Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive Therapy
Type of psychology: Psychotherapy
Field of study: Cognitive therapies
Cognitive therapy holds that emotional disorders are largely determined by cognition,
or thinking, that cognitive activity can take the form of language or images, and that
emotional disorders can be treated by helping patients modify their cognitive distortions.
Treatment programs based on this model have been highly successful with depression,
panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and other emotional problems.
Key concepts
• arbitrary inference
• automatic thoughts
• cognitive specificity hypothesis
• cognitive triad
• schemata
• selective abstraction
Cognitive therapy, originally developed by Aaron T. Beck (born in 1921), is
based on the view that cognition (the process of acquiring knowledge and
forming beliefs) is a primary determinant of mood and behavior. Beck developed
his theory while treating depressed patients. He noticed that these
patients tended to distort whatever happened to them in the direction of
self-blame and catastrophe. Thus, an event interpreted by a normal person
as irritating and inconvenient, for example, the malfunctioning of an automobile,
would be interpreted by the depressed patient as another example
of the utter hopelessness of life. Beck’s central point is that depressives draw
illogical conclusions and come to evaluate negatively themselves, their immediate
world, and their future. They see only personal failings, present
misfortunes, and overwhelming difficulties ahead. It is from these cognitions
that all the other symptoms of depression derive.
It was from Beck’s early work with depressed patients that cognitive therapy
was developed. Shortly thereafter, the concepts and procedures were applied
to other psychological problems, with notable success.