Cognitive Therapy
Theoretical Underpinnings
- Objective experiences
- Phenomenological approach to psychology
- Structural theory and depth psychology
- Kelly (1955)- emphasizes role of beliefs in behavior change
- Lazarus (1984)- cognitive theories of emotion
- Grew out of cognitive psychology
- Concerned of how we think and learn
- How ways we think and believe lead to how we behave
- Emphasizes role of beliefs in driving our actions
- Emphasize role of beliefs in our emotions
History
Aaron Beck
- trained psychoanalysis
- Observes consistent biases in cognitive processing
- Develops theory of emotional disorders and cognitive model of depression
- Believes people can consciously develop information
- Believes depression is anger turned inward on yourself
- People who are experiencing depression has themes of thinking they are unsuccessful
- Those same themes is interpreted in 2 different ways when ran through the theory
- Psychoanalytic Theory says “this person is doing this to themselves because
they want to suffer”
- Cognitive theory says people who have depression are misinterpreting
information that is coming in that makes them feel like they are unsuccessful.
They are not trying to feel that way
- Theory tells us how therapist is using what their patient tells them
- People who experience depression would
- Prefer not to be
- Can be alleviated
-
Theory of personality
, Personality
- personality= temperament + cognitive schemas
- Cognitive schemas filter information that comes in
- We are gonna perceive and react according to the way we filter those schemas
- Beck says lense may be overlooking on the negative
- Personality dimensions
- Clusters of attributes
- Who are we in terms of what schemas we hold, how we think, how does
our brain work in our cognition, emotions and behaviors
- Styles of responding
- Ex: when some people get sad they withdraw
- Beck sees personality more fluid than Freud
Psychological Distress
- Psychopathology is on the same continuum with normal behavior
- Psychological distress results from
- Perceived threat
- Maladaptive interpretations
- Which sort of lense am I running information through?
- Same piece of information can be intercepted in many many different
ways
- Ex: seeing someone sleeping in an 8:30am class
- Lecture is too early
- Class is boring
- Didn’t get enough sleep
- I am a bad teacher
- Reduced cognitive and reasoning abilities
- Systematic bias in information processing
- Can think of these as vulnerabilities that people hold
- Vulnerability= something going on that makes people more likely to experience a
negative outcome
- Negative emotions are a complex interaction of Vulnerabilities, coping skills,
information coming in from the environment
- Systematic because it applies over and over again
- Filter we see the world through
Cognitive distortions
- Catastrophizing
- The tendency to blow circumstances out of proportion by making problems larger
than life
- So horrible, awful, ruins everything
- Ex: not doing well on an exam and thinking you’re gonna fail the class
- Personalization
- The tendency to take the blame for absolutely everything that goes wrong in your
life
Theoretical Underpinnings
- Objective experiences
- Phenomenological approach to psychology
- Structural theory and depth psychology
- Kelly (1955)- emphasizes role of beliefs in behavior change
- Lazarus (1984)- cognitive theories of emotion
- Grew out of cognitive psychology
- Concerned of how we think and learn
- How ways we think and believe lead to how we behave
- Emphasizes role of beliefs in driving our actions
- Emphasize role of beliefs in our emotions
History
Aaron Beck
- trained psychoanalysis
- Observes consistent biases in cognitive processing
- Develops theory of emotional disorders and cognitive model of depression
- Believes people can consciously develop information
- Believes depression is anger turned inward on yourself
- People who are experiencing depression has themes of thinking they are unsuccessful
- Those same themes is interpreted in 2 different ways when ran through the theory
- Psychoanalytic Theory says “this person is doing this to themselves because
they want to suffer”
- Cognitive theory says people who have depression are misinterpreting
information that is coming in that makes them feel like they are unsuccessful.
They are not trying to feel that way
- Theory tells us how therapist is using what their patient tells them
- People who experience depression would
- Prefer not to be
- Can be alleviated
-
Theory of personality
, Personality
- personality= temperament + cognitive schemas
- Cognitive schemas filter information that comes in
- We are gonna perceive and react according to the way we filter those schemas
- Beck says lense may be overlooking on the negative
- Personality dimensions
- Clusters of attributes
- Who are we in terms of what schemas we hold, how we think, how does
our brain work in our cognition, emotions and behaviors
- Styles of responding
- Ex: when some people get sad they withdraw
- Beck sees personality more fluid than Freud
Psychological Distress
- Psychopathology is on the same continuum with normal behavior
- Psychological distress results from
- Perceived threat
- Maladaptive interpretations
- Which sort of lense am I running information through?
- Same piece of information can be intercepted in many many different
ways
- Ex: seeing someone sleeping in an 8:30am class
- Lecture is too early
- Class is boring
- Didn’t get enough sleep
- I am a bad teacher
- Reduced cognitive and reasoning abilities
- Systematic bias in information processing
- Can think of these as vulnerabilities that people hold
- Vulnerability= something going on that makes people more likely to experience a
negative outcome
- Negative emotions are a complex interaction of Vulnerabilities, coping skills,
information coming in from the environment
- Systematic because it applies over and over again
- Filter we see the world through
Cognitive distortions
- Catastrophizing
- The tendency to blow circumstances out of proportion by making problems larger
than life
- So horrible, awful, ruins everything
- Ex: not doing well on an exam and thinking you’re gonna fail the class
- Personalization
- The tendency to take the blame for absolutely everything that goes wrong in your
life
