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BEHAVIORAL COGNITIVE THEORY

BIOGRAPHY

Aaron Beck Providence, Rhode Island the youngest child of four siblings. Beck'sdaughter, Judith S. Beck, is also a researcher in the field of cognitive therapy andPresident of the Beck Institute He is married with four children, Roy, Judy, Dan, and

Alice. He has eight grandchildren.

Beck attended Brown University, graduatingmagna cum laudein 1942. At Brown he waselected a member of the Phi Betta Kappa Society, was an associate editor ofThe BrownDaily Herald, and received the Francis Wayland Scholarship, William Gaston Prize forExcellence in Oratory, and Philo Sherman Bennett Essay Award. Beck attended YaleMedical School, graduating with an M.D. in 1946.

Aaron T. Beck, M.D., is the President Emeritus of the non-profit Beck Institute forCognitive Therapy and Research, and University Professor in the Department ofPsychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and the director of the PsychopathologyResearch Unit (PRU), which is the parent organization of the Center for the Treaatmentand Prevention of Suicide. Beck developed cognitive therapy in the early 1960s as apsychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania. He had previously studied and practiced

psychoanalysis. A researcher and scientist at heart, Beck designed and carried out a number of

experiments to test psychoanalytic concepts of depression. Fully expecting researchwould validate these fundamental precepts, he was surprised to find the opposite. Thisresearch led him to begin to look for other ways of conceptualizing depression. Workingwith depressed patients, he found that they experienced streams of negative thoughtsthat seemed to pop up spontaneously. He termed these cognitions automaticthoughts, and discovered that their content fell into three categories: negative ideasabout themselves, the world and the future.

Beck (1997) explains people accept these thoughts as valid and don't take time toreflect. He began helping patients identify and evaluate these thoughts and found thatby doing so, patients were able to think more realistically, which led them to feel better

emotionally and behave more functionally. Beck (1997) discovered key idea's inCognitive Behavioral Therapy, he explains different disorders were associated withdifferent types of distorted thinking.Distorted thinking has a negative effect on ourbehaviour no matter what type of disorder (Beck, 1997). Beck (1997) explains thatsuccessful interventions will educate a person to understand and become aware of theirdistorted thinking and how to challenge its effects. Beck (1997) discovered that frequent

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negative automatic thoughts reveal a persons core beliefs. He explains core beliefs areformed over lifelong experiences; we feel these beliefs to be true.

Some of his most recent work has focused on cognitive therapy for schizophrenia,borderline personality disorder and for patients who are repeat suicide attempters. Beckhas published over 540 articles and authored or co-authored twenty-two books.He hasbeen named one of the Americans in history who shaped the face of AmericanPsychiatry and one of the five most influential psychotherapists of all time by The

American Psychologist (July 1989). Dr. Beck is the Honorary President of the non-profitAcademy of Cognitive Therapy, an organization of over 500 cognitive therapistsworldwide. As part of its mission, the Academy supports continuing education andresearch in cognitive therapy, provides a valuable resource in cognitive therapy forprofessionals and the public at large, and actively works towards the identification andcertification of clinicians skilled in cognitive therapy.

THEORY

Aaron Beck, a famous psychiatrist with a background in psychoanalytical training,further explored the untouched arenas of human personality, like depression andprocrastination. If Ellis was supposedly the founder of cognitive behavioral theory, Aarontook a leap ahead and explored more into this theory and came up with cognitivebehavioral therapy for treating patients suffering from depression and anxiety.

He has stated that many a times, people tend to suffer from depression and anxietydisorders because of a pre formed negative assessment of themselves. Such anassessment could be attributed to various reasons such as a prolonged mental trauma,social aloofness and low self esteem.

His theory has been used for devising the modern day cognitive behavioral therapies.

Beck also asserts that there are three main dysfunctional belief themes (or "schemas")that dominate depressed people's thinking: 1) I am defective or inadequate, 2) All of myexperiences result in defeats or failures, and 3) The future is hopeless. Together, thesethree themes are described as the Negative Cognitive Triad. When these beliefs arepresent in someone's cognition, depression is very likely to occur (if it has not alreadyoccurred).

According to Dr. Aaron Beck, negative thoughts, generated by dysfunctional beliefs aretypically the primary cause of depressive symptoms. A direct relationship occursbetween the amount and severity of someone's negative thoughts and the severity oftheir depressive symptoms. In other words, the more negative thoughts you experience,the more depressed you will become.

From Beck's research, he contended: people with emotional difficulties tend to commitcharacteristic "logical errors" which slant objective reality to the path of self-deprecation.Corey emphasizes: Beck challenged the notion that depression results from anger whichis then turned inward. Beck also challenged the idea of having the focus on the contentof the depressive's negative thinking and biased interpretation of events.

Beck's cognitive therapy consists of the many approaches lessoning psychologicalsuffering through therapy. Therapy aids in helping clients self-signal to correct faultyconceptions. This decisive approach permits the therapist and practitioner to value theintegrative nature of cognitive behavior therapy.

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CRITICISMS

As more research focuses on CBT, more studies are published on CBT. This reinforcesthe logical error that CBT is superior and this has a direct negative effect on other formsof therapy, which are well documented but have smaller bodies of research.

People who get therapy improve substantially, regardless of the type of therapy theyget. When therapies are compared to one another, they usually appear to be equallyeffective.

Excessive spending on CBT and discouraging other forms of therapy hurts the public.