Module 9: Cognitive Theories

George Kelly

Father of Cognitive Clinical Psychology

Constructive Alternativism

notion that each individual has their own unique construction or perspective of reality

Personal Construct

• individual’s subjective perceptions to the objective reality. F

• Formed according to one’s belief

• Not permanent but rather can be retained, changed, or rejected completely

Construction Corollary

• we construct beliefs according to our past repeated experiences.

• Repeated events are similar, we can predict what will happen

Experience Corollary

when we question our own belief if we are going to change them or retain them by evaluating life experiences

Modulation Corollary

modifying constructs as a function of new experiences

Individuality Corollary

• people perceive events in different ways.

• Having your own unique views doesn't mean that other people need to believe it.

• Your favorites

Dichotomy Corollary

• Always in a VS manner.

• Opposites of beliefs.

• Categorizing our experiences in a bipolar manner.

• There is nothing in between

Organization Corollary

• We arrange our constructs in patterns or hierarchy.

• We organize our beliefs according to a meaningful pattern.

• Collection of beliefs about a certain matter.

• Connected to dichotomy corollary

Choice Corollary

• We choose the best alternative construct that fits us best.

• Connected with dichotomy corollary as well

Fragmentation

These are contradictory or inconsistent constructs

Range

• Construct may apply to many situations or people or may be limited.

• Our beliefs have limitations and there are times that it will not be applicable to certain situations

Commonality

• counterpart of individuality construct.

• People in compatible groups may hold similar constructs

Sociality Construct

• We try to understand how other people think and we modify our behavior accordingly.

• It depends on our social context or on which culture or environment we belong to at the moment

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

widely used modalities of mental health therapy supported by empirical evidence

Aaron Beck

He is the proponent of cognitive behavioral therapy.

Automatic Thoughts

• Common thought patterns related to underlying negative beliefs or habitual maladaptive thought

• These automatic thoughts impact a person’s behavior and how they feel

Cognitive Distortions

negative thinking pattern of an individual that can cause great depression and anxiety to a person

Arbitrary Interference

drawing conclusions on the basis of insufficient or irrelevant evidence

Selective Abstraction

focusing on a single aspect of a situation and ignoring other factors

Magnification

• exaggerating the importance of undesirable events.

• Creating a very negative thought based on a negative situation

Minimisation

• Underplaying the significance of an event.

• You get praised by your teachers for an excellent term’s work, but you see this as trivial

Personalization

attributing the negative feelings of others to yourself

Albert Ellis

proposed that each of us hold a unique set of assumptions about ourselves and our world

Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy

the goal of this therapy is to change irrational beliefs to more rational ones

The ABC Model

by Albert Ellis, major aid in cognitive therapy developed

Multimodal Therapy

comprehensive, biopsychosocial approach to psychological assessment and theoretically consistent, technically eclectic psychotherapy

Arnold Lazarus

He is the proponent of Multimodal Therapy.

BASIC ID

model of personality and a paradigm for understanding the universal yet unique aspects of human psychology