PSYC201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Human Nature, Relaxation Technique, Scientific Method
2 Jun 2018
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PSY201: Week 5 – Cognitive Behavioural Therapy:
Beck (1970; 1975) – cognitive therapy (CT)
• Approach → is active, directive, collaborative, time-limited, present-oriented,
structured and strong empirical basis
• Tenet → focus on cognitive processes to understand and modify emotional
and behavioural disturbances
• The way you think is the way you feel – helping overcome difficulties
Cognitive theory:
• Theoretical concepts – the role of schemas in emotional disturbance. Affects
all levels of information processing (e.g. the way we interpret, memory of past
events, the way in which we communicate etc.). Unique cognitive profile
associated with each type of disorder, termed ‘cognitive content-specificity
hypothesis’
o Each type of emotional syndrome is characterized by a specific
cognitive theme
• E.g. depression, anxiety → pessimistic attitudes
o Anxiety; the cognitive theme is threat
o Depression; themes of loss and failure
o Anger; themes of revenge, the world is unjust
• CBT = big part is the way you think
Cycle of thoughts and feelings
• The cognitive-behavioural model → cycle of maladaptive thoughts, feelings
and actions
• Emotions are pretty much the direct results of your thoughts and
interpretations about events
• “If you change your thoughts you will go a long way to changing your
feelings”
• Cycle looks something like this:
o Event → thought → feeling → response
Cognitive therapy;
• Goal → change cognitions via tapping into one’s ‘automatic thoughts’ to
reach core schemata
• Basic principles
o Focus on ‘automatic thoughts’ to identify ‘logical errors’ – also look at
processing biases
o Cognitive restructuring – term in cog therapy to describe the method
where you challenge the unhelpful thoughts → empirically testing
premise of auto-thoughts via Socratic dialogue and self-monitoring
homework
Realistic thinking –
• Negative thought
o “They will think I’m boring”
• Evidence
o “My other friends don’t find me boring”
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