Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

 EVALUATING COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO THERAPY 
Cognitive approaches to therapy have proved successful in dealing with a broad 
range of disorders, including anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse, and 
eating disorders. Furthermore, the willingness of cognitive therapists to incorporate 
additional treatment approaches (e.g., combining cognitive and behavioral tech-
niques in cognitive behavioral therapy) has made this approach a particularly effec-
tive form of treatment (Mitte, 2005; Ishikawa et al., 2007; Bhar et al., 2008). 
At the same time, critics have pointed out that the focus on helping people to 
think more rationally ignores the fact that life is in reality sometimes irrational. 
Changing one’s assumptions to make them more reasonable and logical thus may 
not always be helpful—even assuming it is possible to bring about true cognitive 
change. Still, the success of cognitive approaches has made it one of the most 
frequently employed therapies (Leahy, 2003; Beck & Rector, 2005).
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R E C A P / E V A L U A T E / R E T H I N K 
K E Y T E R M S
R E C A P 
What are the goals of psychologically and biologically based 
treatment approaches?
• Psychotherapy (psychologically based therapy) and bio-
medical therapy (biologically based therapy) share the 
goal of resolving psychological problems by modifying 
people’s thoughts, feelings, expectations, evaluations, 
and ultimately behavior. (p. 544)
What are the psychodynamic, behavioral, and cognitive 
approaches to treatment?
• Psychoanalytic approaches seek to bring unresolved past 
confl icts and unacceptable impulses from the uncon-
scious into the conscious, where patients may deal with 
the problems more effectively. To do this, therapists use 
techniques such as free association and dream interpreta-
tion. (p. 546)
• Behavioral approaches to treatment view abnormal be-
havior as the problem rather than viewing that behavior 
as a symptom of some underlying cause. To bring about 
a “cure,” this view suggests that the outward behavior 
must be changed by using methods such as aversive con-
ditioning, systematic desensitization, observational 
learning, token systems, contingency contracting, and di-
alectical behavior therapy. (p. 548)
• Cognitive approaches to treatment consider that the goal 
of therapy is to help a person restructure his or her faulty 
belief system into a more realistic, rational, and logical 
view of the world. Two examples of cognitive treatments 
are the rational-emotive behavior therapy and cognitive 
therapy. (p. 552)