Beck's cognitive triad

In psychology, Beck’s cognitive triad is a theory based on negative views about oneself, the world, and the future. Aaron T. Beck developed the theory in the 1960s as part of his broader discipline called cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The cognitive triad is mainly used to describe the negative thoughts of people with depression. However, the theory also can be attributed to people with similar mental disorders, such as anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder. The cognitive triad encompasses Beck’s other theories about negative self-schema and cognitive distortions. Several instruments can be used to measure Beck’s cognitive triad, including the Beck Depression Inventory, or BDI, and the Beck Hopelessness Scale.

Background

In the 1960s, Aaron T. Beck, a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania, developed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Beck had been practicing psychoanalysis, which is a discipline that focuses on analyzing the unconscious mind to treat mental disorders. However, Beck discovered that psychoanalysis was ineffective in treating people with depression and a negative outlook. Beck, therefore, developed CBT as a form of therapy that deals with negative thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. The goal of CBT is to identify negative thoughts and emotions and then modify them to influence behavior more positively.

CBT is based on rational emotive behavior therapy, or REBT, which was developed by psychologist Albert Ellis in the 1950s. Ellis believed that some people have irrational thoughts and beliefs, and these irrational assumptions result in emotional and behavioral problems. REBT seeks to help an individual change their irrational thoughts and beliefs to rational ones.

The cognitive triad was born out of Beck’s work in CBT. Beck suggested that people with depression have three types of negative thinking: negative thoughts about themselves, about the world, and about the future. Beck believed that this negative thinking generally happened automatically in depressed people. Some examples of negative thoughts about oneself are “I’m not worthy,” “I’m stupid,” or “I’m a bad person.” As for a negative thought about the world as it relates to oneself, an individual may think, “Everyone lies to me,” “Everyone acts selfishly toward me,” or “No one does what’s right for me.” An example of a negative thought about the future is someone thinking “Nothing will get better for me,” “I won’t even try because I’ll just fail,” and “I’m going to lose everything.”

Overview

Beck’s cognitive triad can be viewed as a triangle, with one type of negative thought at each point of the triangle. The sides of the triangle can be viewed as arrows. In this sense, the three types of negative thoughts have an impact on one another. For instance, a person’s negative thoughts about themselves can cause their negative thoughts about the world, which in turn can cause their negative thoughts about the future. Furthermore, the interaction among the three types of negative thoughts results in an interference in normal thinking. An individual, therefore, becomes consumed by negative thoughts.

Beck theorized that people with depression hold a negative self-schema, meaning they view themselves in a negative and pessimistic light. He believed that this negative self-schema is derived from negative childhood experiences, especially trauma. Examples of such trauma include abuse, neglect, bullying, harsh criticism, and the death of a loved one. A negative self-schema may lead to other negative and pessimistic thoughts and behaviors, such as an individual blaming themselves for a negative event over which they really had no control.

Beck also believed that depressed people harbor cognitive distortions, or illogical distortions of thought. This means that a depressed individual has an inaccurate perception of reality. Beck identified the major cognitive distortions as arbitrary inference, selective abstraction, overgeneralization, magnification, minimization, and personalization.

With arbitrary interference, an individual draws a conclusion based on insufficient evidence, irrelevant evidence, or no evidence at all. (For example, a person feels that their friends do not want to socialize with them because a party was cancelled due to a snowstorm.) Selective abstraction involves drawing a conclusion based on just one aspect of a situation even though there are many factors. (For example, a person takes full responsibility for their team losing a competition even though they are only one member of the team.) With overgeneralization, an individual makes a broad, general conclusion based on a single event. (An example is when a person feels they are no longer a good salesperson because they fail to close a sale despite having closed all their other sales.) Magnification entails an exaggeration of a negative event. (For instance, an individual sees a minor flaw in their otherwise successful work as a complete failure in their work.) With minimization, a person undermines the importance of a positive event. (For example, an individual thinks that praise from a boss at work is insignificant.) As for personalization, an individual associates negative thoughts about others with negative thoughts about themselves. (An example is if a parent unfairly blames himself for his child’s poor grades at school.)

Although Beck’s cognitive triad has been applied mainly to people who are depressed, the theory also may be applied to people who have related mental health disorders. These disorders include anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, eating disorders, and substance-use disorder.

Several measuring instruments exist to measure Beck’s cognitive triad. One of the main instruments is the Beck Depression Inventory, or BDI. The instrument includes a twenty-one-item rating inventory that measures the severity of depression. It is typically used for people between the ages of thirteen and eighty. The Beck Hopelessness Scale is another instrument used to measure the cognitive triad. This instrument contains twenty items and measures negative expectations about the future. Generally, it is used in people aged seventeen to eighty.

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