What are the Origins of Cognitive Therapy Pt 2
During childhood a person develops core beliefs and assumptions about life. These are stable and become stored as memories; they are called âschemasâ. Beliefs, or core constructs, are unconditional âtruthsâ such as âIâm not good enoughâ. Assumptions are conditional and judgmental and often contain âifâ¦thenâ ideas e.g. âif I feel angry then Iâm a bad personâ. Negative automatic thoughts (NATs) spring from schemas (see diagram)
When schemas are activated by events, they influence how information is processed and help shape the interpretation of events, which then affect behaviour. Because they spring from schemas, the thoughts and behaviours seem logical to the person, despite seeming irrational to others.
People with emotional disorders such as depression and anxiety have schemas that are more rigid and have particular characteristics in the content of their schemas and NATs (Wells, 1997). Those with anxiety have assumptions and beliefs about danger. The different types of anxiety disorders, e.g. panic, social phobia etc, will have different emphases. (See under later descriptions for more details). Those with depression often have âthemes of loss and self-devaluationâ (Wells, 1997).
Beck believed that there were several factors involved in people being more likely to developing psychological problems:
- Genes
- Childhood experiences
- Learned behaviour
Stress and trauma can then activated the unhealthy schemas, which are then maintained by cognitive distortions and biases and the person thinks and behaves in ways that keep these problems going
