Ch 11 - Jeff Standen

Consider the following 'irrational beliefs'.
• I must always please others.
• I must always be perfect in what I do.
Anyone holding these beliefs is doomed to failure and
disappointment. It is impossible to please all of the people
all of the time. And no matter how hard a person strives, a
life of perfection is beyond their reach.
Cognition and depression
Aaron Beck's (1967; 1997) theory of depression illustrates
the cognitive approach to psychological disorders.
According to Beck, negative thinking produces negative
moods which can lead to depression. Beck uses the term
cognitive triad to refer to the three main forms of negative
thinking - negative views of 1) the self ('I am worthless'), 2)
the world ('Everything is against me'), and 3) the future
('Nothing is ever going to change').
Negative thoughts can produce errors in thinking. These
errors include:
• Arbitrary inference A conclusion based on insufficient
evidence or no evidence at all. For example, my car
broke down because I am a worthless person.
• Selective abstraction A conclusion based on one of
many aspects of a situation. I forgot to put salt in the
potatoes which ruined the entire dinner party and
showed what a useless host I am.
• Overgeneralisation A generalisation based on a single,
often trivial event. A teacher assumes that he is no good
at his job because a student falls asleep in his class.
Beck argues that negative thoughts lead to negative
emotions which can lead to depression.
There is plenty of evidence to support Beck's theory.
Research indicates that compared to nondepressed people,
depressed individuals are more negative in terms of
themselves, the world, and the future. In addition, they are
more likely to make the kind of errors in thinking that Beck
identifies. The key question, however, is whether negative
thinking precedes and contributes to the onset of depression
or whether it results from depression and contributes to its
maintenance. According to Davison and Neale (1998), 'the
relationship in all likelihood works both ways; depression
can make thinking more negative, and negative thinking can
probably cause and certainly worsen depression'.
Longitudinal studies - studies of a group of people over
time - are needed to investigate this question. The ongoing
Temple-Wisconsin study of cognitive vulnerability to
depression provides some preliminary answers. A sample of
first year university students, none of whom was suffering
from depression at the time, were assessed every few
months. Results for the first 21/2 years suggest that those
students who were prone to negative thinking were more
likely to become depressed. Seventeen per cent of high-risk
participants (those with high scores for negative thinking)
compared to 1% of low-risk participants (those with low
scores) went on to experience a period of severe depression
(discussed in Barlow and Durand, 1999).
Cognitive therapy
As the model implies, cognitive therapy for psychological
disorders involves changing thoughts in order to change
emotions and behaviour. Albert Ellis (1962), developed
rational-emotive therapy which, as its name suggests,
encourages rational thinking in order to change emotions.
The therapist's job is to help their clients to recognise the
irrational assumptions which govern their lives and to
change them into rational and positive views of themselves
and the world.
Beck's cognitive therapy, which is often used in cases of
depression, encourages clients to challenge negative
thoughts, and change them into more constructive ones.
Clients are helped to recognise errors in thinking and
encouraged to correct them. Beck claims that this will
change their emotions and behaviour and, in many cases,
lift their depression.
The cognitive model - evaluation
Successful treatment Research indicates that Beck's
cognitive therapy is as successful as antidepressant drugs in
treating depression (Hollon & Beck, 1994). This, in itself,
provides support for the cognitive model.
Cause and effect The cognitive model has been criticised
for seeing thoughts as the cause of psychological
disorders. Critics argue that because people with
depression tend to see the world in negative terms, then
negative thinking is a consequence of their depression
rather than its cause. However, as the provisional results of
the Temple-Wisconsin study indicate, negative thinking, in
and of itself, appears to make people more vulnerable to
depression.
Origins of cognitive errors The cognitive model has been
criticised for failing to explain where negative thoughts
come from in the first place. However, Beck argues that
experiences in childhood and adolescence, such as loss of a
( Summary 1
The cognitive model assumes that people's thoughts
direct their emotions and behaviour.
Cognitive errors and negative thoughts can affect
mood and behaviour, and can lead to psychological
disorders.
Therapy involves the correction of cognitive errors and
the translation of negative thoughts into positive
thoughts.