| What is the cognitive element of CBT? | The therapist aims to make the client aware of the relationship between thought, emotion and actions. One of the central tasks is to identify negative or irrational thoughts (thought catching) that will benefit from being challenged |
| What is the behavioural element of CBT? | Working to change the thoughts and put more effective behaviours into place. These changes can help to make the client feel better |
| What are the 4 various components of CBT? | 1. Inital assessment
2. Goal setting
3. Identifying negative/irrational thoughts and challening these using either:
Beck's cognitive therapy, Ellis' REBT
4. Homework |
| What does CBT aim to do? | To break the vicious circle of malaptive thinking, feelings and behaviour - focuses on present experiences. Instead of focusing on the causes of distress from the past, it looks for ways to improve the state of mind now. |
| What is talking therapy? | You meet with a therapist for between 5 and 20 ssessions, weekly or fortnightlt.
Each session will be around 60 mintues |
| What is the client seen as in CBT? | Seen as the scientist, they investigate their own negative feelings and then draw hypothesis' and conclusions about their behaviour
They will be able to engage in the generation of hypotheses to be tested. |
| How will negative thoughts be challenged? | Outside of the sessions as homework, thought diaries and practice exercises.
Test negative thoughts against relaity and/or put new ratioanl beliefs into practice.
The gathered data can be taken into the next session to be shared with the therapist. |
| What is behavioural activation? | An example of CBT homework - includes engaging in more active and enjoyable activies, can be used to combat depressive symptoms of isolation and loss of interest:
Being active can be rewarding which can be an antidote for depression eg: exercising to release a rush of endorphins. |
| What did Beck's CBT help with? | Help the patient to identify negative thoughts in relation to themselves, their world and their future, using Beck's negative triad. |
| How would the patient and the therapist work together in Beck's CBT? | Work together to challenge irrational thoughts - discussing evidence for and against them
Process of 'reality testing': if someone says they are useless, they will look that whether in reality they have been successful at something |
| What might the therapist ask the client to do to challenge negative thoughts in Beck's CBT? | To do something (for homework) to demonstrate their ability to succeed to prove their statements are false/challenge their negative thoughts. |
| How did Ellis extened his ABC theory ? | Added three more stages, DEF, which were the treatment of depression used in his rational emotional behavioural therapy (REBT) part of CBT |
| What does the 'D' in DEF stand for? (REBT) | Disputing, the therapist asks the client to dispute (challenge) their irrational thoughts and beliefs |
| What does the 'E' stand for? (REBT) | Effective new responses, at this stage the therapist aks the client to think of more rational responses/attitudes to life |
| What does the 'F' stand for? (REBT) | Feelings, clints asked how this new rational outlook would make them feel, because feeligns create behaviour (reduction in depressive symptoms) |
| What are the 3 types of disputing (REBT) | Emperical, logical, pragmatic |
| What is emperical disputing ? (REBT) | Empirical means evidence. Therapist asks clients where is the proof/evidence that the belief/thought is accurate. Self-defeating beliefs may not be consistent with reality |
| What is logical disputing? (REBT) | Self-defeating beliefs do not follow logically from the information avaliable. The therapist may ask 'does thinking in this way make sense' |
| What is pragmatic disputing? (REBT) | Pragmatic means dealing with things practically. The therapist emphasises the self-defeating beliefs are useless and not practical, eg: 'how is this belief likely to help me' |
| What is a strength of CBT? | -CBT there is reserach support which supports the effectivness of CBT for treating depression
-March: examined 327 adolescents with a diagonsis of depression and looked at the effectives of CBT, antidepressants, and treatment with a combination of CBT and antiepressants
-After 36 weeks, 81% of the antidepressant group and 81% of the CBT group has significantly improved. However, 86% of the CBT with antidepressant group had significantly improved. Means that CBT in combiantion with antidepressants allows for significant improvement seeing as CBT tackles the 'nuture' side of depression and antidepressants tackle the 'nature' side.
-Showing that CBT and antidepressants can be seen as an interactionist approach as it provides a more effective treatment |
| A weakness of CBT? | -Lack of effectivness for severe cases of depression, due to the need for motivation to attend sessions.
-Some cases, depression is so severe that clients cannot motivate themseleves to engage with the cognitive work of CBT and are unable to concentrate on what is happening with the session.
-Furthermore, some ppts might not attend due to them wanting past or childhood experience that the therapist don't want to talk about, meaing the 'present focus' is frustrating for them Different treatments like antidepressant, which don't require motivation and homework, can be seen as more suitably for ppts with severe depression
-Means that CBT might not be effective for certain type of peopel or better when paired with drugs |
| A weakness of CBT? | -Over-emphasis on the role of cognition, as the primary cause, which doesn't allow other possibly circumstances to be considered
-Some psychologists have critcised CBT for not taking into account other factors, such as social circumstances, which might contribute to a person's depression.
-Eg: a patient who is suffering from domestic violence or who in extreme poverty does not need to change their negative/irrational beliefs, but in fact need support to change their circumstances.
-CBT whould not be appropriate in treating the depression of patients like this, demonstrating its limited application to the real world since it focuses solely on conditions and minimised the importance of a person's social circumstances. |
| A weakness of CBT? | -High likelihood of relapsing which is supported by reserach which presents high relapse rates.
-Reltively few of the early studies into effectives of CBT looked at long-term effectivness, therefore Ali et al (2017) did a study which assessed depression in 439 clients every month for 12 months following a course of CBT
-They found that 42% of clients relapsed into depression within six months of completing their CBT treatment whilst 53% relapsed within a year
-This means that CBT might not be a long term solution but rather a solution that has to be done periodically to decrease the rates of relapse as well as maintain the new rational thinking strategies. |
