Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Cognitive Therapies593Table 14.3Behavior TherapyType of Therapy Foundation Source of Problems Treatment Techniques Goals of TherapyBehavior therapy Based on classical Learned maladaptive Systematic desensitization, virtual To unlearn maladaptiveconditioning, operant behavior patterns reality, aversive conditioning, behaviors and replaceconditioning, and reinforcement and extinction, them with adaptive,observational token economy, contingency appropriate behaviorslearningmanagement interventions,observational learningCognitive TherapiesKey Theme• Cognitive therapies are based on the assumption that psychologicalproblems are due to maladaptive thinking.Key Questions• What are rational-emotive therapy and cognitive therapy, and how dothey differ?• What is cognitive-behavioral therapy?While behavior therapy assumes that faulty learning is at the core of problem behaviorsand emotions, the cognitive therapies assume that the culprit is faulty thinking.The key assumption of the cognitive therapies could be put like this: Most peopleblame their unhappiness and problems on external events and situations, but thereal cause of unhappiness is the way the person thinks about the events, not theevents themselves. Thus, cognitive therapists zero in on the faulty, irrational patternsof thinking that they believe are causing the psychological problems. Oncefaulty, irrational patterns of thinking have been identified, the next step is to changethem to more adaptive, healthy patterns of thinking. In this section, we’ll look athow this change is accomplished in two influential forms of cognitive therapy: Ellis’srational-emotive therapy (RET) and Beck’s cognitive therapy (CT).Albert Ellis and Rational-Emotive TherapyShakespeare said it more eloquently, but psychologist Albert Ellis has expressed thesame sentiment: “You largely feel the way you think.” Ellis was trained as both aclinical psychologist and a psychoanalyst. As apracticing psychoanalyst, Ellis became increasinglydisappointed with the psychoanalytic approachto solving human problems. Psychoanalysissimply didn’t seem to work: Hispatients would have insight after insight, yetnever get any better.In the 1950s, Ellis began to take a more active,directive role in his therapy sessions. Hedeveloped rational-emotive therapy, abbreviatedRET in the 1950s. RET is based on the assumptionthat “people are not disturbed bythings but rather by their view of things” (Ellis,1991). The key premise of RET is that people’sThere is nothing either good or bad,but thinking makes it so.—WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HAMLETAlbert Ellis (1913–2007) A colorful andsometimes controversial figure, AlbertEllis developed rational-emotive therapy(RET). Rational-emotive therapy promotespsycho logically healthier thoughtprocesses by disputing irrational beliefsand replacing them with more rationalinterpretations of events.