Beck’s approach is similar to Ellis in that it emphasises recognising and changing negative thoughts and maladaptive beliefs. Beck believes that a person’s reaction to specific upsetting thoughts may contribute to abnormality. As we confront the many situations that arise in life, both comforting and upsetting thoughts come into our heads. Beck calls these unbidden cognition’s automatic thoughts.
When a person’s stream of automatic thoughts is very negative you would expect a person to become depressed (I’m never going to get this essay finished, my girlfriend fancies my best friend, I’m getting fat, I have no money, my parents hate me - have you ever felt like this?) Quite often these negative thoughts will persist even in the face of contrary evidence.
In addition, Beck identifies a number of illogical thinking processes including:
• selective attention: seeing only the negative features of an event
• magnification: exaggerating the importance of undesirable events
• overgeneralization: drawing broad negative conclusions on the basis of a single insignificant event
These illogical thought patterns are self-defeating, and can cause great anxiety or depression for the individual.
Beck’s system of therapy is similar to Ellis’s, but has been most widely used in cases of depression. Cognitive therapists help clients to recognise the negative thoughts and errors in logic that cause them to be depressed. The therapist also guide clients to question and challenge their dysfunctional thoughts, try out new interpretations, and ultimately apply alternative ways of thinking in their daily lives.
Depressed people who are treated with Beck’s approach improve significantly more than those who receive no treatment and about the same as those who receive biological treatments (Hollon & Beck 1994). Beck’s Cognitive therapy has also been successfully applied to panic disorders and other anxiety disorders (Beck, 1993).
Making sense of cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
Cognitive Beahvioural Therapy (CBT)