Cognitive theories gained momentum to respond to the failures of early behaviorists to seriously consider people’s thoughts and feelings. However, the cognitive theories force chose not to ignore the behavioral principles. Instead, the cognitive movement idea was to incorporate mental factors into behavioral frameworks. Cognitive behavioral theorists claim that depression is as a result of irrational, faulty, or maladaptive cognitions that take the shape of distorted judgments and thoughts. According to such theorists, one can learn depressive cognitions socially. For instance, a child growing in a dysfunctional family may not successfully deal with the traumatic events. The theorists also claim that inadequate experience that enables the development of adaptive features may cause depressive cognitions (Abela & Sullivan, 2003). Various cognitive-behavioral theorists came up with different interpretations of cognitive thinking. This essay will discuss Aaron Beck as one of the major theorists in cognitive behavior theory. Beck’s negative cognitive triad will be discussed in detail, especially its application in treating psychological problems. The application of Beck’s theory by other researchers will then be highlighted before finally discussing the contrast between Beck’s theory and other theorists of cognitive behavior such as Albert Ellis.
Overview and Summary
Cognitive behavioral theorists are of the idea that depressed individuals and non-depressed ones have different ways of thinking. This thinking difference is what brings depression to people. For instance, depressed individuals often view themselves, the future, and their environment in a negative and pessimistic manner. Consequently, these depressed persons usually give a negative misinterpretation of facts and tend to blame themselves for any occurrence of misfortunes. The negative judgments and thinking translate to negative bias, making it easy for such depressed individuals to view things in a much worse way than they are. Therefore, the risk of such individuals developing symptoms of depression to respond to stressful circumstances is very high (Hankin & Wetter et al., 2008).
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The renowned psychologist and theorist Dr. Aaron Temkin Beck was of the view that negative thinking that is brought by dysfunctional beliefs is the typical cause of symptoms of depression. There is a direct relationship between the level and amount of negative thoughts one has and his/her level of depression. In other words, Beck is saying that an individual experiences more depression with increased negative thoughts. Additionally, Beck claims that three major dysfunctional beliefs dominate the thoughts of depressed people. First, such individuals tend to think that they are inadequate or defective. Second, the depressed persons usually think that all their endeavors end up in failures or defeats. Lastly, depressed people often imagine that there is no hope in their futures. Dr. Beck described these three thinking styles of depressed individuals as the “Negative Cognitive Triad” (Hankin & Wetter et al., 2008).
Beck’s Cognitive Behavior Theory
Aaron Beck believed in a theory that asserts that: there will be no improvement if there is no change in beliefs; there will be a change in symptoms if only beliefs change, and beliefs act as small operational units in individuals. This has been translated to mean that a person’s thinking and schema influence his/her behavior and subsequently, his/her actions. The famous theorist believed that dysfunctional thinking brings about dysfunctional behaviors and that people’s thinking shapes their behaviors. According to Beck, people’s beliefs usually dictate their course of action. He was convinced that positive results would be yielded if individuals were persuaded to quit negative thinking and embrace positive and constructive thoughts. Based on this theory, psychologists devised an effective therapy that could treat various disorders in patients. Cognitive behavioral therapy has been lauded for effectively treating various disorders of psychiatric, psychological, and medical nature. This therapy can treat patients having psychological disorders such as compulsive gambling and uncontrollable anger. The therapy has also been applied to psychiatric problems such as substance abuse and depression (Esbensen & Benson, 2007). Whereas medication is used to treat many health issues, some have a psychological angle in them, and these include obesity, chronic pain, and pre-menstrual syndrome. In such cases, cognitive behavioral therapy has also come in handy and effectively treated patients.
How Cognitive Behavior Theory Applies to Psychological Problems
A good example that demonstrates Beck’s negative cognitive triad is the loss of employment. When a normal person is laid off from their job, they tend to think that the unfortunate event is more about the employer’s declined economic standing than their performance at work. Such normal individuals may not doubt their abilities in such a case or think that such an event means that they are finished. As a result, they will pick themselves up and search for another opportunity. On the contrary, individuals dominated by negative cognitive triad would most likely conclude that their failures caused their layoff. Such individuals become hopeless of their futures and tend to imagine that they will lose any other employment opportunity that they may be lucky to get. Based on such judgments, persons subjected to the negative cognitive triad may begin feeling depressed. Besides these negative effects of dysfunctional thinking, Beck asserts that such beliefs may also shape what an individual pays attention to. The psychologist claims that depressed individuals usually concentrate selectively to some environmental aspects that seem to confirm what is already in their mind even though contrary evidence might be right in their eyes. According to Dr. Beck, this defect of failing to properly concentrate on the right events is called faulty information processing (McIntosh & Fischer, 2000).
Furthermore, Dr. Beck is of the view that certain information processing failures are a clear depiction of a depressed person. For instance, the theorist claims that a depressed person will often exhibit selective attention to events and information that are commensurate to his/her negative thoughts. Such individuals will also be selective in not giving much attention to information which is contrary to his/her negative expectations. When such individuals are given positive reviews of their performance, they someone manage to find one negative aspect that makes the review fall short of perfection and focus on it the whole time. Moreover, Dr. Beck asserts that these individuals with symptoms of depression often minimize the meaning and significance of positive events and maximize those of negative events (McIntosh & Fischer, 2000). The authors claim that these factors which occur rather unconsciously serve to maintain the negative schemas in a depressed individual even in the face of contradicting facts. This allows such individuals to maintain the hopelessness feeling about their futures.
Other Theorists That Have Applied the Same Theory
Various authors and researchers have applied Beck’s theory to describe psychological traits. For instance, Abela and D’Alessandro (2002) used Beck’s theory to study students’ behaviors after college admission. The researchers discovered that the students’ negative opinions concerning their futures strongly dictated the interaction between their dysfunctional characters and the increase in depression. The students’ perceptions about themselves were seen to be negative after their failure to get admissions in college. Most of them exhibited depression symptoms owing to such thoughts. Sato and McCann (2000) also did a study using Beck’s theory, especially on the sociotropy-autonomy scale. Using the scale, the researchers were aiming to identify feelings that caused depression in individuals, and they included individualistic achievements, independence, and interpersonal sensitivity. However, the outcome contradicted Beck by showing that there was no correlation between independence and depression. The results showed that sociotropy, rather than autonomy, was depression’s precursor.
The cognitive theory of depression has also been explained by other theorists such as Dr. Albert Ellis, Albert Bandura, and Martin Seligman. However, these other theorists took different approaches to that of Aaron Beck. For instance, Ellis began by explaining the requirements for a person to have good mental health. Unlike Beck’s thinking, Ellis claims that rational thinking makes individuals happy and free of pain and result in good mental health. The latter further asserts that it is irrational thinking that causes depression which prevents people from living happily and free of pain. Ellis came up with a proposal of a three-stage model known as A-B-C which takes a different dimension from Beck’s negative cognitive triad. The A=B-C Model can be broken down to Activating event, Beliefs, and Consequences (Gonca & Savasir, 2001). Bandura, on the other hand, applied the social cognitive theory (SCT) in explaining the cognitive theory of depression. According to Bandura, individuals are defined by the interactions that occur between their thoughts, behaviors, and environments. Human behavior is hence largely dictated by learning that can occur either through experience or observation (Gonca & Savasir, 2001).
Conclusion
One major strength of the cognitive behavior theories is their application to depression theory. The therapies out of the theories including Beck’s Cognitive Behavior Theories (CBT) and Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) have been fruitful in treating depression. These therapies have made an attempt in identifying and challenging the negative and irrational way of thinking among individuals. As a result, the therapies have been successful in treating people having depression. However, one main shortcoming of the cognitive approach is its lack of explanation of irrational thoughts’ origin and most studies in this field are correlational. The essay has discussed Aaron Beck as one of the major theorists in cognitive behavior theory. Beck’s negative cognitive triad was discussed in detail, especially its application in treating psychological problems.
References
Abela, J.R.Z. & D’Allesandro, D.U. (2002). “Beck’s cognitive theory of depression: The diathesis-stress and casual mediation components.” British Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 41, Issue 1, Pp. 111-128.
Abela, J.R.Z. & Sullivan, C. (2003). “A Test of Beck’s Cognitive Diathesis-Stress Theory of Depression in early Adolescents,” The Journal of Early Adolescence, Vol. 28, Issue 1, Pp. 6-11.
Esbensen, A.J. & Benson, B.A. (2007). “An Evaluation of Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression in Adults with Intellectual Disability,” Journal of Intellectual Disability, Vol. 13, Issue 3, Pp. 65-69.
Gonca, S. & Savasir, I. (2001). “The relationship between interpersonal schemas and depressive symptomatology,” Journal of Counseling Psychology, Vol. 48, Issue 1, Pp. 359-364.
Hankin, B.L. & Wetter, E. et al. (2008). “Beck’s cognitive theory of depression in adolescence: Specific Prediction of Symptoms and Reciprocal Influences in a Multi-Wave Prospective Study,” International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, Guilford Press, Vol. 12, Issue 2, Pp. 14-16 .
McIntosh, C.N. & Fischer, D.G. (2000). “Beck’s Cognitive Triad: One Versus Three factors,” Canadian Journal of Behavioral Science, Vol. 32, Issue 2, Pp. 153-157.
Sato, T. & McCann, D. (2000). “Sociotropy-autonomy and the Beck Depression Inventory,” European Journal of Psychological Assessment, Vol. 16, Issue 1, Pp. 66-76.
