3. "Faulty thinking": The assumption that psychological
problems are caused by thoughts that are incorrect
Attribution theory
Self serving bias
Internal
Applied to ourselves when something goes well
External
Application of external situations to
ourselves when things go wrong
Internal attribution: someone's personality
External attribution: the situation
Covariation theory
Consistency: behaving the same way all the time - the extent to which any
behaviour between one person and one stimulus is the same over time
Distinctiveness: considering the extent to which any behaviour is unique
- the extent that one person behaves the same to different stimuli
Internal attributions happen when the consistency is high and distinctiveness
and consensus are low - external attributions occur when all three are high.
Consensus: the extent to which there is agreement amongst other people
CBT
The aim is to alter maladaptive thoughts and
replace them with new, constructive positive thinking
Beck's negative triad
Challenging dysfunctional thoughts
- Homework tasks that would prove the thoughts to be incorrect
- Thought diaries
Cahill et al found that 71% of patients who went through CBT had
reduced depression, however 13% who did not complete CBT got better
Direct questioning of faulty thoughts
"Where is evidence for X?"
"How can you prove X?"
Methodology
Lab experiments
Low ecological validity
Demand characteristics
Experimenter bias
Repeatable
Control of extraneous variables
Case studies
Qualitative data
Difficult to analyse
Detailed data
Idiographic
Cant be generalised
Specific to the individual
Subjective view of behaviour
Evaluation
Reductionist
Computer model is mechanistic reductionism
Reducing the human mind to a computer may simplify it too much