Psychology Report: Cognitive Theory in Anxiety and Depression Analysis

This report delves into the cognitive theory as it relates to anxiety and depression, exploring the intricate relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The report begins with an introduction outlining the significance of these psychological issues in everyday life, followed by an examination of cognitive theory, which posits that thoughts are the primary drivers of emotions and behaviors. It explores how dysfunctional thought patterns contribute to anxiety and depression, affecting an individual's perception of the world and their ability to function. The report also touches upon the different manifestations of anxiety disorders, such as panic anxiety, phobias, and social anxiety. The report emphasizes that anxiety is a common emotion in today's world and highlights the role of stress in contributing to these conditions, providing a brief overview of the cognitive theory, and its impact on the mental well-being of individuals. The report concludes by referencing relevant academic sources, which provide further insights into the subject matter.

PSYCHOLOGY IN
EVERYDAY LIFE

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Cognitive theory..........................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Psychology is basically the scientific study as well as understanding of mind and the
behavior and is multifaceted approach and discipline which mainly deals with studying
conscious as well as unconscious phenomenon. The main aim of this report is to study the two
most important issues related to psychology which are anxiety and depression. The major
purpose of choosing anxiety and depression as topic of this report is because these two
psychological problems has surrounded the whole world and are most common which are faced
by people in their everyday life.
This report gives a brief overview of cognitive theory in anxiety and depression and
critique of two approaches.
MAIN BODY
Cognitive theory
Cognitivism widely known by the name cognitive psychology is basically the well-
known theory of the internal mental processes. This theory mainly involves studying the mental
process like all the things which goes inside the human brain like perception, thinking, attention,
problem-solving etc. This theory is mainly based on the premise that the thoughts are primary
determinant of the emotions as well as behaviour and thus attempts to briefly explain the human
behavior through gaining a deep insight of their through process. These different states of the
mind basically affects the overall thinking ability within an individual and learning ability in a
student (Allen, 2017).
Anxiety is one of the major mental processes which is affecting the lives of individuals
and transforming the way in which they perceive world and its surrounding. The cognitive theory
has mainly explained the anxiety as tendency to overestimate the potential for the danger. People
suffering from anxiety generally imagine the worst scenarios and thus avoids the situations
which they perceive as dangerous like crowds, heights, social interactions etc. Anxiety is
generally the emotions which are characterized by the feelings of tension, physical changes,
worried thoughts etc (Friese & Hofmann, 2016). People generally suffers from anxiety due to
multiple reasons like fear, nervousness, tensions thus leading up to the series of events like
behavioral changes etc. According to the cognitive theory in psychology, the dysfunctional
thoughts mainly results in the extreme emotions. These emotions in turn lead to the maladaptive
behaviour and thus the anxiety issues. Anxiety disorders generally manifest in the various ways

are often distinct. Apparently, anxiety problems are the issues which people face in their
everyday life and have now become an inseparable part of their ever-changing life. It is generally
associated with chronic state of the tensions as well as sever worry peaks within the few minutes.
Anxiety is mainly accompanied by the stress and thus these two generally shares the underlying
genetic architecture. Anxiety is not only limited to a single aspect and thus is a wider field where
it is of various types panic anxiety, phobias, social anxiety etc. Researcher generally consider
anxiety as the normal emotion because nowadays this has surrounded each and every person
from a kid to the old people. Every person has different thought process and hence have varied
level of distress which often leads to the anxiety in large number of people (Young, 2017).

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Allen, J.L., (2017). Personal Intelligence and Learning about Personality in Everyday Life.
Friese, M. & Hofmann, W., (2016). State mindfulness, self-regulation, and emotional experience
in everyday life. Motivation Science.2(1). p.1.
Young, T.R., (2017). The drama of social life: essays in post-modern social psychology.
Routledge.