Cognitive Approach

Question 1

What are the central concepts to the cognitive approach to Ψ?

Answer 1

• emotions and behaviours arise from thoughts ∴ thoughts can ctrl behav & emotions
• distorted (-) thinking can become habit ⇒ emotional difficulties/disorders
• learning to think constructively can lead to less (-) and better functioning
• approach about information and how it’s processed

STIMULUS ➝ COGNITION ➝ BEHAVIOUR

Question 2

What paradigms preceded Cognitive?

Answer 2

Psychodynamic (Freud, Jung, Bowlby…)

Behaviourism (Pavlov, Skinner, Bandura…)

Humanism (Rogers, Maslow…)

Question 3

Who were the key players in the Cognitive Ψ paradigm?

Answer 3

Beck & Ellis

Question 4

What was Beck’s (2011) cognitive model for clinical problems?

Answer 4

_______Core Belief
____________↓
___Conditional Assumption
____________↓
Event ➝ Automatic Thought ➝ Emo’s; Behav; Physiology

Question 5

Levels of cognitive distortions

Answer 5

Negative Auto Thoughts (NATs) [surface]
Conditional assumptions / intermediate beliefs [deep]
Core Beliefs [deepest]

Question 6

Examples of NATs

Answer 6

• Selective abstraction: focussing on one specific detail
• Overgeneralisation: generalising from a single stimulus to all stimuli
• Magnification and minimisation: magnifying negative
  components/minimising positive components
• Dichotomous thinking: thinking in polar opposites; the best and the worst
• Personalisation: distortion that any criticism is aimed at “me”.
• Labelling and Mislabelling: over generalising by taking one characteristic and applying to whole person or oneself.

Question 7

Name some of Beck’s (1976) common thinking errors (cog dist)

Answer 7

All-or-nothing thinking (“Brilliant or bust”)
Mind reading (“Everyone knows”)
Labelling (“I am my failures”)
Jumping to conclusions (“It must be so”)
Emotional Reasoning (“Feeling is reality”)
Catastrophic (“The worst will happen”)

Question 8

What did Ellis consider the three main irrational beliefs?

Answer 8

• approval of others = worth
• people should treat me the way I want to be treated otherwise they’re bad/wrong/deserve punishment
• I must get everything I want in life and nothing I don’t

Question 9

Common therapeutic aims of Cognitive approach

Answer 9

• Oriented towards change/action (instead of insight)
• modifying behaviour and re-structuring thinking ⇒ changed emotional outcomes
• focus on present over past
• conscious thought (not unconscious processes)
• practical, problem solving approach

Question 10

CBT overview (i.e. therapist role, exercises, time limit?, etc.)

Answer 10

• collaborative w/ therapist
• provides structure & active engagement
• Validation tests, positive visualisation, breathing and relaxation techniques
• time limited (6-20 session)
• behavioural graded exposure (anxiety)

Question 11

Steps to providing CBT

Pneumonic:
Glittery Aardvarks Practice Dancing Really Rudely

Answer 11

1. Gather data
2. Analyse data
3. Plan
4. Dispute problem thinking & behav (actively)
5. Replace problem thinking & behav
6. Reinforce new

Pneumonic:
Glittery Aardvarks Practice Dancing Really Rudely

Question 12

Padesky’s 5 Aspects Model (1986)

Answer 12

___[ENVIRONMENT]

_____[Thoughts]
_____//____|_____
[Biology]–+– [Mood/Feelings]
____\_____|_____//
_____[Behaviour]