Cognitive Behavioural Theory

Refers to a class intervention that share the basic premises that mental disorders and psychological distress are mentioned by cognitive factors,( Beck, 2011 and Ellis 1965). They further demonstrated that maladaptive cognitions contribute to the maintenance of emotional distress and behavioural problems.
According to Becks Model these maladaptive cognitive include general beliefs or schemas about the world, the self and the future, giving rise to specific and automatic though outs in particular activity.

Hofman, ( 2011). Cognitive behavioural therapy refers to a family of intervention that combines a variety of cognitive, behavioural and emotional focused techniques. Cognitive behavioural therapy combines cognitive and behavioural therapies and has strong empirical support for treating and anxiety disorders, (Chambless and Olendick, 2001).

The background of the theory of cognitive behavioural therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy as we know it first came about when Aaron Beck, a psychoanalyst at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, attempted to find an empirical basis for the psychoanalysis treatments that were being used for depression at the time (Beck, 2011). While doing this, Beck could not find an empirical basis for psychoanalysis, but he did found out that cognition (and specifically negative thoughts) played a major role in depression.

This cognitive role was not reflected in contemporary psychoanalysis treatments at this time. Following this finding, Beck developed the then-called cognitive therapy, a:
“structured, short-term, present-oriented psychotherapy for depression, directed toward solving current problems and modifying dysfunctional thinking and behaviour.”

Basic idea behind Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

The basic idea behind Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is that people with depression have a set of beliefs about themselves. These beliefs cause them to automatically have negative thoughts in response to adversity, and these thoughts cause them to retreat within and become further depressed.
Beck felt that this contradicted contemporary thinking about depression, as he felt that treatments for depression at the time focused too much on previous experiences rather than on current day-to-day beliefs and experiences. By realizing the importance of cognition and day-to-day thinking in depression and depressive symptoms, Beck revolutionized the treatment of depression.

Eventually, this shift in thinking also made its way to other disorders as Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) started being used as a treatment for non-depression disorders, which we will discuss later in this article.

Beck shared his findings with his colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania, and they found similar success treating their patients with cognitive behavioural therapy (which was then just called cognitive therapy). This led Beck and his colleague John Rush to run a study comparing the efficacy of this new therapy to the drug imipramine, an antidepressant, and found the two treatments to be similarly effective.

From there, Beck and his colleagues were confident that Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) had potential as a treatment for depression, so they published a cognitive therapy treatment manual and (what would come to be known as) Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) started gaining acceptance beyond the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in the greater field of psychology.

The founder of the theory of cognitive behavioural therapy

As mentioned above, Beck was the psychologist who first conceptualized what we now know as cognitive behavioural therapy. Like all scientists, however, he did not do this without help, and he was inspired by a wide range of thinkers, from ancient philosophers like Epictetus to psychoanalysts before him like Karen Horney, Alfred Adler, and many others (Beck, 2011).

Within the University of Pennsylvania, Beck’s colleagues Rush, Brian Shaw and Gary Emery were crucial in helping develop and define Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), particularly helping define it for a wider audience with the cognitive therapy treatment manual they published.
It should also be noted that behaviour therapy far preceded Beck, as John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner were doing work involving behaviour therapy as far back as 1920 with their landmark “Little Albert” experiment (Watson & Rayner, 1920).

Behavioural therapy continued to be researched by many psychologists including B.F. Skinner (Skinner, 1974) and Joseph Wolpe (Wolpe, 1976), to name just a few. Behavioural therapy and related research included varying levels of integration with cognition, with some behaviourists trying to merge cognitive and behaviourist schools of thought and others outright rejecting cognition.

Therapy focusing on cognition itself also pre-dated Beck, including such work as Albert Ellis’s rational emotive therapy (Ellis & Sagarin, 1965). It was Beck’s cognitive therapy, however, which came to be embraced by behaviourists, eventually leading to the therapy being called Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) rather than just cognitive therapy.

Since the line from modern-day Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can most easily be drawn back to Beck’s work, it is fair to consider him the founder of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), though it is also important to understand that he did not conceptualize cognitive therapy by himself out of thin air.

How cognitive behavioural therapy is being applied

Although it was originally intended as talk therapy for depression, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is now widely applied in other situations. For example, it is increasingly common for studies looking at Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to examine Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) delivered in an online setting rather than an in-person setting (Noguchi et al., 2017, Spence et al., 2017, Vigerland et al., 2017).

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can also be administered through telephone interactions (Sockalingam et al., 2017), showing the diverse delivery methods Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been applied to beyond the originally-intended in-person therapy session.

Aside from being applied in different settings than it was initially developed for, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is also being applied to all sorts of disorders beyond the original target of treatment, which was depression. One recent pilot study looked at using Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) either pre- or post-bariatric surgery to control eating pathology and general well-being (Sockalingam et al., 2017).

Another recent study looked at using Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help cancer patients increase their levels of cognitive function (Kucherer & Ferguson, 2017). Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has also been used for the treatment of anxiety, particularly anxiety among youth (Spence et al., 2017, Vigerland et al., 2017).

Application of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has even been looked at as a possible treatment for auditory hallucinations among patients with schizophrenia (Kennedy & Xyrichis, 2017).

One of the most exciting and promising areas of application for Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is in schools. It is easy to imagine how harmful unchecked beliefs can be for children, such as the idea “I’m just bad at math, I can’t help it”. One interesting study looked at using Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) in primary schools as a preventative measure to reduce anxiety (Stallard et al., 2014). The authors found that teaching Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) inspired skills to elementary school children helped them have lower levels of anxiety, regardless of their initial anxiety level. This indicates that even introducing Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) into schools indiscriminately can help students with anxiety.

As Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been applied into the school environment, it follows that Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be useful in a work environment as well. One study looked at using Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help office workers who were having trouble with insomnia (Yamamoto et al., 2016). The authors found that even a single 90-minute intervention could help reduce both insomnia levels and general levels of distress for the workers in this study. For this 90-minute intervention, the study used a sleep education program based on a specific type of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) developed for insomnia (CBT-I), which shows how Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be customized for very particular purposes.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has even been investigated as a possibly useful tool for prisoners. One study looked at using Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) among smokers in prison and found that a 10-week Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program was more effective in helping prisoners quit smoking than a traditional counselling program of the same length (Onyechi et al., 2017).

Another study looked to use Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a way to reduce the extremely high rates of suicides among male prisoners (Pratt et al., 2016). The authors only looked at three cases from a larger randomized controlled trial, but concluded that Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may help reduce suicide among male prisoners and that further research is warranted. These two studies investigating two very different situations that may occur in a prison show how Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be adapted for different purposes even within a community.

The above studies, which are just a fraction of the work currently being done with Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), show how there are almost an infinite number of applications for Cognitive behavioural therapy Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). These applications have grown far beyond the originally-intended use of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as a treatment for depression. Since Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) appears to have so much potential as a treatment plan, we should examine the value it could present for the field of psychology.

Importance of cognitive behavioural therapy in Psychology

As mentioned above, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has expanded its reach beyond the traditional psychotherapy session, and it has also expanded its reach beyond depression. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is now considered a treatment option for several different types of disorders, and it is increasingly being looked to as an alternative to and a supplement to pharmacological interventions, with one example (beyond depression) being instances of attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) (Rajeh et al., 2017). As we saw above in the elementary school example, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has even been advocated as a preventative measure for anxiety.

Taken together, this means that Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can be applied to a wide range of disorders (and even in cases where there is no disorder), and delivered in a variety of ways. It is clear that Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has become a mainstream psychological treatment, and any practicing psychologist should have some knowledge of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT’s) role in psychology is a major one, and it appears that its role will only continue to expand as more potential uses of Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) are researched and studied. It is not hard to imagine that eventually Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) could even be delivered in the form of a Smartphone app (well, at least one developed by psychologists).

Aside from Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT’s ) present and future roles, we should also look to Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT’s) past role in psychology. Specifically, Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) played a crucial role in redefining how depression is examined and treated. This role grew beyond depression and Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) helped uncover the idea that mental health disorders can stem from very personal issues and specific conditions, so the treatment of various disorders should also be individualized to the patient being treated. This was part of an important movement in psychology that started focusing on personalized treatment plans rather than the “one size fits all” approach that is sometimes taken when treating physical illnesses.

Views about cognitive behavioural therapy

The difference between traditional Cognitive behavioural therapy CBT and positive Cognitive behavioural therapy CBT is similar to the difference between traditional psychology and positive psychology. Where traditional psychology and traditional Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) focus on treating pathology, positive psychology and positive Cognitive behavioural therapy focus on increasing well-being independent of pathology. This also means that positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), like positive psychology, has a higher number of people that could potentially benefit from it.

On top of not focusing on treating any sort of disorder or pathology, positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) also has a slightly different method than traditional Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). For example, while Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) traditionally focuses on maladaptive thoughts and beliefs and adjusting those thoughts and beliefs, positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) focuses on strengths and making the most of those strengths (Prasko et al., 2015). This focus on an individual’s strengths is in line with the more personalized-approach taken by Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as opposed to earlier treatments for depression.

Although this section is headed “Traditional vs. Positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT”,) one interesting thing is that positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) can actually be incorporated into a traditional Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment program. That is, a traditional Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) program that is attempting to remedy dysfunctional thought patterns can also incorporate a positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) focus on strength finding.

In other words, not only can positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) help people increase their well-being independent of any sort of disorder or pathology, but it can also strengthen the treatment plan of someone who is dealing with a particular disorder. This further underscores the idea that positive Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) (much like positive psychology) can be beneficial to anyone.

How to use cognitive behavioural therapy

Therefore when life gets challenging or tricky, you can use the following cognitive behavioural therapy:
Be on the lookout for any unhealthy negative feelings like anger, anxiety, guilty, jealously, shame, embarrassment, look for the situation or trigger that set the feeling off; this could be your internal thought, change the irrational thinking to more rational thinking and make a cognitive shift to accept the situation or trigger. Accepting the situation will allow you to move forward.

REFERENCES

Beck, J.S. (2011). Cognitive behavior therapy: Basics and beyond (2nd ed.), New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
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Kucherer, S. (2017). Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care. Cognitive behavioural therapy for cancer-related cognitive dysfunction. 11(1), 46-51. doi:10.1097/SPC.0000000000000247.
Noguchi, R. (2017). A randomized Controlled Trial. Effects of five-minute inert-based cognitive behavioural therapy and simplified emotion-focused mindfulness on depression symptoms: BioMed Central
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Vigerland, S. (2017). Behaviour Research and Therapy 90(1). Long-term outcomes and predictors of internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy for childhood anxiety disorders. 67-75. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2016.12.008.
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Wolpe, J. (1976). Therapy and Experimental Psychology 7(2), 109-116. Behavior therapy and its malcontents—II. Multimodal clecticism, cognitive exclusivism and “exposure” empiricism. Journal of Behavior doi:10.1016/0005-7916(76)90066-5.