Encyclopedia of Psychology | Cognitive Therapy

Cognitive therapy is a psychosocial therapy that assumes that faulty cognitive, or thought, patterns cause maladaptive behavior and emotional responses. The treatment focuses on changing thoughts in order to adjust psychological and personality problems.

Purpose

Psychologist Aaron Beck developed the cognitive therapy concept in the 1960s. The treatment is based on the principle that maladaptive behavior (ineffective, self-defeating behavior) is triggered by inappropriate or irrational thinking patterns, called automatic thoughts. Instead of reacting to the reality of a situation, an individual automatically reacts to his or her own distorted viewpoint of the situation. Cognitive therapy focuses on changing these thought patterns (also known as cognitive distortions), by examining the rationality and validity of the assumptions behind them. This process is termed cognitive restructuring.

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