Psychology - Beck - Lecture notes 1 PDF

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Beck's theory of personality...

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Psychology Note 13 Aaron Beck: Cognitive - Behavioural Theory of Personality! 1. Life of Beck - 1921-present (Rhode Island)! - Parents Russian, Jewish immigrants! - Mother had extreme depression following the death of daughter; Beck supported mother though difficult period! - Struggle with anxiety let him to develop incompetent beliefs about self (later overcame through his cognitive work)! - Father encouraged interest in science! - Psychoanalytic concepts! • Learned people have specific cognitive patterns (sadness came from thoughts about loss)! - Depressed/anxious people had cognitive patterns that were frequently distorted! - These cognitive patterns affected how people feel and behave! 2. Theory of Personality Behind Cognitive Theory - Cognitive therapy! • Based on theory of personality that maintains that how one thinks influences how they feel and behave! • Triggering event (doesn’t have to be traumatic - any thought): thoughts > behaviour and feelings! 3. Schemas, Automatic Thoughts, & Cognitive Distortions - Automatic Thoughts! • Involuntary & unintentional! • Often occur at pre-conscious level and are difficult to stop or regulate! • Similar to self-monologues that can either support or berate us ! - (e.g. fail a test…automatic thought: “I’m stupid”)! - Controlled Thoughts! • Voluntary, intentional, conscious, able to regulate! • Ex. fail a test - “I didn’t study enough, material was harder, I was a bit distracted”! 4. Dimensions of Sociotropic and Autonomous Dimensions of Personality - Schemas! • Cognitive Structures! - Consist of individual’s fundamental core beliefs and assumptions about how world operates! • Develop early in life from personal experiences! • Form concepts of self, others and the world that shape personality! • Can be adaptive or maladaptive (not helpful / inaccurate); general or specific! • Ex. “unless others approve of me, I am worthless”! • Root of psychological problems is based in distorted thinking patterns (schemas)! - Categories of Core Beliefs! • Loveable / unloveable! - Desirable / unwanted! - Loved / unwanted! - Attractive / unattractive! - Unique / different! - Good enough / not good enough! - Good / bad!

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• Competent / helpless! - Success / failure! - Powerful / powerless! - Strong / weak! - Competent / incompetent! - Adequate / inadequate! - Controlled / out of control! Past experiences > schemas (core beliefs) > triggering events > thoughts > feelings and behaviour! Cognitive Distortions! • Systematic errors in reasoning! • Appears during psychological distress! • Stressful events can trigger an unrealistic schema (cognitive distortion)! • Arbitrary Inference: - Conclusion without evidence! - Make an assumption! • Selective Abstraction: - Focus on one aspect & ignore everything else! • Overgeneralization: - Making “sweeping” generalizations! - Take one things thats happened and make it apply to other completely different circumstances! Magnification & Minimizations: • - Too significant or not significant enough! - Blow things out of proportion or minimize it! • Personalization: - Assuming its all about me! - Walking into a room and thinking people are laughing at you! • Dichotomous Thinking: - Thinking in extremes! - #1 relationship killer! Sociotropic Dimension:! • Dependence on interpersonal relationships and a need for closeness and nurturance! • Depending on others for your own wellbeing! Autonomous Dimension: ! • Independence and organized around goal setting, self-determination, and self-imposed obligations ! - Although “pure” cases exist, most people display both features of sociotropy & autonomy! - Not “fixed” personality structures but rather modes of behaviour!

5. Cognitive Triad - Perceptions of:! • Self! • World! • Future! 6. Cognitive Therapy - Consists of a set of well-defined therapeutic techniques that aim to remove systematic biases in thinking by correcting faulty information processing ! - Ex. challenging the thinking, decatastrophizing, role-play! 7. Research in Beck’s Theory

- Beck Depression Inventory! - High empirical support for the cognitive theory of depression! - Cognitive therapy has been found to be helpful in panic disorders, OCD, substance abuse, personality disorders, marital problems, sex offences, schizophrenia and suicide prevention!

- Medication vs. CT!...