Exhaustive Notes on Cognitive and Humanistic Psychology Approaches

The Cognitive Approach to Psychology

The cognitive approach, or "Approche centrée sur la pensée," focuses primarily on human thought patterns. Its fundamental goal is to comprehend why individuals act in specific ways by examining their cognitive frameworks. According to this perspective, behavior depends on an individual's "Schema" (sh ma) rather than their emotions. Specifically, it investigates how we choose information from our environment and how we interpret that information.

Cognition refers to the specific way in which a person processes information. The interpretation of this information is shaped by our life experiences and our environment, which create established manners of processing. However, these interpretations can sometimes be erroneous. Humans naturally transform information to allow themselves to adapt to the demands of their environment. Several pertinent details regarding this process include:

• Irrational ideas: If an individual possesses irrational ideas, it often leads to psychological disorders.
• Illusions: These often manifest in perfectionists who have difficulty completing tasks because they demand absolute perfection.

Consequences of Erroneous Cognitive Schemas

When a cognitive schema is flawed or "erron," it leads to several negative psychological consequences:

• Automatic negative thoughts.
• Rumination (continuous brooding over problems).
• Negative self-verbalization (intrinsic negative self-talk).
• Catastrophic mental images (visualizing the worst possible outcomes).
• Hyper-control (an excessive need to manage every detail).

Adaptation and Problem-Solving Capacities

Having a good capacity for adaptation and problem-solving relies on two major psychological aspects:

1. Locus of Control: This is the source to which we attribute responsibility for our successes or failures.     - External Locus: Placing the blame or credit on others or external factors.     - Internal Locus: Placing the responsibility on oneself.
2. Belief in Personal Efficacy: This relates to "Learned Helplessness" (impuissance apprise), where a person feels they have absolutely no control over what happens to them.

Structure of Information Processing

Information processing within the cognitive framework is divided into three distinct types of structures:

1. Cognitive Schemas

These are stored in the long-term memory and process information based on past life experiences. They often manifest as rigid internal rules or phrases that begin with "It is necessary to" or "One must" (il faut).

2. Cognitive Processes

These involve the specific logical errors or "cognitive distortions" used during processing. The transcript identifies eight key processes:

• Arbitrary Inference: Reaching a conclusion without evidence. Example: "I asked what you are doing tonight; no one answered me, so they don't care about me."
• Selective Abstraction: Focusing on a single negative detail while ignoring the big picture. Example: "Everyone is listening to me except Maya, so my class is terrible."
• Overgeneralization (Surg n ralisation): Using absolute terms like "always" or "never."
• Amplification: Exaggerating the importance or impact of a situation. Example: "I am hungry; I am going to die."
• Maximization/Minimization: Maximizing the chances of future failure while minimizing past successes.
• Personalization: Erroneously believing that you are the sole cause of an external event.
• Dichotomous Reasoning: Black-and-white thinking where there is no "gray zone."
• Over-socialization Reasoning: Doing things solely because the environment or society dictates they should be done.

3. Cognitive Events

These are the biased responses an individual provides, which are skewed by their internal schemas and cognitive processes.

Cognitive and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive therapy utilizes a Socratic approach, which operates through systematic questioning. Its primary goal is to identify cognitive schemas that, through their inflexibility, create a "depressogenic vulnerability" (vulnerabilit d pressogene).

Critiques of CBT

Critics argue several points against the cognitive-behavioral approach:

• Some find it too simple, while others find it too complicated.
• It may not attack the actual roots of a problem.
• It might simply displace the problem rather than solve it (often cited in discussions of repression).
• It has a tendency to neglect emotions.

Reciprocal Determinism

This principle states that environmental factors determine our personality, and our personality in turn contributes to the environment. This is expressed through the interaction of the Person ($P$), Behavior ($C$), and Environment ($E$):

• $P$ (Personne): What you are/think.
• $C$ (Comportement): What you do.
• $E$ (Environnement): The external context. Example: "I choose my friends ($E$), and they influence my personality ($P$)."

Goals of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TCC)

The subject in TCC learns to identify, discuss, soften, and modify automatic thoughts, cognitive processes, and "silent postulates." The therapy rests on the postulate that changing beliefs and thoughts can modify the emotions and maladaptive behaviors from which the subject suffers.

Social Learning Theory

Social learning involves two main self-reflective processes:

1. Self-Regulation (Autor gulation): Managing oneself, controlling behavior, and setting personal objectives.
2. Self-Analysis (Auto-Analyse): The ability to see what one is doing wrong, evaluating experiences, and reflecting on thought processes to modify them according to needs. The principal aspect here is the "Sense of Competence" (Sentiment de comp tence). Being in a negative environment (being "mal entour ") can hinder this.

Learning through Observation and Modeling

• By Observation: Observing someone else's behavior and modifying one's own. Example: Seeing someone put a napkin on their knees and doing the same.
• By Modeling (Imitation): Observing person A's behavior in a situation, and then, when finding oneself in the same situation as A, modifying behavior accordingly.

The Four Basic Processes of Social Learning:

1. Attention: You must pay attention to the model.
2. Memory: You must remember the behavior.
3. Motor Reproduction: You must be physically capable of performing the action.
4. Motivation: You must have the desire to perform the action.

Types of Reinforcement:

• External Reinforcement: An outside stimulus that makes you want to perform the action.
• Modeling Reinforcement: Letting others make mistakes so you can learn the best way to do something.
• Auto-Reinforcement:     - Positive Auto-Reward: Buying something you like for yourself.     - Negative Auto-Reward: Removing something you dislike.     - Auto-Punishment by Addition: Adding something you dislike.     - Auto-Punishment by Removal: Taking away something you like.

The Three-Column Technique

This technique is used to analyze the connection between situations, thoughts, and emotions.

Example analysis of fear:

• Situation: "I hear a noise in the house while I am alone."
• Initial Thought: "There is a burglar."
• Initial Emotion: "I am very afraid of being attacked."
• Revised Thought: "It is the window making noise."
• Revised Emotion: "Relieved."

The Humanistic Approach (The "Third Force")

The Humanistic approach shifts the focus to the individual's subjective internal state. It prioritizes what the individual thinks over what others think, emphasizing self-acceptance, identity, and personal growth. It is referred to as the "Third Force" in psychology.

Carl Rogers' Perspective

Carl Rogers aimed to develop a client's capacity to make personal choices. Because it is not strictly based on theory that can be scientifically proven, it is often critiqued by the scientific community. It stands in opposition to Behaviorism (which judges from the outside) and Psychoanalysis (which may ignore social factors).

Personality Structure in Humanism

1. The Organism: The person in their entirety, including all experiences felt consciously or unconsciously.
2. The Self-Concept: How a person perceives themselves, their characteristics, their relations with others, and the values attached to these perceptions.
3. Equivalent to the Self: A sense of personal identity that makes us conscious of our relationship with others.
4. Self-Critical Function: The individual is the center, and the principal drive is to develop and self-actualize.

Congruence and the Ideal Self

• Ideal Self: What we wish to be.
• Congruence: Acting according to one's values and thinking/acting exactly how one wants.
• Incongruence: Being in disagreement with oneself (e.g., faking emotions, wearing a "mask").

Three Types of Congruence:

1. Between Self and Organism: The self-image matches the sum of experiences.
2. Between Self and Ideal Self: Satisfaction with the self.
3. Between Subjective and Objective Reality: Verification of perceptions. Crucial Rule: The larger the gap between the self-concept and actual experience, the less balanced the person is.

Properties of Human Experience

Human experience according to this approach has six properties:

1. Subjective: It is not what the person does objectively, but what they think or feel during the action.
2. Unique: The lived experience of an action will never be exactly the same twice.
3. Unobservable: It is impossible to describe one's lived experience from the outside.
4. Mental: It cannot be reduced merely to behaviors or neural networks.
5. Accessible only to the Individual: Only the person can say what is happening, and what they say is authentic.
6. Direct Access: Accessible directly through consciousness.

Rogerian Dimensions and Therapeutic Alliance

There are three core Rogerian dimensions:

1. Congruence: Exact correspondence between experience and awareness (authenticity).
2. Empathy: The therapist's sensitivity to the client's experience and the ability to understand their situation without being overwhelmed by it.
3. Here and Now: Staying anchored in present reality.

Person-Centered Approach (ACP)

The Humanistic ACP aims to foster change. The client must recognize their responsibility in their situation. The therapist provides a safe framework and helps the client understand difficulties and needs. The client must find their own solutions and express emotions without distortion.

The Role of the Helper vs. The Actions of the Consultant

Therapeutic Goals and Responsibilities

The ultimate goal is for the client to take care of themselves, detect sources of tension, and accept that they are not a hero. One must love oneself as they are and take pleasure in living. Responsibilities include:

• Being authentic.
• Abolishing prejudices.
• Not causing harm (which is already a great help).
• Responsibility is primarily to oneself.
• Collaboration based on trust, acceptance, and empathy.
• Unconditional Acceptance: Refraining from judgment and interpretation. Total respect by setting aside the power to influence or criticize.

Characteristics of a Self-Actualized Person

• Perceives reality accurately and tolerates uncertainty.
• Accepts self and others.
• Motivated by the desire to be themselves.
• Problem-centered rather than self-centered.
• Capable of resisting social pressures.
• Establishes deep social links.
• Few prejudices and a strong moral sense.
• Possesses a sense of humor and creativity.

The Therapeutic Meeting and Phases

Therapeutic responsibility always focuses on the present or future, rather than the past. If necessary, confrontation is used.

Phases of the Interview:

1. First Phase: Listening based on influence, conscious or unconscious desires, hopes, and memories.
2. Second Phase: Finding solutions.
3. Third Phase: Finding strategies.

Process During the Session:

• Reserve 2-3 minutes before the interview.
• Observe how the person initiates contact.
• Conclusion: Encouragement, summary, and a friendly closing. Ideally, the client summarizes the session and is given "homework."

Communication Techniques

Listening

Listening requires silence, avoiding "a priori" assumptions, not pre-imagining arguments, and centering entirely on the other while manifesting interest.

• Empathic Listening: Creating a close link to perceive the patient's doubts and certainties.
• Active Listening: A conscious, voluntary operation to be available to the other as they are, not as I see them. It expression comprehension and helps find solutions.

Formulation and Reformulation

• Echo Formulation: Repeating the last word spoken to create a "restart" and a mirror effect that makes the patient feel understood.
• Reflection Formulation: Making the patient feel that their emotions are perceived, allowing for personal validation.
• Reformulation: Re-stating the patient's words in a different way to verify comprehension, recenter the interview, and show active listening.
• Handling Requests for Solutions: If a client asks for a solution directly, the therapist can mimic the helper role, return the question, use reflection, or use the "And then?" technique.

Non-Directivity

The Humanistic approach is non-directive. It aims to liberate positive human tendencies and change forces. It implies:

• Participation of the person as an active "actor."
• The belief that the person can resolve their own conflicts.
• The therapist's listening is centered on the individual's unique experience.
• The therapist does not lead the person but accompanies them in reorganizing their personality.