Final: COGNITIVE THEORY

Question 1

COGNITIVE THEORY: Advantages

Answer 1

Well received by most people because it is clear and logical, not intrusive
■ Does not require people to share intimate details of their past or focus
extensively on their emotions

○ Draws on a broad array of interventions
○ Can be integrated with many other approaches
○ Clear and carefully planned structure
■ Thoughts are readily accessible
■ Cognitions are amenable to change and analysis

Question 2

COGNITIVE THEORY: Core Cognitions (also referred to as 4 levels of Cognitions)

Answer 2

○ Automatic thoughts​: notions or ideas that occur without effort or choice, can be distorted, and lead to emotional responses. Provide data about core beliefs. Mediate between situation and emotion.
■ “I can’t be the sort of husband Sharon wants and our marriage will end.”

○ Intermediate beliefs​: often reflect ​extreme and absolute rules ​that shape a person’s
automatic thoughts
■ “A good husband must be willing to sacrifice his own needs for his wife.
Marriage is difficult and few succeed.”

○ Core beliefs–​ Central ideas about ourselves that underlie many of our automatic
thoughts; usually global, overgeneralized, and absolute
■ I am not able to love another person and I have little to offer in a relationship

○ Cognitive schemas​ – cognitive structures in the mind that encompass core beliefs, habitual ways of viewing ourselves and the world; lead us to have expectations about experiences, events, and roles.
■ “Hypothesized mental structure that organizes information” p. 297
■ I am inadequate and I am destined to fail, no matter how hard I try. This
makes me feel discouraged about my upcoming marriage, I feel disaster and
shame hanging over my head.

Question 3

COGNITIVE THEORY: Cognitive Distortions

Answer 3

begin to take shape in childhood and are reflected in people’s
fundamental beliefs; inconsistent with objective reality; usually negative

○ All or nothing thinking
○ Overgeneralization
○ Selective abstraction
○ Disqualifying the positive
○ Jumping to conclusions
○ magnification/minimization
○ Emotional reasoning
○ Should and musts
○ Labeling
○ Personalization
○ Catastrophizing
○ Mind reading
○ Tunnel vision

Question 4

COGNITIVE THEORY: View of the DSM

Answer 4

Essential treatment tool

Question 5

COGNITIVE THEORY: Use of inventories (Assessment of Mood)

Answer 5

○ Used to attain emotional ​baseline​ before treatment starts
○ Help clinician and client track scores/emotions
○ Brief, concise,
○ Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)
○ Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)
○ Beck Hopelessness Inventory
○ Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation