Brainscape's Knowledge GenomeTM

Browse over 1 million classes created by top students, professors, publishers, and experts.


See full index

Abnormal Psychology > (3) Cognitive approaches > Flashcards

(3) Cognitive approaches Flashcards

You may prefer our related Brainscape-certified flashcards:
Psychology 101 flashcards GRE® Psychology flashcards AP® Psychology flashcards
1
Q

What do cognitive psychologists believe about behaviour?

A

Cognitive psychologists extend this idea and say that our behaviour is determined by the way we process information taken in from our environment.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

What are the two major systems in the cognitive approach?

A
  • Rational-emotive (Albert Ellis 1962)

- Cognitive theory of depression (Aaron T Beck 1967)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

What did Albert Ellis (1913-2007) believe about psychological dysfunctions?

A
  • Event interpretation – distress – psychological dysfunction
  • Private beliefs (B) about particular activating events or situations (A) determine the emotional consequences (C) that are experienced.
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

What are Irrational beliefs (Albert Ellis)?

A

misguided and inaccurate assumptions; absolute, unrealistic views of the world – Everyone must love/like me all of the time – I must perform well or else I am inadequate – I must have the approval of others, or else I’m inadequate and worthless

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

What therapy did Ellis develop?

A

Ellis developed rational-emotive behaviour therapy (REBT) – for emotional problems

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

What is Ellis – Rational-Emotive behaviour therapy?

A
  • REBT designed – to challenge irrational beliefs – to restructure a person’s belief system and self-evaluation, to gain more self-worth
  • REBT therapist searches for patient’s irrational beliefs, highlighting the impossibilities of fulfilling them and persuades patient to adopt a more realistic belief
  • Also uses behavioural techniques – homework given to encourage clients to have new experiences, in order to break negative chains of behaviour
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

What difference is there between REBT and Beck’s approach?

A

Similar to Beck’s approach– Difference: in REBT - therapist directly challenges the patient’s belief during therapy “That’s impossible! That’s irrational!”

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

What did Aaron Beck (1921) do?

A
  • Developed cognitive therapy – first for depression, later for anxiety and other disorders – Beck was influential in the development of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)
  • Widely used therapies for many disorders – Cognitive therapy & CBT terms often used interchangeably
  • Also focuses on irrational thoughts of people with psychological problems
  • The way we interpret events and experiences determines our emotional reactions to them
  • Depressive symptoms, irrational beliefs
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

What is a schema?

A

An underlying representation of knowledge (relatively stable network of core beliefs) that serves to guide our processing of information and may lead to distortions in attention, memory and comprehension

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

What is the positive aspect of schemas?

A

POSITIVE ASPECT: Enable us to focus on relevant/important information among influx of information available to us

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

What is the negative aspect about schemas?

A
  • NEGATIVE ASPECT: But also a source of psychological vulnerability if distorted and inaccurate
  • Need to have particular schemas to recognise new information
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

What is Assimilation?

A
  • incorporate new experiences into existing cognitive frameworks (even if new information has to be reinterpret or distort it to make it fit)
  • Results in clinging to existing assumptions and rejecting new information that contradicts them
  • E.g. rejecting a compliment
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

What is Accommodation?

A
  • Changing existing framework in order to incorporate new information that doesn’t fit
  • More difficult and threatening
  • Accommodation – basic goal of cognitive and cognitive behavioural therapies (as well as other approaches and therapies)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

How is psychopathology characterised?

A

Different forms of psychopathology are characterised by different maladaptive schemas that have developed as a function of adverse early learning experiences,
-and that lead to distortions in thinking - cognitive distortions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

What are Cognitive distortions?

A

-Biased processing of negative self-relevant information such that ambiguous situations are interpreted in problematic ways.

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

-Labelling:

A

assigning labels to ourselves or other people e.g. I’m a loser

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
17
Q

-Personalisation:

A

blaming yourself or taking responsibility for something which wasn’t completely your fault

18
Q

-All or nothing thinking:

A

black and white thinking, I am not perfect I’ve failed

19
Q

-Over-generalising:

A

seeing a pattern based on a single event

20
Q

-Mental filter:

A

only paying attention to certain behaviours, e.g. only focus on failures

21
Q

-Disqualifying the positive:

A

discounting the good things which have happened, e.g. that doesn’t count

22
Q

-Jumping to conclusions:

A

Mind reading (think we know what others are thinking), fortune telling (predicting the future)`

23
Q

-Magnification and minimisation:

A

blowing things out of proportion, or shrinking something to make it less important

24
Q

-Emotional reasoning:

A

assuming that we must feel a certain way what we think must be true

25
Q

What is attribution theory?

A

-Attribution: The process of assigning causes to things – E.g., ‘I failed the test because: a) I’m stupid, or b) because the teacher was unfair…’

26
Q

Why are attributions important?

A
  • The causes may or may not be objectively accurate
  • Help us explain own/other’s behaviour and to predict what we/others will do in future
  • Attributional style: characteristic way one tends to assign causes to good/bad events
  • Attributions become important parts of our view of the world
  • Have significant effects on our emotional well-being
27
Q

How would Beck use treatment for mental illness?

A
  • Depressed people perceive the world and event outcomes in terms of their own personal weaknesses and limitations
  • Therapy: persuade patients to change their opinions of themselves and the way in which they interpret life events.
  • Altering schema
28
Q

What is the Cognitive triad?

A
  • Negative views of self, world and future
  • Negative schema triggered (e.g. no one likes me)
  • Cognitive distortions/bias
  • Depression
29
Q

What is an example of an experiment used with depressed patients?

A
  • Patients and controls are presented with a list of randomised single words, such as: depression, neutral…. Words
  • These are carefully controlled experiments & participants are unaware of study aims
  • Words are presented briefly (e.g. 3 seconds), followed by a brief delay (e.g. 500 milliseconds) …
  • Participants given a ‘surprise’ memory test later, and asked to recall as many words as possible – Depressed patients display recall bias for depression stimuli – This indicates an underlying maladaptive scheme
30
Q

What evidence is there for cognition?

A
  • Cognitions are not observable phenomenon (like behaviours), hence difficult to study ‘objectively’ – E.g. Skinner thought that the cognitive approach did not allow for an objective study of human behaviour
  • Great deal of information is processed non-consciously (outside of our awareness), hence difficult to study and change
  • Note: ‘non-conscious’ does not mean the same as ‘unconscious’ - Freud’s term which refers to primitive emotional conflicts…
31
Q

What is the emotional Stroop test?

A
  • Used as an information-processing approach to assess emotions
  • Carefully controlled experiments, participants unaware of study aims
  • Measures selective attention
  • Works by examining the response time of the participant to name colours of negative emotional words
  • Elicits certain behavioural outcomes, e.g. a slowing in response times to certain words/ coloured words
  • Appears to capture attention and slow response time due to the emotional relevance of the word for the individual
32
Q

What is interpretation bias?

A

Interpretation bias, described as the tendency to interpret social situations in a negative or threatening manner

33
Q

How did Eysenck test interpretation bias?

A
  • For instance, in Eysenck et al. (1987) study participants were asked to write down the spelling of auditory presented words
  • Some of the words were homophones (having both threat related and neutral interpretation), e.g. ‘Pane’ (as in panel or windowpane) vs. ‘Pain’ - one experiences when gets hurt
  • They reported a correlation between trait anxiety and the number of threatening homophone interpretations
34
Q

What are the pros of the cognitive approach?

A
  • CBT developed, one of them most effective psychological treatments nowadays
  • Substantial empirical support for information processing biases
  • Emphasis the link between THOUGHT, EMOTION and BEHAVIOUR
35
Q

What are the cons of the cognitive approach?

A

-Irrational or real life? Cognitive approaches have been criticised for assuming that that negative beliefs are always irrational and for ignoring the negative lives that some people truly lead.
-Woolly concepts: Schema – difficult to research, Information processing biases - great in the laboratory- but what do they mean?
-Causality: cognition vs. emotion – which one comes first

36
Q

What is the structure of CBT?

A
  • Lasts between 5 and 20, weekly, or fortnightly sessions
  • Each session will last between 30 and 60 minutes
  • In the first 2-4 sessions, the therapist checks that the patient can use CBT and feels comfortable with it
  • Although CBT concentrates on the present, sometimes the therapist will ask about the past to understand how it is affecting the patient now
  • Patient decides what they want to deal with in the short, medium and long term
  • Practitioner is a guide, empowering approach
37
Q

What is CBT?

A
  • Abnormal behaviour results from distorted thinking and information processing
  • CBT uses various techniques to help patients learn new ways of thinking, behaving and feeling
  • Focus is typically on the present, with direct efforts to change problems
  • Practical approach oriented to changing behaviour, rather than trying to understand the dynamics of personality
  • Not based on human personality theories
  • Encourages collaborative therapist-patient relationships
  • Based on evidence and empirical evaluation
  • Doesn’t look too much into the past
38
Q

What happens in CBT?

A
  • Each problem is broken down into its separate parts, patient may be asked to keep a diary
  • Therapist helps identify individual patterns of thoughts, emotions, bodily feelings and actions
  • These are analysed to evaluate if they are unrealistic or unhelpful and how they affect each other
  • The therapist helps the patient to work out how to change unhelpful thoughts and behaviours
  • Homework is given to work on these unhelpful thoughts and feelings
  • Won’t do things they don’t want to do, repeat until symptoms disappear
39
Q

What are the pros to CBT?

A
  • One of the most effective treatments for conditions characterized by anxiety and depression
  • The most effective psychological treatment for moderate and severe depression
  • As effective as antidepressants for many types of depression
  • Overall, a lot of research evidence suggesting that it is beneficial for the treatment of various types of depression, anxiety disorders, bulimia, substance abuse, etc
40
Q

What are the cons to CBT?

A
  • CBT takes time, a course of CBT may be from 6 weeks to 6 months, depending on the problem and how it is working for the patient
  • Therapist’s role is to advise and encourage - patient needs to do the work
  • Problem if patient finds it difficult to concentrate and get motivated: E.g. to overcome anxiety, patient needs to confront it- may lead to more anxiety…
  • The availability of CBT may be a problem - there may be a waiting list for treatment
  • Symptoms may return; important to keep practising CBT skills, even when feeling better - refresher courses available

Abnormal Psychology (7 decks)

Brainscape helps you reach your goals faster, through stronger study habits.
© 2024 Bold Learning Solutions. Terms and Conditions