Lecture 8

Cognitive model

Based on information processing viewpoint. 

Cognition involves

the mental processes of perceiving, recognizing, judging and reasoning. 

Schemas:

a set of underlying assumptions rooted in experiences, values.

pattern of thoughts that helps a person to understand new information, make predictions, remember details and interpret events. 

Ellis’s Rational Emotive Therapy — irrational beliefs 

believed that everyone’s thoughts were rational at times and irrational other times.

When we think rationally, we behave rationally and we feel happy, competent and efficient.

However when we think irrationally we can develop negative or disturbed habits in our thinking which can lead to psychological disturbance (i.e. depression, anxiety)

What are Automatic Thoughts?

happen spontaneously in response to situation. Occur in shorthand: words or images. Do not arise from reasoning. No logical sequence. Hard to turn off. May be hard to articulate

Core Beliefs

underlie and produce automatic thoughts. They “sleep” until activated by stress or negative life events. 

Helpless core belief

• I am inadequate, ineffective, incompetent, can’t cop

• I am powerless, out of control, trapped

• I am vulnerable, weak, needy, a victim, likely to be hurt

• I am inferior, a failure, a loser, defective, not good enough, don’t measure up

Unlovable core beliefs

•  I am unlikable, unwanted, will be rejected or abandoned, always be alone 

• I am undesirable, ugly, unattractive, boring, have nothing to offer

• I am different, flawed, defective, not good enough to be loved by others

Worthless core beliefs

• I am worthless, unacceptable, bad, crazy, broken, nothing, a waste

• I am hurtful, dangerous, toxic, evil

• I don’t deserve to live

Beck — Cognitive Distortions

Patients tend to make consistent errors in their thinking. Often, there is a systematic negative bias in the cognitive processing of patients suffering from psychiatric disorders.  

Arbitrary inference

conclusion not supported by existing evidence

Selective abstraction

conceptualizing based on a detail

Overgeneralization

creating a rule based on only one (or few) incidents

Dichotomous (polarized) thinking

Interpreting in terms of extremes

Incorrect assessment of danger versus safety

sensing risk as dangerously high

Emotional reasoning

feelings are facts

Anticipating negative outcomes

the worst will happen

All-or-nothing thinking

all good or all bad

Mind-reading

knowing what others are thinking

Personalization

excess responsibility

Mental filter

Ignoring the positive

Beck — Cognitive Triad 

The cognitive traid — that are typical of people with depression

Negative views about

the future – e.g.‘I’ll never be good at anything’

themselves – e.g.‘I’m worthless and stupid’

the world – e.g.‘Everyone hates me’

Depression:

Negative view of self, others, and future. Core beliefs associated with helplessness, failure, incompetence, and unlovability.

Anxiety:

Overestimation of physical and psychological threats. Core beliefs linked with risk, dangerousness, and uncontrollability.