Teaching Cognitive Triad in Psychology through Group Interaction and Storytelling, Exercises of Psychology

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New to Teaching

A Level

Psychology

in Year 1

(AS)

Resources for Courses

Resources for Courses

Jackanory

What’s the story Jackanory

This resource is a main activity that can be adapted to teach many areas of psychology

it involves students completing individual research then using this to feedback to their

group. They then use pictures to help to explain what they have just learnt eventually

putting the pictures together into a story (which is the study) in this case Beck’s

Cognitive Triad.

Teacher Instructions

Sit the students in groups of four. You can either put them in groups based on ability

or mix the abilities. Give each student a number from 1-4 with one being the most

able. Then tell them they have 10 minutes to make notes on Beck’s cognitive triad

as an explanation of depression. Each student has different information (provided

below) that they need to use to answer the following questions. Tell them that they

might not be able to answer all of the questions with the information they have but

they should try to answer as many as possible to help their group.

1 What is the principle behind the theory?

2 According to Beck why are people depressed?

3 What are the three parts of his theory?

4 Any evidence to support this?

5 Any evaluation?

Jackanory

activity

instructions

Part 1

Each take a picture from the pile and explain how

this links to Becks cognitive explanation from the

research that you have just done. (You all need to

take this in turns).

Part 2

Now organise the pictures into a story to explain

Beck’s theory of depression.

Stretch yourself! ...to get the highest marks try

to include some evaluation of this theory, if there

is not picture you can create your own on the

plain paper.

Part 3

Get ready to present your story to the class you

might have to do all of it or just one picture so

make sure you know what each picture

represents.

Aaron Beck noticed that many of his clients who came to see him with depression

showed negative thinking patterns.

He believed that there were three areas of negative thinking:

The cognitive triad, faulty information processing, negative self schemas.

He created the cognitive triad (1976)of impairments showing how people with depression

have three negative thoughts. The self, the future and the world. This stops them from

being able to move forward as they believe there is no point.

Beck believed that when people think negatively they feel and act depressed so CBT

(cognitive behavioural therapy) attempts to identify the negative thoughts and beliefs

and alter them.

The self (I am hopeless)

The future

(nothing will get better)

The world

(is a horrible place)

Aaron Beck noticed that many of his clients who came to see him with depression

showed negative thinking patterns.

He believed that there were three areas of negative thinking:

The cognitive triad, faulty information processing, negative self schemas.

Cognitive Triad

He created the cognitive triad (1976)of impairments showing how people with depression have three negative thoughts. The self, the future and the world. This stops them from being able to move forward as they believe there is no point.

Faulty information processing

People with depression have distorted thinking. Beck believed that people with depression selectively attend to negative stimuli and ignore positive stimuli. This is one way that their information processing is distorted or “faulty”. He also believed that one they have attended to this negative information they magnify the event or overgeneralise the information. Beck believed that this fault in information processing would make an individual prone to becoming depressed and one they are depressed they would struggle to change their negative thinking and cognitions leading to depression.

Negative view of the self I am incompetent and undeserving

Negative view of the world It is a hostile place

Depression

Negative view of the future problems will not disappesr, there will always be emotional pain

Negative self-schema

A schema is a mental representation that helps us to make sense of the world and process information selectively and quickly due to a pre-conceived expectation. A self-schema is the beliefs about the self. As schemas can alter the way that we process information leading us to only process information that fit with the existing schema and ignoring information that does not fit with the schema this can lead to dysfunctional (faulty) processing. If an individual has a negative self-schema then the information that is selected (processed) will be information that matches this schema as this confirms the negative beliefs. This means that they will ignore any contrary (positive) evidence.

Key study: Weissman and Beck 1978 AIM to investigate the thought processes of depressed people to establish if they make use of negative schemas. METHOD thought processes were measured using the dysfunctional attitude scale (DAS). Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire by ticking whether they agreed or disagreed with a set of statements. For example, ‘people will probably think less of me if I make a mistake’. RESULT they found that depressed participants made more negative assessments than non- depressed people. When given some therapy to challenge and change their negative schemas there was an improvement in their self-ratings. CONCLUSION Depression involves the use of negative schemas.

Negative self-schema

A schema is a mental representation that helps us to make sense of the world and process information selectively and quickly due to a pre-conceived expectation. A self-schema is the beliefs about the self. As schemas can alter the way that we process information leading us to only process information that fit with the existing schema and ignoring information that does not fit with the schema this can lead to dysfunctional (faulty) processing. If an individual has a negative self-schema then the information that is selected (processed) will be information that matches this schema as this confirms the negative beliefs. This means that they will ignore any contrary (positive) evidence.

Critical life event

Beck did not believe that cognitive dysfunction automatically led to depression. He believed that there needed to be a trigger to these events which he called a “critical life event”. This could be a death of someone close, divorce, losing a job etc. Beck believed that this would trigger dysfunctional thinking and would lead to the triad of negative thinking developing.

Evaluation

• Depressed people undoubtedly have negative thoughts but do the negative thoughts help cause depression, or do they merely occur as a result of being depressed?
• This approach may succeed in changing the depressed person’s thinking, but may not discover the underlying cause of the depression.
• Past events, which have a powerful influence on the individual, are often neglected.
• The cognitive explanation cannot account for the physical symptoms of mood disorders. With unipolar these include aches and pains, a lack of energy, palpitations, headaches and stomach upsets. For women there may be menstrual changes. Sleep disturbance is another possible symptom. Sufferers can experience loss of appetite or weight. With bipolar, during the manic phase the sufferer will tend to sleep very little and have increase in energy levels – how can irrational thought processes cause these symptoms?
• The cognitive approach also does not distinguish between the different types of depression (unipolar/bipolar), but gives the same basic explanation.

Key study: Weissman and Beck 1978 AIM to investigate the thought processes of depressed people to establish if they make use of negative schemas. METHOD thought processes were measured using the dysfunctional attitude scale (DAS). Participants were asked to fill in a questionnaire by ticking whether they agreed or disagreed with a set of statements. For example, ‘people will probably think less of me if I make a mistake’. RESULT they found that depressed participants made more negative assessments than non- depressed people. When given some therapy to challenge and change their negative schemas there was an improvement in their self-ratings. CONCLUSION Depression involves the use of negative schemas.