Aaron Beck

Aaron Temkin Beck(born July 18, 1921) is an American psychiatrist and a professor emeritus at the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Beck is known as the pioneer of cognitive therapy and he creates the cognitive triad theory. The theory is a triad of types of negative thought present in depression, which was proposed by him in 1976. The triad involves negative thought about: 1. The Self ( i.e: self is worthless) 2. The world/ environment (i.e, World is unfair) 3.The future (i.e. the future is hopeless). This triad forms part of his Cognitive Theory of Depression.

On Beck’s Cognitive theory of depression, his main argument was that depression was instituted by one’s view of oneself, instead of one having negative views on oneself due to the depression. Which means that one’s thought and belief( schema) affect one’s behavior Moreover, there were several experiments have been done that showed people are more likely to be depressed after a negative event. (ex: Abela & D’Alessandro’s(2002); Sato& McCann’s(2000)…)

A main part of Beck’s Theory is not only that the subject will feel negative underlying beliefs, but also that these beliefs fall into a certain field which separates them from other disorders such as panic and anxiety disorders. For example, these include polar reasoning, selective abstraction and over-generalization. Abstraction means that successes are ignored, and lost to the subject, who is left only with sadness. Over-generalization implies one will do poor at one thing, and assume failure in all related things. Therefore, the main feeling of depression according to beck are failure and loss.  

Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) is developed by Dr.Aaron T.Beck, it also called as Cognitive Therapy (CT). It is a form of Psychotherapy in which the therapist and the patient working together as a team to identify and solve problems.  Therapists use the Cognitive Model to help paitens overcome their difficulties by changing their thinking, behavior, and emotional responses. Therapists use the Cognitive Model to help paitens overcome their difficulties by changing their thinking, behavior, and emotional responses. Compare to the other forms of psychotherapy, CBT is usually more focused on the present, more time limited, and more problem-solving oriented. In addition, patients learn specific skills that they can use for the rest of their lives. These skills involve identifying distorted thinking, modifying beliefs, relating to others in different ways, and changing behaviors.