Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Theory of Depression

This paper provides a summary of literature concerning to Beck’s Cognitive of depression. It also contains a general overview of his theory. Beck’s cognitive theory of depression states that depression is instituted by how one views him/ herself and not that one have’s negative views towards him/herself as a result of depression.

Running Head: Aaron Beck’s theory. 1
Aaron Beck’s theory.
Name
Date

Aaron Beck’s theory.
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Aaron Beck’s theory.
Introduction
In Beck’s cognitive theory of depression, he states that depression is instituted by how
one views him/ herself and not that one have’s negative views towards him/herself as a result of
depression. This greatly affect us socially on how we perceive others and associate our
dissatisfactions with others. Different theories suggest that depression come as a result of
irrational or faulty cognitions in form of distorted judgment or thoughts. It can also result from
lack of experiences that enable development of adaptive skills of coping (Beck, 2009) This paper
provides a summary of literature concerning to Beck’s Cognitive of depression. It also contains a
general overview of his theory. in his theory, he believes the negative thoughts is what is central
to depression and not low rates of reinforcement or hormonal changes as described by other
theories
Body
According to cognitive behavioral theory, people who are depressed think in a different
manner as compared to non-depressed individuals. The difference between their thinking makes
them to the depressed. For instance, depressed individuals view themselves, their future, and
their environment in a pessimistic negative way. This makes them to misinterpreted facts
negatively which makes them to blame themselves for the misfortunes that face them (Jacobs,
2004) The pessimistic thinking and judgment makes them to view situations worse than they
really are. Theses stressful situations increases the chances of developing depressive symptoms

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or even mental disorder. Dr. Aaron Beck believed that negative thoughts formed from
dysfunctional beliefs are the main cause of symptoms of depression. She explained that the more
one has negative thoughts the more depressed on becomes (Beck, 2002).
Beck asserts there are three primary dysfunctional beliefs schemas that are dominant in
the thinking of depressed people. These include; one, “I am inadequate or defective”, two, “all
my dealings result to failure or defeat” and finally, “I have a hopeless future”. The three schemas
are referred to as the Negative Cognitive Triad. When one has these beliefs depression is likely
or has already occurred. Beyond the negative thought, the belief can shape or wrap what one
pays attention to. Depressed individuals pay selective attention to various aspects of their
surrounding which shows what they know and does that even when there is enough evidence to
the contrary. The failure of paying proper attention is known as faulty information processing
(Otto, 2010).
These people are characterized by failure of information processing. For instance, they
will tend to display selective attention to information that matches their negative expectation and
less attention to information which contradicts these expectations. They tend to magnify the
meanings of negative comments or events and take the positive events less seriously. This makes
them to remain negative in their thoughts and failure in their future even when there is vivid
evidence of things turning better (Simons, 2010).
In my personal experiences, I have ever experienced this feeling of taking things
negatively and viewing all my dealings as failure. This was once when I did not perform well in
one of my semester’s exams. The poor scores that I used to get in my academics made me view
my school environment negatively. I did not have hopes of performing better in future. This

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made me have the thoughts that my future would be miserable and was not ready to face it. Any
comments from my peers, teachers or parents seemed to be mocking me. I believed they hated
me and they knew I could not perform well anymore in school. This also affected my reading
habits. I stopped putting efforts and when reading I would just read to pass time in mind I would
never perform again in my academics. The notion of viewing myself as a failure always come in
my mind. Whenever I tried to concentrate in my studies the thought that eventually I would fail
always come in my mind. This experience almost made me to be depressed. As portrayed in
Beck’s work, depression would be related to my negative way of processing personal
information. The issue would be solved by use of by being treated. Counselors and therapists
would do well to closely at my cognitive thoughts as a way of assisting me t in recovery. The
results were positive as the cognitive treatment for depression and Beck’s cognitive therapy
would work out to minimize depression (Turner, 2007).
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is used to treat with wide range of mental disorders.
It is based on the idea that cognition, emotions and behavior of a person interact together. How
we think determines how we feel and act. CBT enables people to tell when they make unrealistic
or negative interpretations, and actions which reinforce negative thinking. People are able to
come up with alternative ways of thinking and acting. This reduces their mental distress. Victims
comes up with their negative belief and proves them wrong. This makes their belief to start
changing (Sensky, 2010). Cognitive therapy enables clients to recognize their negative thoughts
that makes them to be depressed. The therapist guides the victims to challenge and question their
dysfunctional thoughts, come up with new interpretations and eventually apply the alternative
thinking in their daily lives (Goodman, 2009).

Aaron Beck’s theory.
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There are various advantages and disadvantages of cognitive therapy. Some of its
advantages includes but are not limited to: one, the model is important since it focuses on how
human being thinks. Human cognitive abilities helps us to accomplish our goals in life and is
also responsible for the problems we face. Two, it has been seen to be effective for treating
depression and anxiety problems. Three, many clients with psychological disorders have been
found to show maladaptive thoughts and assumptions. It also has a number of limitations; these
include ethical issues. Some cognitive therapy such as RET focus on changing cognitions
forcefully. This kind of approach may be regarded as unethical by some people (Butler, 2016).
Another limitation is that cognitive can be considered as a narrow scope. This is because it
thinking is just but a single portion the broad human functioning, there are other border issues
which also need to be addressed (Clark, 2012).
In addition, the role of cognitive processes has not been determined yet. Studies shows
that, it’s not yet clear if faulty cognition is the core cause of psychopathology or if it’s the effects
of it. According to (Joe, 2008) on a study carried out on a group of people before they got
depressed, it was found out that people who are depressed did not more have negative thoughts
are compared to those who were not depressed. This suggested that negative thinking and
individuals being hopeless is mainly what causes depression and not depression being the cause
of people being hopeless, viewing themselves as worthless or having negative thoughts. The
theory disqualified emotions. As much as the theory focuses on how the client thinks it’s
important to take in consideration of his feelings which may result to depression.
Another weakness on the theory is that it’s too logical (Clak, 2013). Not everyone can
respond to thinking, others respond to their emotions. Emotions play a great role on how some

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people act or perceive themselves. Sometimes it’s not easy to change how we think. Thinking is
too powerful and at times we can identify the problems but focusing our minds to change
becomes a difficult task (Rector, 2001). Another challenge is that some people who use this
therapy may end up feeling guilty and blamed. Making someone to realize he/she is wrong will
only make them feel blamed other than changing their pattern of thinking. Finally, it does not
consider some ethnical/culture origins. These are some communities who believes on emotional
reasoning. Recommendations is that we can involve emotions as part of the guide towards one’s
behavior (DeRubeis, 2001).
Beck identifies different illogical thinking processes which are self-detesting and may
lead to depression or anxiety for individuals. Some of them include; arbitrary interference, this is
where one draws conclusions based on irrelevant evidence. For instance, one viewing
him/herself worthless since it has rained and had he was going to the market (Foa, 2001).
Selective abstraction, this is where one focuses on just one aspect of a certain situation and
ignoring the others. For instance, identifying yourself as the cause of your team losing in a
football match yet you are just a single player in the team. Magnification, this is where the
individual exaggerates the outcome of undesired events. For example, when one blames himself
as a failure for not being position one in his/her class and views himself as a worthless (Haslam,
2014).
Another undesired thought is minimization; this is where the client underplays the
importance of an event. For instance, when the teacher congratulates you for the work well done
but you take it as trivial. Overgeneralization, this is jumping to an overall negative conclusion on
basis of a failed event. When you perform poor in a certain unit, you believe that that semester

Aaron Beck’s theory.
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you will not perform. personalization, this where the client characterizes the negative feeling of
others to themselves (Burns, 2011). Another cognitive distortion is mental filtering, the client
focuses on one negative event as the target. For example, focusing on how the teacher keeps
looking at you in class. Labeling or mis-labeling, the individual sees himself as the cause of the
problem instead of describing how the situation was. For example, seeing himself as stupid for
not submitting his assignment on time. Emotional reasoning, the victim feels his negative
emotions is the truth and not an error (Beck, 2014).
Conclusions
In conclusions, from Beck’s theory its evident that depression comes as a result on
negative thoughts about oneself, his environment and being hopeless about the future. It is
therefore important for each and every person to control his/her thinking patterns to avoid in all
ways negative thoughts (Beck, 2017). In Beck’s Cognitive model of depression, dysfunctional
beliefs are as a result of earlier experience. Cognitive thoughts are described as the leading cause
of depression. However, this study does not fully support Beck’s theory. this is a demonstrated in
the limitations of Beck’s cognitive theory.

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References
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Burns, D. D., & Beck, A. T. (2011). Feeling good: The new mood therapy (p. 738). New York:
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