COGNITIVIST PSYCHOLOGY

Introduction

cognitivism is the study of “thinking”.

There are two divisions:

Phase 1 is how we think this is done by researchers

Phase 2 is what we thing. Th`is is done by therapists

How we think:

Phase I

How we think is what you might do if you wanted to be a researcher. Not every perswon in psychology is a therapist. Many people do research on how the brain works for a living.

How we think

KEEP ASKING,

what can welearn from this experiment? What questions does it raise?

“WHAT FURTHER EXPERIMENTS COULD YOU DO?”

Show necker cube and do two fingers in front of clock

MEMORY

2 types memory

1) long term memory

Long term memory includes all of our stable information about the world.

Short term memory is active and easily disrupted. Long term is passive and not easily disrupted.

Write which classes you were enrolled in two years ago.

If you couldn’t remember them and then you did, how did you remember them?

Please write 2 pieces of information you remember from each of those classes. (especially check history classes).

Besides remembering, there is recognizing which is a sort of memory.

Try to remember the pairs of numbers we just did the experiment on. Are they still there?

2) Short term memory (10-15 seconds)

(sometimes called working memory) most work is done here.

Thoughts can come here from sensory and long term-memory.

Its strange to think of thought happening in a memory space, but you must remember some things to talk of them.

What were the first words of two sentences ago? They were in your short term memory, but are now gone.

Only a few items can be in here at a time, but it is constantly working.

amount in short term experiment

How many things can you hold in short term memory?

Each student writes short to long strings of numbers

1-3, 6- 3, 8-5

6-5-8, 9-2-7, 8-6-3

3-5-8-5, 8-6-8-3, 0-3-5-1

8-6--3-8-6, 0-6-8-8-4, 8-6-4-6-3

7-3-5-4-2-9, 1-5-3-5-7-8, 7-8-6--4-2-4

5463365, 7852447, 0795678

03490634, 56940643, 59640522

7 things.

What techniques did people use? rehearsal, chunking

How do we put things into memory?

DOGS EAT FOOD NEAR TRASH CAN OVERHEAD

Word user

We get thoughts out of our heads via words.

We don’t put words on everything, just somethings that require it. We don’t look at every thing and verbalize its color. We don’t say “red, with a bit of blue”

What percentage of the things your body does are you actually aware of it doing? You don’t put posture maintenance into words. You don’t put the processing into 3-D into words. You don’t have the retrieval of memory into words. Though do you when you ask what is it what is it what is it?

What gets into words?

Phase II

This is what we think.

Cognitive Therapy

Introduction

Cognitive therapy begins with the assumption that people disturb themselves through their own thoughts. Maladaptive thoughts make reality seem worse than it is and in that way produce anxiety or depression.

Is it true that people’s reactions to life events are based not on the events themselves, but on people’s ways of thinking about the event.

I got an “F” I am no good.

You want to find the maladaptive thoughts and replace them with working ones.

They like to think of solutions for problems.

ATIITUDE VS. REALITY

Attitude is more important than reality.

Try to see life as a game.

I used to complain that I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet.

Life is a tragedy to those who feel , but a comedy to those who think.

When you have a “Problem” think of it as an opportunity to try solutions.

Replace ideas of failure, with ideas of success, worries about problems with thoughts about solutions, fears with hopes, worries with plans, unpleasant movies with pleasant ones, morbid literature with positive, uplifting liiterature, TV with nothing, negative unpleasant hopeless people with positive hopeful ones.

Say “I can do it” “Lets give it a try” “Why not?”

READ OVERCOMING DEPRESSION HANDOUT AND AGAIN WRITE DOWN THREE OF EACH IN A DISTINCT WAY.

The 3 aspects of words-

There is a- the word (poisonous snake), b-the visual c- the feeling (fear or discomfort with the idea of the snake).

A positive example. Say delicious meal several times. You will probably then imagine it.

Paying attention to positive stuf will elicit positive images from your visual memory and positive feelings from your kinesthetic memory. These form the “substance” of positive thought.

The same applies to talking about success more than talking about failure, love more than hate, happiness more than misery, confidence more than fear, good news not bad, and how to solve a problem, not the problem.

In America we are baraged by negative stuff. The news especially so. Soap operas with divorce and runaways and incest. So many popular songs are negative. Try to keep a running count throughout the day as to how many positive and negative messages you imbibe from your general surroundings.

Once sensitized to such a tendency, you will be amazed as you become aware of the number of negative statements you make in a day or hour.

If you slip and a negative thought comes in, you can yell “STOP!” to yourself in your mind and abruptly bring your thoughts to a hault.

Another technique is to imagine yourself kicking negative thoughts out of your mind.

Another is to imagine a gremlin or horrible beast saying the words to you and then kicking it out of your mind.

Albert Ellis RET (Rational Emotive Therapy)

Inappropriate v. appropriate

The goal of RET is to turn inappropriate beliefs to appropriate ones.

When a football game is lost or a relationship ends one person says “oh well there’s next year.” The other says “I’m no good. I’m a failure.”

“Good lives have no problems. Other’s don’t have them, only me. That shows that I am terrible”.

My life should turn out a certain way.

Appropriate ones leave you with options, inappropriate ones leave you without options.

READ ellis

Method

1st - identify the “A” activating event.

When I see my friends I get depressed.

I overeat when I’m bored.

Find an exact time when it happened.

My wife called me a “Jerk”Thinking about flunking a test.

My wife is a pain in the ass.

remember that what you’re going to work on is NOT the action, but the consequence. Don’t get too into the activating event. Don’t emphasize it as important.

2nd - Assess the “C” consequence

You want to get from “A” to “C” quickly

Especially talk of motivation to change the inappropriate “C”

Sometimes, when anger or guilt or depression are the consequences, clients don’t want to change them. two techniques

a - Talk about how disfunctional it is.

Ask what are the consequences. Does this depression or guilt or anger feel good?

She didn’t say something nice and you want to kil yourself.

b - Finally talk of what the C would be if they felt the appropriate C.

If you could get over it wouldn’t life be better. She could love you without being nervous. You could express yourself to her without fear of losing her.

C: The emotional Consequences of that thought.

If you think you’re a failure, you feel terrible. You also lose flexibiliity.If you can never go there again, you lose that ability. If

3rd- Assess beliefs

Ask the person what they are telling themselves at that time to make them have the inappropriate belief.

get the real thought. What was going through your mind? Were you aware of any thoughts in your head.? Do you know what your were thinking at that moment?

“I thought they wouldn’t like me no matter what I said” is an inference, what is the thought. “I’m no good”.

Negative Self Talk

Saying things that are bad about ourselves to ourselves.

I’m a dummy failure, coward, jerk, loser, fool

“Nobody cares for me” “I am stupid” “I am too fat” or dumb stupid, fat, lazy , clumsy , ugly , klutzy , old, spastic, crazy disorganized, inept

when you spill a drink what do you say to yourself?

Awfulizing is the mental exaggeration of setbacks or inconveniences.

Ex. You got a dent in your car and you say it is a horrible thing all week. “i’ll never be in love again”.

Your clients say that the situation is more than one hundred percent bad.

a related term is Catastrophizing is deciding that if something happens it wil be so terrible. I can’t tell her that. If I tell her she’ll hate me. If I don’t get invited to the dance my life wil be over. Thi s is defeated by repeating “and then what would happen?”

Your clients will say they cannot envision being abot to endure situations or having any happiness at all if whta they demand must not exist actually exist.

If I stay in this job it will kill me.

Always and Never thinking:

I will always fail, Noone will ever love me.

your client will insist on abs

olutes (w.g., that they will always fail or never be approved of by others).

3 - verbal dead ending

Blaming others and rejecting responsibility for oneself.

worrying about the future, agonizing about the past, resenting the success of others, complaining.

This is terrible, this is awful, I hate it when this happens, That dirty little rat.

These are a verbal dead end in that they waste and drain your mental energy to no positive effect.

A related term is “musterbation” The thought that you must do something to be happy or worthwhile. I must do everything perfectly. I must be in a relationship.

READ pgs 94-95 handout from Brain power

copy 10 statements to exclude

Consciously exlude such phrases from your vocabulary. Perhaps you can add others to the list. Perhaps are too familiar.

4th Dispute irrational beliefs and come up with real ones.

read DISPUTE add use philosophy.

PROBLEMS

1 - Cool Off

We don’t think well when we are insane. Try to get yourself in a calm positive state of mind before you consider the problem. Don’t rue on it work on the positive state of mind.

3 - Bring the problem down to size

Realize that you can overcome it. People last, problems don’t. Write it out and see it as part of life. not all.

Don’t catastrophize.

4 - Brainstorm

Write a hundred ideas that come to mind as solutions. Don’t criticize them yet! Have fun with this.

5th Give them homework

convince others of the validity of their rational belief write about it. Imagine the consequences of the rational belief. face the fear with a rational mindset.

READ COGNITIVE

What was the sentence I wrote on the board at the beginning of the cognitive section?

MENTAL MESSAGES

Life plan-

Have them write their life plans. This is to be done by year on the left side. If they have no plan they are to write what they think might happen to them.

Next, write out the 7 criterea they’d like to see in a mate.

Then they are to write a different plan.

Then they are to write out another but better plan.

Then they are to write out what ten necessary steps are to get the profession listed in the one they most prefer.

DO SETTING AND REACHING GOALS they can then do 5 greeting cards that have the prewritten affirmations with visual accompanyment that should be related to the saying.

SELF TALK PGS 257,261, 267-9, 110138-151 224-5, 222-3 WITH232 233, 234-5, 239-40

SELF TALK 203-204 222, 252-3

That is a positive pouring out of suggestions without any commentary.

READ “How TO THINK LIKE A GENIUS”

skip Showing positive thinking transparency

10 stupid things women do to mess up their lives

1 - Women don’t go after their own goals.

Women don’t generate their own goals in life. They then don’t have anything but men.

Then they try to get fulfilled by a man. They often try to get a baby to be someone.

This is being afraid of growing up. The female escape.

Then people don’t want to do things until they have self-esteem.

Self- esteem comes from doing

Birth control has a 2 percent error rate (without human error). Men are responsible for their own sperm.

There are legions of women who stay with men who are drug or alchohol abusers.

Generally you discover these things early in relationships. But women continue.

By continuing the relationship, you-out of cowardice and self-denial - short-circuit your progress towards “purpose” by martyring yourself on the alter of someone else’s pain or need.

The thought is that someone will stay with you because they need you.

Don’t try to find yourself. Do something. Get a purpose and ride it. Don’t ride your boyfriends life.

If you get a life, you’ll be a woman , not just a girl or baby.

When you choose to include ideals such as courage and personal achievemnt as part of your feminine identity, I’ll stop hearing: “I know he lies (cheats steal, whatever) - but im 39 and what if I never find another guy. Or “He’s abusive to me and the kids, but I don’t want to be alone.”

2 - Women go after any stupid guy

This is sort of the flipside of the last one.

Its what women do when they don’t have a life.

What they do is go for stupid, bad and lesser men.

Dating should be about selecting, not being selected

People are lonely so they take anyone. They just take anyone that’ll take them.

If you have a kid and someone is bad for your kid or you and you take them due to weakness.

COURAGE!

To get through the hard times believe in your self and occupy yourself so that you are doing things and progressing between people.

Ride out the loneliness through and come out a stronger person as a result.

Self esteem comes from knowing your lonely, but not picking up the phone.

In dark nights of the soul call a friend who knows your situaltion, take a bath or walk, write in a journal, have tea. Put time between the impulse to act and the choice to action.

3 -Stupid “I love him”s-

People say I know he ______ , but I love him!!!

Love is not attachment

Women put up with really bad immature, non-adult behavior. They find one redeeming quality and hold to it.

Why are you settling? Why are you not more selective? Why are you not more critical?

Why are you calling it love. And your a comma in his life, he’s your whole text.

Because you don’t believe in yourself, you find yourself believing in something more foolish than the toothfairy.

If you kiss a toad you don’t get a prince, you get slime in your mouth.

If you find your thinking being over ridden by mushy feelings, you’re probably on the wrong track.

Don’t let low self-esteem become an excuse for inaction. If you wait for self esteem before you take action it’ll never happen.

History is not destiny. Esteem comes when you change and get action. PG 58

Men don’t need a relationship to exist , women do. Men invent things climb mountains they do stuff.

Women are abused or leave drinking liars and go back. They are lonely, so they return to the “scene of the crime” and give more of themselves away at low cost.

Women most often settle for bums to heal past hurts or aout of fear of risks.

And once you know your on the wrong track KILL THE WORD “BUT...”

Dr. Laura

Read hand out together

Then all get scenarios

For several days they read and report on the following:

Summarize case.

How was one or more of the three Cs involved?

Lesson Learned.