Cognitive Behavioural Approaches 2

Question 1

Describe who Albert Ellis is

Answer 1

-Had social phobia and shyness with women
-Forced himself to overcome these issues
-Trained in psychoanalysis but found the method’s quite unscientific
-Rational therapy -> Rational Emotive therapy -> Rational Emotive Behavioural Therapy

Question 2

What are the fundamental goals of human nature?

Answer 2

-To survive
-To be relatively free from pain
-To be reasonably satisfied and content

Question 3

What is rational living?

Answer 3

-Something that helps you to achieve your goals; self-preservation, actualisation, happiness and rational thought

Question 4

What is irrational living?

Answer 4

-Something that prevents you from achieving your goals; self-destruction, irrational thought, perfectionism, superstition and intolerance

Question 5

What is the ABC theory of personality?

Answer 5

-People create their own emotional disturbances
-A = Activating event/Adversity
-B = Belief
-C = Consequences (emotional and behavioural)

Question 6

What behaviour is rational?

Answer 6

-Healthy
-Productive
-Adaptive
-Consistent with social reality
-Prefer to have goals unblocked
-Frustration, address and adjust to diversity

Question 7

What behaviour is irrational?

Answer 7

-Rigid
-Dogmatic
-Unhealthy
-Maladaptive
-I must have my goals unblocked
-Anxiety, self defeating reaction

Question 8

What is the difference between primary demanding beliefs and secondary demanding beliefs?

Answer 8

-Primary demanding beliefs “musturbation”
-Secondary demanding beliefs “miserable and misery”

Question 9

Describe research conducted by Ellis (1988) - Neuroses can be grouped into 2 main categories

Answer 9

-Ego disturbance
-”I must do well and always gain approval”
-”I must be perfect”

-Low frustration tolerance
-”I am so special that things must be so easy and satisfying”
-”Others must treat me well”

Question 10

Define acquisition

Answer 10

-Refers to biological tendencies, social learning and choosing irrational cognitions

Question 11

How can maintenance occur?

Answer 11

-Biological tendencies
-Emphasising ones ‘Godawful’ past
-Insufficient scientific thinking
-Reinforcing consequences

Question 12

What were the goals of Ellis’ REBT (rational emotive behavioural therapy)?

Answer 12

-Inelegant change goals
-Symptom removal and focuses on specific issues
-Elegant change goals
-New philosophy for life
-Anti-mustabatory thinking
-Unconditional self

Question 13

What is the therapeutic process?

Answer 13

-Focus on specific issues
-Therapist acts as a teacher
-Homework tasks that they have to complete
-Weekly sessions, tend to have 5-50 sessions
-Relationships between therapist and client is unconditionally accepting, empathetic and appropriately humorous

Question 14

Describe the cognitive techniques that would be used within therapy

Answer 14

-Scientific questioning used where they are asked different thinkings
-Functional -”Is it helping you?”
-Logical - “How does it follow, how is it logical?”
-Empirical - “Where is the evidence/proof?”
-Philosophical - “Without X, could you still get some enjoyment in your life?”
-Uses rational coping statements such as ‘I can accomplish this task’ and ‘I’d prefer to have done well on that exam, but there is no evidence that i have to do well’
-Cognitive homework included reminder cards, visualising as well as self-help forms

Question 15

Describe the emotive techniques that would be used within therapy

Answer 15

-Rational emotive imagery
-Role playing
-Humour

Question 16

Describe the use of rational emotive imagery

Answer 16

-Imagine the worst, feel and hold the negative and change to healthy

Question 17

Describe the use of role playing

Answer 17

-Rehearse behaviours
-Work through irrational beliefs

Question 18

Describe the use of humour

Answer 18

-Put life into perspective
-Take things seriously
-Laugh at self defeating ways of thinking

Question 19

Describe the behavioural techniques that would used within this therapy

Answer 19

-Shame attacking
-Assignments that challenge demandingness
-Reinforcement

Question 20

Describe the use of shame attacking

Answer 20

-Emotional distress cause where you feel shame, guilt and humiliation
-Repeatedly do something shameful -> Refuse to feel ashamed -> Realisation and self-acceptance

Question 21

Describe the use of assignments that challenge demandingness

Answer 21

-Repeatedly do ‘feared’ behaviours whilst convincing yourself that the consequence isn’t awful
-Do this flooding

Question 22

Describe the use of reinforcement

Answer 22

-Rewards and penalties (operant conditioning)

Question 23

Generally evaluate REBT using 4 studies

Answer 23

-Grove et al (2021)
-Knapp et al (2013)
-Misdeni et al (2019)
-Ahmadabadi et al (2014)

Question 24

What did Grove et al (2021) find?

Answer 24

REBT informed group therapy for veterans with PTSD reduced depression and PTSD symptoms - USA

Question 25

What did Knapp et al (2013) find?

Answer 25

REBT reduced irrational beliefs and distress and increased self-acceptance for women at risk of exercise addiction - UK

Question 26

What did Misdeed et al (2019) find?

Answer 26

REBT reduced exam anxiety in school students - Indonesia

Question 27

What did Ahmadabadi et al (2014) find?

Answer 27

REBT increased self control and reduced impulsivity in male prisoners - Iran

Question 28

Describe the procedure of David et al (2017) study

Answer 28

-Systematic review which uses a detailed, comprehensive strategy to search for and synthesise all existing relevant literature on a topic
-Meta-analysis used statistics to synthesise data from multiple studies and gave an effect size
-Reviewed 84 studies which included an REBT intervention
-Found a medium effect size on most outcomes e.g. anxiety, depression

Question 29

Describe the results that were found by David et al (2017)

Answer 29

-Evidence shows that it is effective across many outcomes
-Focus on education supports longer term effectiveness
-Focus on beliefs, thoughts and behaviours more accessible than requiring client to go back into past memories and experiences