Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

596 CHAPTER 14 Therapies© The New Yorker Collection 1996 Leo Cullum from cartoonbank.com.All Right Reserved.“You only think you’re barking at nothing.We’re all barking at something.”According to Aaron Beck, depressed peopleperceive and interpret experience invery negative terms. They are prone to systematicerrors in logic, or cognitive biases,which shape their negative interpretationof events. The table shows the most commoncognitive biases in depression.Table 14.5Cognitive Biases in DepressionInstead, Beck discovered that depressed people have an extremely negative view ofthe past, present, and future (Beck & others, 1979). Rather than realistically evaluatingtheir situation, depressed patients have developed a negative cognitive bias, consistentlydistorting their experiences in a negative way. Their negative perceptions ofevents and situations are shaped by deep-seated, self-deprecating beliefs, such as “Ican’t do anything right,” “I’m worthless,” or “I’m unlovable” (Beck, 1991). Beck’scognitive therapy essentially focuses on correcting the cognitive biases that underlie depressionand other psychological disorders (see Table 14.5).Beck’s CT has much in common with Ellis’s rational-emotive therapy. Like Ellis,Beck believes that what people think creates their moods and emotions. And likeRET, CT involves helping clients identify faulty thinking and replace unhealthy patternsof thinking with healthier ones.But in contrast with Ellis’s emphasis on “irrational” thinking, Beck believes thatdepression and other psychological problems are caused by distorted thinking andunrealistic beliefs (Arnkoff & Glass, 1992; Hollon & Beck, 2004). Rather than logicallydebating the “irrationality” of a client’s beliefs, the CT therapist encouragesthe client to empirically test the accuracy of his or her assumptions and beliefs (Hollon& Beck, 2004; Wills, 2009). Let’s look at how this occurs in Beck’s CT.The first step in CT is to help the client learn to recognize and monitor the auto -matic thoughts that occur without conscious effort or control. Whether negative orpositive, automatic thoughts can control your mood and shape your emotional andbehavioral reactions to events (Ingram & others, 2007). Because their perceptionsare shaped by their negative cognitive biases, depressed people usually have automaticthoughts that reflect very negative interpretations of experience. Not surprisingly,the result of such negative automatic thoughts is a deepened sense of depression,hopelessness, and helplessness.In the second step of CT, the therapist helps the client learn how to empiricallytest the reality of the automatic thoughts that are so upsetting. For example, to testthe belief that “I always say the wrong thing,” the therapist might assign the personthe task of initiating a conversation with three acquaintances and noting how oftenhe actually said the wrong thing.Cognitive Bias (Error) Description ExampleArbitrary inference Drawing a negative conclusion when there is When Joan calls Jim to cancel their lunch date because she has anlittle or no evidence to support it.important meeting at work, Jim concludes that she is probably goingout to lunch with another man.Selective abstraction Focusing on a single negative detail taken During Jacqueline’s annual review, her manager praises her jobout of context, ignoring the more important performance but notes that she could be a little more confident whenaspects of the situation.she deals with customers over the phone. Jacqueline leaves hermanager’s office thinking that he is on the verge of firing her becauseof her poor telephone skills.Overgeneralization Drawing a sweeping, global conclusion based Tony spills coffee on his final exam. He apologizes to his instructor buton an isolated incident and applying that can’t stop thinking about the incident. He concludes that he is a klutzconclusion to other unrelated areas of life. who will never be able to succeed in a professional career.Magnification and Grossly overestimating the impact of negative One week after Emily aces all her midterms, she worries about flunkminimizationevents and grossly underestimating the im- ing out of college when she gets a B on an in-class quiz.pact of positive events so that small, badevents are magnified, but good, large eventsare minimized.Personalization Taking responsibility, blaming oneself, or Richard becomes extremely upset when his instructor warns the classapplying external events to oneself when about plagiarism. He thinks the instructor’s warning was aimed at him,there is no basis or evidence for making and he concludes that the instructor suspects him of plagiarizing partsthe connection.of his term paper.Source: Based on Beck & others (1979), p. 14.