Cognitive Theory - Chapter 7 in Theories for direct social work practice PDF

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Notes from chapter 7 in Theories for direct social work practice about cognitive theory from Professor Haranis's class....

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Chapter 7 in Theories for direct social work practice Cognitive theory ● Many behaviorists turn attention to clients’ internal interpretations of events as they respond to stimuli and reinforcers ● Social learning theory (Bandura) instrumental in developing concept of cognitive meditation ○ Influence of one’s thinking between occurrence of stimulus and response ○ Unique learned patterns of evaluating environmental stimuli help to explain why each of us adopts unique behaviors in response to many stimuli ● Conscious thinking is basis for most human behavior and emotional experience ● Some processes may be categorized as unconscious/preconscious - presumed to maintain minor influence on behavior ○ Can readily be brought to surface with reflection or SW’s probing ● Cognitions include person’s beliefs, assumptions, expectations, ideas about causes of events, attitudes, perceptions ● Cognitive theory postulates that we develop habits of thinking that form basis for our ○ Screening and coding of environmental input ○ Categorizing and evaluating experience ○ Judgment about how to behave ● Emotions - physiological responses that follow our cognitive evaluation of input ○ Thoughts occur prior to most emotions and in fact produce them ● Relationship between thoughts, feelings, behaviors ○ An activation event - produces a belief or thought - that produces an emotion or action Origins and social context ● Consistent with American thought that existed since late 1800s ● Influences included developments in American philosophy, information processing theory in computer sciences, and social learning theory in psychology ● Pragmatism and logical positivism ○ John Dewey - most influential American pragmatist of early 20th century ○ Wrote that when a person’s experiences present conflicts in understanding, natural response is to initiate process of problem solving or inquiry ○ Ideas arrived as through plans of action evaluated for truth by their consequences ○ Logical positivism - major philosophical movement ■ Focused on language ■ Looked to logic and sciences as models for constructing formally perfect languages ■ Verifiability principle - sentence was meaningful only if it was empirically verifiable ● Information processing theory ○ Advance of technology influential on development of science of cognition in social sciences ○ Information processing theory - clear distinction between thinker and external

environment ■ People receive stimulation from outside and code this with sensory receptors in nervous system ■ Information then integrated and stored for purposes of present and future adaptation to environment ■ People develop increasingly sophisticated problem solving abilities ● Personal construct theory ○ George Kelly introduced theory of personality in 1955 - person’s core tendency is an attempt to predict and control the events of experience ○ Essence of human nature as scientific pursuit of truth ■ Engagement in empirical procedures of formulating hypotheses and testing them in tangible world ■ Truth is not absolute but represents state in which perceptions are consistent with a person’s internal construct system ○ Constructs are interpretations of events arrived at through natural processes of reasoning ○ Kelly’s model of person as empirical scientist ■ Influenced ideas of cognitive theorists who followed him ■ Leon Festinger and cognitive dissonance theory ■ Seymour Epstein’s hierarchical organizations of personal constructs ■ David McClellan’s explorations of motives, traits, schemas ● Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck ○ Ellis was first cognitive therapist ■ Believed people can consciously adopt principles of reasoning ■ Viewed client’s underlying assumptions about themselves and the world as targets of intervention ■ Major theme - people’s understandings of how they need to conduct themselves to maintain security are often narrow/irrational ■ Therapy involved helping people become more reasonable about how they approached their problems ○ Beck helped cognitive therapy become more prominent practice ■ Initially attempted to validate Freud’s theory of depression as anger turned toward the self ■ Instead observations led him to conclude that depressed people maintained negative bias in cognitive processing ■ Conceptualized negativism in terms of cognitive schemas ● Memory structures made up of three basic themes of personal ineffectiveness, personal degradation, world as essentially unpleasant place ■ Less confrontational than Ellis; saw clients as colleagues with whom he researched the nature of verifiable reality Major concepts ● Cognitive theory has no assumed innate drives or motivations that propel people to act in particular ways

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We all develop patterns of thinking and behavior through habit ○ These patterns can be adjusted as we acquire new information ● Central concept is that of the schema - internalized representation of the world, or patterns of thought, action, and problem solving ○ Include ways we organize thought processes, store information, and process new information, and also products of those operations (knowledge) ○ Necessary biases with which we view the world based on early learning ○ Develop through direct learning (own experiences) or social learning (watching and absorbing experiences of others) ○ New situation - we either assimilate to fit our existing scheme or accommodate it, changing schema if for some reason we can’t incorporate experience into beliefs ● Piaget’s theory of cognitive development is most influential in SW and psychology ○ Describes first schema that an infant possesses as a body schema ■ Small child unable to differentiate between self and external world ● No singular way to perceive reality; rational thinking can be understood as thinking that ○ Is based on external evidence ○ Is life preserving ○ Keeps one directed toward personal goals ○ Decreases internal conflict ● Person’s thoughts can accurately reflect what’s happening in external world or be distorted to some degree; distortions called cognitive errors The nature of problems and change ● Many problems in living result from misconceptions - conclusions that are based more on habits of thought rather than external evidence - that people have about themselves, other people, and their life situations ● Misconceptions develop for any of three reasons ○ Person has not acquired the information necessary to manage a new situation ○ Causal attributions to three kinds of assumptions that people hold about themselves in relation to environment ■ Person might function from premise that life situations are more or less changeable ■ Person may believe that, if change is possible, the source of power to make changes exists either within or outside the self ■ Person might assume that the implications of his/her experiences are limited to specific situation or that they are global ○ Specific cognitive distortions of reality ■ We often interpret new situations in biased ways Assessment and intervention ● Social worker/client relationship ○ To minimize possibility of his/her own distortions when working with client, SW ■ Consistently examine own beliefs and attitudes about the client through supervision ■ Generate and evaluate a variety of hypotheses about a client’s problem situation

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Consider and “rank” evidence for and against the working hypotheses about a client Use clear evaluation measures of client change (standardized or personalized) Use various sources of feedback, including peers and supervisors

■ Assessment ○ Practitioner initially educates the client in the logic of cognitive theory and then assesses the client’s cognitive assumptions ■ Identifies any distortions that may contribute to problem persistence ○ Rationality of client’s thinking is assessed through process known as Socratic questioning ■ Derives from Socrates philosophy involving asking questions of his students until they came upon answers by themselves Intervention ○ When client’s perceptions/beliefs seem valid, practitioner intervenes by providing education about the presenting issue and implementing problem-solving/coping ○ Strategies for cognitive intervention fit into three general categories ■ Cognitive restructuring - when client’s thinking patterns are distorted and contribute to problem development and persistence ● ABC model is basis of this approach ● A (activating event) → B (belief/thought) → C (emotion/action ● Three steps to change client’s belief systems ○ 1. Help person identify thoughts preceding/accompanying distressing emotions/nonproductive action ○ 2. Assess client’s willingness to consider alternative thoughts in response to problem situation ○ 3. Challenge client’s irrational beliefs by designing natural experiments/tasks that they can carry out in daily life to test their validity ■ Cognitive coping - practitioner helps client learn/practice new or more effective ways of dealing with stress and negative moods ● Self-instruction training - giving clients internal cognitive framework for instructing themselves in how to cope more effectively with problem situations ● Communication skills training - interventions including attention to clients’ social, assertiveness, and negotiation skills ■ Problem-solving training - structured, 5 step method for helping clients who don’t experience distortions but nevertheless struggle with problems they clearly perceive ● Defining the problem ● Brainstorming ● Evaluating alternatives ● Choosing and implementing an alternative

● Evaluate the implemented option ● Role playing Spirituality and cognitive theory ● Unlike behaviorism, cognitive theory can facilitate an understanding of clients’ spirituality and promote reflections on the topic Attention to social justice issues ● Empowerment approach ● Social construction of reality concept underscores SW’s obligation to be sensitive to issues of cultural and ethnic diversity Case illustrations ● Problem solving and the adolescent girls group ● Cognitive restructuring and the single parent ● Managing family friction with communication skills training Combining cognitive and behavioral intervention ● Many SWs combine intervention approaches from cognitive theory and behavior theory when working with clients ● Improving cognitive capacity ○ Providing knowledge about relationships ○ Enhancing perceptual skills ○ Improving decision-making skills ○ Improving assessment skills ● Improving behavioral skills ○ Self-presentation ○ Social initiatives ○ Conversation ○ Maintenance ○ Conflict resolution Evidence of effectiveness ● Interventions lend themselves to empirical research ● Probably efficacious cognitive interventions described for OCD, opiate dependence, geriatric depression, social problem solving, couples communication training as an adjunct to treatment of agoraphobia ● Probably efficacious cognitive behavioral interventions included for social phobia, relapse prevention in cocaine dependence, benzodiazepine withdrawal in persons with panic disorder, social skills training for persons with alcohol dependence, binge eating disorder, chronic pain, childhood anxiety, social skills for persons with schizophrenia Criticisms of the theory ● Thought is prior to most emotional experience ● The emphasis is on conscious rather than unconscious thought ● Cognitive theory has an “individual” rather than relational focus ● Cognitive theory overemphasizes objectivity and rationality ● Cognitive theory employs overly structured approaches...