Scribd
Upload
20 views3 pages

DISTORTED THOUGHTS A. Beck

The document discusses Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy, which emerged in the 1960s as a response to psychoanalytic concepts related to depression. It identifies negative thoughts as central to depressive thinking and categorizes various types of cognitive distortions that affect perception and well-being. Beck's therapy aims to help patients recognize and modify these distorted thoughts to achieve a more balanced perspective and improve their mental health.

Uploaded by

ScribdTranslations
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
20 views3 pages

DISTORTED THOUGHTS A. Beck

The document discusses Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy, which emerged in the 1960s as a response to psychoanalytic concepts related to depression. It identifies negative thoughts as central to depressive thinking and categorizes various types of cognitive distortions that affect perception and well-being. Beck's therapy aims to help patients recognize and modify these distorted thoughts to achieve a more balanced perspective and improve their mental health.

Uploaded by

ScribdTranslations
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

DISTORTED THOUGHTS

Beck was one of the main ideologists of cognitive therapy, a movement


psychological approach that gained great acceptance in the 1960s. Although its training
initially had been psychoanalytic, its scientific and investigative spirit made it put to
testing some psychoanalytic concepts put forward for depression, through
from various experiments. Although its initial intention was to try
to validate a large part of the fundamental precepts of psychoanalysis, he was surprised
when reaching another type of considerations. Working with depressive patients,
he discovered that they all agreed on the predominance of thoughts
mainly negative thoughts that invaded their minds spontaneously.
He referred to these cognitions as negative thoughts and classified them into three.
categorías: las que hacían referencia a sí mismos, las que hacían referencia al
world and those that referred to the future. Based on these theoretical premises,
I develop a therapy aimed at identifying this type of thoughts in order to
enhance in patients the adoption of more attitudes and perceptions
balanced and moderate, achieving with it that many succeeded
feeling better, gaining greater well-being in their lives. The therapy devised by
Aaron Beck was called 'Cognitive Therapy' (1962) and was conceived as a
brief psychotherapy for depression. Its model had similarities with the
Cognitive mediation formula proposed by Albert Ellis in 1956.

BASIC CONCEPTS OF BECK'S CONCEPTION:

Aaron Beck proposed that at the core of depressive thinking, there are
beliefs and schemas that distort reality and lead to
of mismatches with the rest of the system. Beck believed that there is a cognitive triad that
it constitutes the central axis of depression: the negative view of oneself, of
environment and the future. With this way of conceiving reality, the depressive person
cognitive errors would occur that would translate into automatic thoughts
characteristic negatives of the depressed patient. According to Beck, the filter or template
Negative mental states distort the person's perception of the world and of
himself.

Cognitive therapies are based on the following basic assumptions:

People are not simple receivers of environmental stimuli, but


that actively build their 'reality'.

Cognition mediates between stimuli and responses (cognitive,


emotional or behavioral.

People can access their cognitive content.

(4) The modification of cognitive processing of information (systems of


Attribution, beliefs, schemas, etc. are central to the change process.
TYPES OF DISTORTED THINKING

Several authors (Beck, 1979; Navas, 1998; Ruiz, 1991) have listed different
types of cognitive distortions. Below we present the most
mentioned:

Over-generalization: They are sweeping judgments, extremist views, or predictions.


based on a single incident (Navas, 1998). According to Álvarez (1997), the over-
Generalization consists of drawing a general conclusion from a simple incident.
We overgeneralize when we say 'no one loves me'; 'I will never have another one'
opportunity.

2. Catastrophic Vision: It refers to an unrealistic overemphasis on the


most negative and unpleasant consequences of a current or potential situation
(Navas, 1998). Álvarez (1997) says that its characteristic manifestation is the
expression: "what if" what if I go out on the street and I get mugged...? It is the tendency to anticipate
always the worst.

3. Polarized Thinking It involves encompassing all information in one or two


dichotomous categories; good-bad, acceptance-rejection, and so on,
they do not accept intermediate nuances; "this way of thinking is at the root of
"perfectionism"; one must be perfect or they are a failure... (Navas, 1998).

4. Selective Abstraction or Mental Filter: It consists of focusing on a detail of


context (generally a negative aspect and we exaggerate it), while at the same time
set aside the meaning of the overall situation. Also known as the
disqualification of the positive

5. Personalization: It is taking the aspects of a situation to a level


unnecessary personal. The person considers themselves the center of the universe and believes that
Everything that people do or say is a form of reaction towards it (Álvarez
1997).

6. Emotional Reasoning It consists of assuming that our emotions about


All negatives necessarily reflect the way we really are.
We take feelings as facts or truth (Álvarez, 1997).

7. Fallacy of Justice These are personal codes of justice that dictate to the person
at every moment what "should" and "should not" be; the disappointing and irritating
Others seem to be guided by different codes (Navas, 1998).

8. The Shoulds: They are imperative self-mandates that represent requirements.


excessive norms (often perfectionist), as well as unrealistic attitudes
about human behavior and/or daily living events (Navas, 1998).
9. Control Fallacy: It consists of how the person sees themselves.
extreme about the degree of control one has over the events of their
life. Either the person tends to believe they are very competent, or at the other extreme
feels powerless and without any control over the events of his life (Álvarez
1997).

10. Divine Reward Fallacy: Tendency not to seek solutions to problems


and current difficulties assuming that the situation will improve in the future, or one
there will be a reward if you leave it as is. The effect is usually to accumulate a large
unnecessary discomfort, resentment, and not seeking solutions that could be
feasible today (Álvarez 1997).

11. Fallacy of Reason: Tendency to frequently prove, in front of a


disagreement with another person, where one’s point of view is the correct and true one.
The arguments of the other do not matter, they are simply ignored and not listened to.
(Álvarez 1997).

12. Change Fallacy: Attitude of believing that one's well-being depends


exclusively of the acts of others. The person tends to believe that to
To cover their needs, it is others who must first change their behavior.
The key words are: "If such a thing changed, then I could do such a thing"
(Álvarez 1997).

13. Interpretation of Thought: It consists of believing to guess exactly what


what others are thinking, when we "perfectly know" their motives
or more hidden intentions or we prophesy about people's reactions
will exhibit at a given moment (Navas, 1998).

14. Guilt: It is the attitude of insisting on finding culprits when the


things are not going as planned (Álvarez 1997).

15. Global Labels: It consists of defining in a simplistic and rigid manner.


of others or oneself based on an isolated detail or a partial aspect of their
behavior (Navas, 1998).

You might also like