Evaluation for REBT/Irrational thoughts

Question 1

Name an advantage of REBT

Answer 1

there is supporting evidence to suggest the effectiveness of REBT
Ellis (1957) found a 90% success rate for REBT taking an average of 27 sessions to complete the treatment. Cujipers et al 2013 reviewed 75 studies of CBT and found that CBT was superior to no treatment

Question 2

Name a disadvantage of CBT

Answer 2

CBT may not always be an appropriate treatment
it could be less suitable for people who have high levels of rigid irrational beliefs (Elkin et al 1985)
Supporting evidence shows that CBT should be used in conjunction with drug therapy - March followed a group of 327 adolescents with a main depression diagnosis and after 36 weeks - 81% - 81% and 86% were the respective improvement rates for each of three experimental conditions (CBT,antidepressants, CBT + antidepressants)
it could be argued that it should not be used on its own as patients may just not simply want advice and prefer to share their worries with a therapist without the involvement in the cognitive effort associated with recovery (Ellis 2001)

Question 3

Name an advantage of CBT

Answer 3

There is supporting evidence for the role of behavioural activism
Babyak et al (2000) studied 156 adult volunteers diagnosed with major depression disorder
They were assigned an aerobic exercise, drug treatment or a combination of the two for four months
Research found that those in the exercise group had low relapse rates
This shows that a change in behaviour can be beneficial for depression and thus validating the use of CBT

Question 4

Name an advantage of CBT

Answer 4

It treats the source of the ‘abnormality’ and not the symptoms
This differs from the two process model
CBT takes into account the cognitive processes of the client from the source and in turn, will help unlearn the maldaptive behaviours that have resulted because of the role of the cognition
This is an advantage as not only does it help unlearn the maladpative cognitive functions of depression but also the symptoms (which are learnt from these negative thinking processes)

Question 5

Name a disadvantage of CBT

Answer 5

The ‘Dodo bird effect’
Rosenzweig argued that research tends to find that there are fairly small differences in success rates
Luborsky et al (1975, 2002) reviewed over 100 studies that compared different therapies and found that there were only small differences.
Rosenzweig argued that the lack of difference was because there were so many common factors in these various psychotherapy
i.e having a sympathetic person to talk to/ being able to express one’s thoughts
This suggests the lack of difference in the effectiveness of therapies and leads one to question the effectiveness of CBT