Cognitive Therapy (Week 8)

Question 1

Which way of thinking better promotes mental health–rational or optimistic?

Answer 1

Optimistic

Question 2

Who are the key figures in Cognitive Therapy?

Answer 2

Albert Ellis (REBT)
Aaron Beck (Cognitive Therapy)

Question 3

What do problems reflect in Cognitive Therapy?

Answer 3

Our thoughts and interpretations of events.

Question 4

What kind of thinking causes problems, according to Cognitive Therapy?

Answer 4

irrational and inflexible thinking (causes our emotions and behaviors to become constricted)

dogmatic and catastrophic philosophies about ourselves, others, and our world–things “must, should, ought to, have to, and got to” go a particular way or else

Question 5

What is the A-B-C Theory of Cognitive Therapy?

Answer 5

Activating events, lead to beliefs, which lead to consequences

Question 6

What are automatic thoughts in Cognitive therapy?

Answer 6

knee-jerk reactions to distressing situations that run through a person’s mind and that the person can generally identify

Question 7

What are intermediate beliefs in Cognitive therapy?

Answer 7

extreme or absolute rules that are more general and shape automatic thoughts (may be less aware of these)

Question 8

What are core beliefs in Cognitive therapy?

Answer 8

Global and absolute beliefs about ourselves. Two general principles underlie these:
1. Autonomy: beliefs about being effective and productive versus helpless, and
2. Sociotropic: beliefs about being lovable or unlovable

Question 9

What are schemas in Cognitive Therapy?

Answer 9

Cognitive frameworks in the mind; organizing and shaping thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Developed in childhood and informed by numerous other factors, including family, culture, gender, religion, and occupation, schemas may lie dormant until triggered by a specific event. These are a relatively new theoretical innovation and amount to a merger of sorts between cognitive and psycho-dynamic’s focus on the past.

Question 10

What is arbitrary interference?

Answer 10

A type of cognitive distortion in which a belief is based on little evidence.

Question 11

What is selective abstraction?

Answer 11

A type of cognitive distortion that involves focusing on one detail while ignoring the context and other obvious details.

Question 12

What is overgeneralization?

Answer 12

A type of cognitive distortion that involves generalizing one or two incidents to make a broad sweeping judgment.

Question 13

What are magnification and minimization?

Answer 13

A type of cognitive distortion that involves going to either extreme of overemphasizing or underemphasizing based on the facts.

Question 14

What is personalization?

Answer 14

A type of cognitive distortion that involves a particular form of arbitrary inference that is especially common in intimate relationships where external events are attributed to oneself.

Question 15

What is dichotomous thinking?

Answer 15

A type of cognitive distortion that involves all-or-nothing thinking: always/never, success/failure, or good/bad.

Question 16

What is mislabeling?

Answer 16

A type of cognitive distortion that involves assigning a personality trait to someone based on a handful of incidents, often ignoring exceptions.

Question 17

What is mindreading?

Answer 17

A type of cognitive distortion that involves believing you know what the other is thinking or will do without any supporting evidence.

Question 18

What is catastrophizing?

Answer 18

A type of cognitive distortion that involves expecting the worst possible outcome (a.k.a. “blowing things up/out of proportion”)

Question 19

What is perfection-based worth?

Answer 19

One of the “3 Basic Musts” of Cognitive Therapy, the belief that “I must be thoroughly competent, adequate, achieving, and lovable at all times, or else I am an incompetent worthless person.”

Question 20

What is justice for me?

Answer 20

One of the”3 Basic Musts” of Cognitive Therapy, the belief that “other significant people in my life must treat me kindly and fairly at all times or else I can’t stand it, and they are bad, rotten, and evil persons who should be severely blamed, damned, and vindictively punished for their horrible treatment of me.”

Question 21

What is effortless perfection?

Answer 21

One of the”3 Basic Musts” of Cognitive Therapy, the belief that “Things and conditions absolutely must be the way I want them to be and must never be too difficult or frustrating. Otherwise, life is awful, terrible, horrible, catastrophic, and unbearable.”

Question 22

What is Beck’s cognitive triad?

Answer 22

Negative thinking about self, future, and world. (Comes up in depression, but may apply even to clients who are not depressed.)

Question 23

What are the goals of Cognitive therapy?

Answer 23

Improve the client’s ability to identify, challenge, and modify their thoughts so their thinking becomes more rational, flexible, and self-enhancing.

Improve ability to identify cognitive distortions/irrational beliefs.

Improve ability to test and to refute their thoughts from a more objective and logical perspective.

Improve ability to replace problematic thoughts with more adaptive thoughts that promote client’s wellbeing.

Question 24

What characterizes the therapeutic relationship in Cognitive therapy?

Answer 24

Therapist is:
active,
directive, and
frequently assumes the role of educator
(but can be empathetic).

In current practice, the exploration of a client’s beliefs tends to be more collaborative (helping client to question, examine, and challenge their own beliefs) than confrontational (therapist questioning, examining, and challenging client’s beliefs).

Question 25

What are some of the interventions used in Cognitive Therapy?

Answer 25

1. Psychoeducation (on influence of thoughts and common cognitive distortions. May involve use of Bibliotherapy, videos, podcasts, websites, blogs, etc.)
2. Self-talk (negative v. positive)
3. Cost-benefit analysis
4. WDEP (Reality Therapy)
5. Thought record
6. Socratic method/questioning/dialogue and guided discovery
7. Mindfulness
8. Homework
9. Behavioral Therapy techniques (Exposure therapy, systematic desensitization, behavioral activation, relaxation skills, coping strategies).