Practicing Success
Practicing Success
CUET Preparation Today
| Cognitive therapies, such as Rational Emotive Therapy (RET) and Aaron Beck's Cognitive Therapy, are psychological approaches that focus on understanding and modifying dysfunctional thought patterns to alleviate psychological distress. RET, developed by Albert Ellis, emphasizes identifying and challenging irrational beliefs that contribute to emotional and behavioral problems. For example, a person experiencing excessive anxiety about public speaking may hold the irrational belief that "I must always perform perfectly, or I am a complete failure." Through RET, they would work to replace this belief with a more rational and realistic one, such as "I can make mistakes and still be competent." Similarly, Beck's Cognitive Therapy aims to identify and modify negative automatic thoughts that contribute to depression, anxiety, and other disorders. For instance, a person with depression may have automatic thoughts like "I'm worthless" or "Nothing ever goes right." Through cognitive therapy, they would learn to question and reframe these thoughts, fostering more positive and accurate thinking patterns. |
Negative automatic thoughts are characterized by which of the following? |
Cognitive distortions. Dysfunctional schemas. Non-directive questioning. Cognitive restructuring. |
Cognitive distortions. |
Throughout life, critical incidents can occur, such as being publicly ridiculed by a teacher at school. Such critical incidents can trigger the core schema of "I am not wanted," resulting in the emergence of negative automatic thoughts. These negative thoughts are persistent and irrational, encompassing beliefs such as "nobody loves me," "I am ugly," "I am stupid," "I will not succeed," and so on. These negative automatic thoughts are characterized by cognitive distortions—patterns of thinking that are generally negative and distort reality. They are referred to as dysfunctional cognitive structures, as they lead to cognitive errors regarding social reality. |
