The Cognitive Model of
Abnormality
EVALUATION (Ao2)
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
The Cognitive Model
Cognitive explanations:
– Plenty of evidence to show that thinking
processes are biased/distorted .e.g. in Eating
Disorder sufferers
– Some evidence (but not all) shows that
altering thought processes is an effective
treatment
– Less evidence to show that cognitive biases
are the cause of abnormality e.g. Eating
Disorders
The Cognitive Model
Issues for evaluation:
– Evidence
– Direction of causality
– Blaming the victim
The Cognitive Model
Evidence
– Plenty of research shows that people with
psychological disorders have faulty or
irrational thinking processes
However…
The Cognitive Model
Not much evidence for the view that faulty
thinking precedes other psychological
symptoms (cause or effect?)
People who are clinically normal also think
irrationally – so what’s the difference?
All the cognitive model does is state the
obvious e.g. depressed people think
gloomy thoughts. No! Really?
The Cognitive Model
Ethical issues:
– By locating psychological problems in faulty
thinking processes, the cognitive model
sometimes blames the victim
– E.g. a person might be depressed because
their situation is genuinely dreadful – but the
cognitive model implies that the problem is
their perceptions
EVALUATION OF THE COGNITIVE APPROACH
Strength 1: A major strength of the Cognitive Model is that it concentrates in current
thought processes. It does not depend on the past history of the client, for example,
recovering repressed memories from the Unconscious. This is an advantage because
details about a person’s past are often unclear, irrelevant, misleading and
misremembered.
Strength 2: A second strength is that Cognitive Therapies, especially when used together
with Behavioural Therapy, have a good success rate in helping clients. It is a popular and
much-used approach. It also empowers the individual to take responsibility for his own
thinking processes by monitoring, evaluating and altering self-defeating thought
processes.
Weakness 1: Like all other approaches, psychological and medical, the Cognitive Model
rarely supplies the complete solution to abnormal behaviour by itself. There may be
medical and environmental influences affecting a person’s behaviour. Focussing only on
a person’s cognition may be too narrow an approach.
Weakness 2: The Cognitive Model sometimes places the blame for any disorder unfairly
on the individual – “It’s your disordered thinking, so you are at fault”. For example, a
person suffering from depression may be living in awful circumstances where depression
is a perfectly valid and rationale response to the situation. It will hardly be surprising if
he perceives the world and his future as a negative and grim.
7
First criticism
It fails to examine the origins of
irrational thinking.
BECAUSE… It is difficult to identify whether
abnormality is the cause by irrational thinking or
the effect of irrational thoughts.
Beck (1991) stated that although cognitive
processes are involved in many psychological
disorders, they may be the consequence
rather then the cause of the problem.
A Second Criticism is that…
It suggests that that the person is solely
responsible.
BECAUSE…It lays the blame for psychological
problems firmly within the individual, rather than
with the social environment.
Ellis has little sympathy with people who
are suffering with depression and
considers it ‘indulgence’ of self
defeating thoughts.
On the other hand, a strength of
this approach is…
There is research to support the
cognitive explanation of abnormality.
BECAUSE…findings have demonstrated that
many people suffering from mental disorders
do exhibit thought patterns associated with
maladaptive functioning.
For example… Gustafon (1992) found that
maladaptive behaviours were displayed by
many people with psychological disorders,
eg: anxiety, depression and sexual disorders.
PLENARY
PAPER PLANES
INSTRUCTIONS
1)CLASS TO SPLIT INTO 2 GROUPS
2)TIMER IS SET AT 10 MINUTES
3)EACH PERSON TO MAKE A PAPER PLANE
FROM THEIR NOTEBOOK PAPER OR RECYCLED
PAPER
4)ON YOUR PLANE, YOU MUST WRITE ONE
PIECE OF INFORMATION LEARNED TODAY
5)WHEN INSTRUCTED, GLIDE YOUR PLANE TO
SOMEONE ON THE OPPOSITE GROUP
6)READ THE INFORMATION ON THE PLANE
YOU HAVE RECEIVED AND WRITE SOMETHING
DIFFERENT
7)REPEAT UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO STOP!