Chapter Eight: Cognitive Theory
and Therapy
Historical Context
 The black box comes open
 “Cognitive Types” begin to emerge
Forms of Cognitive Theory and
Therapy
 Rational-Semantic
 Collaborative-Empirical
 Philosophical-Constructivist
Theoretical Principles of Cognitive
Theory and Therapy
 People are disturbed, not by what happens,
but by what they think of what happens.
Applied Models of Cognitive
Therapy
 Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy
 Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy
 Self-Instructional Training
Theory of Psychopathology
 Pathology, or disorders occur because of
thinking errors
The Practice of Cognitive
Therapy
 Preparing yourself
 Preparing your client
 Assessment Issues and Procedures
Specific Therapy Techniques
 Generating Alternative Explanations
 Disputing
 Thinking in Shades of Grey
 Giving up the “should” rule
Extended Case Examples
Case of Richard continued
Cognitive restructuring
Changing habits
Continued Behavioral Practices
Therapy Outcomes Research
 Similar to Behavioral Therapy—many
“proven” interventions.
Multicultural Perspectives
 Similar to behavioral interventions, some
cultures prefer active, directive strategies
 Little actual research conducted with
minority cultures
Concluding Comments
 Cognitive therapy has strong efficacy
findings
 Reservations about scientific validation as
only source of “proof.”
Student Review Assignments
 Critical corner
 Reviewing key terms
 Review questions
Critical Corner
 Some critics, especially humanistic and
existential therapists, contend that cognitive
therapy is too intellectual. They emphasize
that most clients actually need to more
deeply feel, experience and understand their
emotions, rather than using cognitive tactics
to talk themselves out of important
emotional states. What are your thoughts on
this criticism? Do clients need to be more
intellectual or more emotional?
Critical Corner (continued)
 The foundation of all cognitive therapies is the
same: As an expert, the therapist first demonstrates
to the client that he is thinking in a way that is
either irrational or maladaptive and then the
therapist teaches the client new and better ways to
think. When you consider this fact, isn’t it true that
all cognitive therapies are a bit presumptuous?
Then, when you t consider this presumptuous
assumption even further, doesn’t it make you want
to become a more sensitive cognitive therapist—
perhaps a constructivist who honors the client’s
experience and then helps him re-write his
personal narrative in a more positive and strength-
Critical Corner (continued)
 The fact is that when therapists need therapy, most
of them—even cognitive and behavioral
therapists—go to psychodynamic or
experientially-oriented therapists. Why would that
be? One possibility is that engaging in rigid
cognitive and behavioral approaches is both
demanding and tiresome. How many clients really
want to keep detailed cognitive monitoring logs
and tediously dispute their maladaptive cognitive
distortions? Don’t you think it’s true that insightoriented therapies are intrinsically more exciting
than cognitive and behavioral approaches? Even
worse, isn’t it true that insight oriented therapy is,
Critical Corner (continued)
 Despite the fact that cognitive therapists pride
themselves on their empirical foundation,
relatively little data is available on the application
of cognitive therapy with various cultural groups.
Given the complete absence of empirical data on
cognitive methods with diverse clients, to stay
consistent with their orientation, cognitive
therapists should either label their treatment
approaches as “experimental” with non-White
clients or they should refrain from using their
treatment methods with non-White clients. What
are your thoughts on this issue? Because of their
criticism of humanistic-existential therapists,
Review Key Terms
 Rational-Semantic Cognitive Therapy
 Collaborative-Empirical Cognitive Therapy
 Philosophical-Constructivist Therapy
 Stimulus-Organism Response (S-O-R)
theory
 The REBT ABCs
 Collaborative empiricism
 Automatic thoughts
Key Terms (continued)
 Self-schema or core beliefs
 Socratic questioning
 Cognitive distortions
 Arbitrary inference
 Selective abstraction
 Personalization
Key Terms (continued)
 Dichotomous/Polarized thinking
 Stress Inoculation Training
 Self-instructional training
 Collaborative interviewing
 Problem list
 Thought Record or cognitive self-
monitoring
Review Questions
 Discuss the relative importance of John Watson
and Mary Cover Jones in the development of
applied behavior therapy techniques. Which of
these researchers amassed a large amount of
practical information about counter-conditioning?
 Who is the historical figure to which applied
behavior analysis can be traced? Do applied
behavior analysts believe in using cognitive
constructs to understand human behavior?
Review Questions
 What are the main differences between
Ellis’s REBT and Beck’s Cognitive
Therapy?
 What are the five bedrock assumptions of
Ellis’s REBT?
 Meichenbaum’s approach is based on verbal
mediational processes. In practical terms,
what does he mean by verbal mediational
processes?
Review Questions
 List and describe four of Beck’s cognitive
distortions.
 Provide examples of what sorts of self-talk
Meichenbaum might teach anxious or angry
clients when using Stress Inoculation
Training approaches.
 List and describe the REBT ABCs
(including D, E, and F).
Review Questions
 Describe what Beck means by a self-
schema.
 What are the three steps of Stress
Inoculation Training?
 What information would you put into a
Thought Record?
 What is cognitive storytelling and what is
the purpose of using it with young clients?