts our lives.
Beck
Aaron Beck (1921-) combined Rogers and Freud to create Cognitive Therapy.
From Rogers, he takes the importance of developing a relationship with the client, and Roger’s emphasis on how you see the world (phenomenology). From Freud, Beck takes the importance of treating severe conditions, the value of a good medical education (Beck got his MD from Yale), and the great impact that internal processing has on external behavior.
But instead of Freudian conflicts, the heart of Beck’s approach is the impact of beliefs on behavior. What we believe impacts what we do. Just as our perceptual processes can be distorted, our thinking can be biased.
If we have an internal representation of ourselves as hopeless or unlovable, that cognitive bias will impact our behavior. We can make ourselves miserable by over-generalizing a bad day as all life being bad. We might magnify a small issue into a big issue, make everything all about us, or jump to conclusions before we have any evidence. All of these are problems of thinking. Beck’s approach, then, is to fix behavior by fixing the thinking and its underlying assumptions.
These assumptions are called schemas. They are assumptions about how the world operates. We generate rules about ourselves, other people, and the world in general. We decide whether we are good, whether others can be trusted, and whether the world is neutral, on our side or against us.
Some of these schemas are very general but many are specific to our experience and unique to us. We might have a general rule of life (be kind to others) and a very specific rule of how to act at home (never ask for advice from your mother unless you want to be criticized).
Schema and values are interchangeable. Values that are at the center of who we are. Think of them as super-schema or super-rules. A schema influences some behavior but values influence a lot of behaviors. If these core values are healthy, they are beneficial to us. But if our core beliefs are based on distortions of reality, we will systematically make errors of reasoning throughout our lives.
If our belief is that we are incapable of making good decisions, this cognitive bias will result in our being indecisive. Similarly, if we believe we are incompetent, we might expect failure and try to get other people to run our lives for us. If we believe we can’t make it through life without help, we might over-value our relationships. Alternatively, if we believe we must make it on our own, we might underestimate the value of intimacy.
The good news is that our personality is not fixed. For Beck, we are what we think. We construct our view of the world from our past experiences and internal processes. If our past twists our thinking, our challenge is to untwist it. Since our thinking causes a lot of our misery, we can make our lives better by examining our assumptions, testing reality and straightening out our thinking.
Despite his emphasis of cognition, Beck is surprisingly behavior oriented. In therapy, clients are taught to specify their behaviors, track them, and modify them. For Beck, thinking and doing are closely tied. Systematic cognitive distortions don’t really matter if they don’t show up in behavior. And teaching people to identify their dichotomous thinking (it has to be this or that; nothing in between) is of little value unless it produces a change of behavior. For Beck, it’s a thinking-doing combo.
Ellis
Mind Map
Notes
Aaron Beck (1921-)
- Life
Born in Providence, RI
BA Brown ; MD, Yale - Theory
Dreams reflected 3 common themes: defeat, deprivation and loss
Schemas = assumptions about how world operates
Philosophy = 3 main sources: phenomenological approach, Kant-Freud, & Kelly - How one thinks determines how one feels and behaves
People can consciously adapt reason
Client’s underlying assumptions as targets of intervention
Turn client into a colleague who researches verifiable reality
Personality reflects person’s cognitive organization and structure
Biologically and socially influenced - Schemas
personality is shaped by central values (superordinate schemas)
biochemical predisposition to illness
cognitive structures: core beliefs & assumptions about how the world operates
develop early in life from personal experiences and identification with significant others
people form concepts about themselves, others and world
adaptive or maladaptive; general or specific
rules about life and beliefs about self - Cognitive distortions = systematic errors in reasoning
idiosyncratic vulnerabilities - 2 dimensions
Sociotropic dimension = dependence on others, needs for closeness and nurturance
Autonomous dimension = independence, goal setting, self-imposed obligations
Not fixed personality structures - Depression
Dependent people become depressed when relationships are disrupted
Autonomous people become depressed when fail to achieve a certain goal
Cognitive triad = negative view of self, world and future
Albert Ellis (1913-2007)
- Life
Not believe childhood experience shaped his becoming a psychotherapist
Incompetent mother, brother acted out, sister whined; Ellis ill but refused to be miserable
Parents divorced when he was 12
Partially disabled with diabetes, poor hearing, weak vision
Liked the Stoic philosophers
BA City University (NY), business administration
MA Columbia, clinical psychology
PhD Columbia
Trained in psychoanalysis by one of Karen Horney’s followers - Theory
Rational Psychotherapy = focus on rational, not irrational thinking;
criticized for neglecting emotions
Confront people with their irrational beliefs, persuade them to adopt rational ones
Rational Emotive Therapy; criticized
Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy; primarily a cognitive behavioral therapy
4 fundamental processes: perception, movement, thinking, emotion
Thoughts and emotions frequently overlap, so much of emotion is evaluative thinking - Self-talk; internalized sentences determine our thoughts and emotions
- Emotional disturbance = caring too much what others think
- ABC theory of personality
Activating event
Belief system
Emotional consequence - Musturbatory belief system = absolute musts
- Myths:
personality disorders mainly stem from parental rejection
feelings of worthlessness arise from constant criticism
sexual abuse victims invariably continue to suffer as adults;
Increasingly believes that heredity has a large influence on humans (80%) - Therapy
Very directive approach, people must judge behavior in terms of what right for them
Goal of therapy is to:
enable clients to commit themselves to actions that correspond to true value system
free individuals to develop a constructive and confident image of self-worth
Highly active, directive, didactic, philosophic, homework assigning therapy
how to recognize Should and Must thoughts
how to separate rational from irrational beliefs
how to accept reality
reduce disturbance-creating ideas to absurdity
Cognitions, emotions and behaviors are consistently interactional and transactional - Techniques
in vitro desensitization = imagined exposure to noxious stimuli paired with relaxation d
in vivo desensitization = gradual exposure to actual tasks or circumstances
client told to deliberately fail at a small task (show can survive a failure)
implosive desensitization = sudden confrontation of phobic situation (ethical?)
Terms
Aaron Beck
- autonomous dimension
- cognitive distortions
- cognitive triad
- depression
- idiosyncratic vulnerabilities
- Kant & Freud & Kelly
- schemas
- sociotropic dimension
- superordinate schemas
Albert Ellis
- ABC theory of personality
- absolute musts
- activating event
- belief system
- confrontation
- emotional consequence
- homework
- in vitro desensitization
- in vivo desensitization
- irrational thinking
- Karen Horney
- musturbatory belief system
- rational emotive behavioral therapy
- rational emotive therapy
- rational psychotherapy
- rational thinking
Quiz
According to cognitive theory, beliefs are:
- a. unreliable perceptions
- b. testable hypotheses
- c. unconscious
- d. genetic
2. According to Kelly, we must look at ourselves as:
- a. self-actualized individuals
- b. basketball players
- c. scientists
- d. elves
3. For Ellis, internalized dialog that determines our thoughts and emotions is called:
- a. emotional compensation
- b. congruence
- c. self-talk
- d. love
4. According to Beck, assumptions about how the world works are called:
- a. superordinate clauses
- b. concrete constructs
- c. cognitive triads
- d. schema
5. Cognitive theories of personality believe people can change by:
- a. redefining their problem
- b. free association
- c. decentering
- d. reflecting
1. According to cognitive theory, beliefs are:
- a. unreliable perceptions
- b. testable hypotheses
- c. unconscious
- d. genetic
2. According to Kelly, we must look at ourselves as:
- a. self-actualized individuals
- b. basketball players
- c. scientists
- d. elves
3. For Ellis, internalized dialog that determines our thoughts and emotions is called:
- a. emotional compensation
- b. congruence
- c. self-talk
- d. love
4. According to Beck, assumptions about how the world works are called:
- a. superordinate clauses
- b. concrete constructs
- c. cognitive triads
- d. schema
5. Cognitive theories of personality believe people can change by:
- a. redefining their problem
- b. free association
- c. decentering
- d. reflecting
