Cognitive Therapy (Week 8) Flashcards
Which way of thinking better promotes mental health–rational or optimistic?
Optimistic
Who are the key figures in Cognitive Therapy?
Albert Ellis (REBT)
Aaron Beck (Cognitive Therapy)
What do problems reflect in Cognitive Therapy?
Our thoughts and interpretations of events.
What kind of thinking causes problems, according to Cognitive Therapy?
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
What is the A-B-C Theory of Cognitive Therapy?
Activating events, lead to beliefs, which lead to consequences
What are automatic thoughts in Cognitive therapy?
knee-jerk reactions to distressing situations that run through a person’s mind and that the person can generally identify
What are intermediate beliefs in Cognitive therapy?
extreme or absolute rules that are more general and shape automatic thoughts (may be less aware of these)
What are core beliefs in Cognitive therapy?
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
What are schemas in Cognitive Therapy?
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.
What is arbitrary interference?
A type of cognitive distortion in which a belief is based on little evidence.
What is selective abstraction?
A type of cognitive distortion that involves focusing on one detail while ignoring the context and other obvious details.
What is overgeneralization?
A type of cognitive distortion that involves generalizing one or two incidents to make a broad sweeping judgment.
What are magnification and minimization?
A type of cognitive distortion that involves going to either extreme of overemphasizing or underemphasizing based on the facts.
What is personalization?
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.
What is dichotomous thinking?
A type of cognitive distortion that involves all-or-nothing thinking: always/never, success/failure, or good/bad.
What is mislabeling?
A type of cognitive distortion that involves assigning a personality trait to someone based on a handful of incidents, often ignoring exceptions.
What is mindreading?
A type of cognitive distortion that involves believing you know what the other is thinking or will do without any supporting evidence.
What is catastrophizing?
A type of cognitive distortion that involves expecting the worst possible outcome (a.k.a. “blowing things up/out of proportion”)
What is perfection-based worth?
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.”
What is justice for me?
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.”
What is effortless perfection?
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.”
What is Beck’s cognitive triad?
Negative thinking about self, future, and world. (Comes up in depression, but may apply even to clients who are not depressed.)
What are the goals of Cognitive therapy?
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.
What characterizes the therapeutic relationship in Cognitive therapy?
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).
What are some of the interventions used in Cognitive Therapy?
- Psychoeducation (on influence of thoughts and common cognitive distortions. May involve use of Bibliotherapy, videos, podcasts, websites, blogs, etc.)
- Self-talk (negative v. positive)
- Cost-benefit analysis
- WDEP (Reality Therapy)
- Thought record
- Socratic method/questioning/dialogue and guided discovery
- Mindfulness
- Homework
- Behavioral Therapy techniques (Exposure therapy, systematic desensitization, behavioral activation, relaxation skills, coping strategies).
