0495007757_66664 Essays - Psychology, Behavioural Sciences

Chapter 8 Rational-Emotive-Behavior Therapy and Cognitive-Behavior Therapy CHAPTER OVERVIEW Rational-Emotive-Behavior Therapy (REBT), developed by Albert Ellis, is a therapy that consciously uses cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques to help clients. REBT theorists stress that human beings have choices. The control of ideas, attitudes, feelings, and actions is specific to the person who arranges a life according to personal dictates. Having little control over what happens or what actually exists, people do have choices and control over how they view the world and how they react to difficulties. CHAPTER OBJECTIVES After completing this chapter, the student will be able to: 1. Identify the philosophical assumptions associated with rational- emotive behavior therapy and cognitive-behavior therapy. 2. Explain the nature of people according to rational-emotive-behavior therapy. 3. Discuss rational and irrational thoughts and the three areas in which people hold irrational beliefs. 4. Describe the REBT process of teaching people to think and behave in more personally satisfying ways. 5. Summarize the "A, B, C, D, and E," approach to counseling. 6. Compare and contrast REBT with other theories. Evaluate the limitations and contributions of the REBT approach to counseling. CHAPTER SUMMARY Rational-Emotive-Behavior Therapy (REBT) has emerged from what Albert Ellis considered a limited rational-persuasive therapy into a therapy that consciously uses cognitive, emotive, and behavioral techniques to help clients. Ellis considers himself a philosophical or educational therapist who uses a didactic, cognition-oriented, explicative approach to change. Founded on the idea that what distresses people is not the event but their judgment of the event, REBT theorists stress that human beings have choices about their thoughts. The control of ideas, attitudes, feelings, and actions is specific to the person who arranges a life according to personal dictates. Having little control over what happens or what actually exists, people do have both choices and controls over how they view the world and react to difficulties. Ellis viewed humans as naturally irrational, self-defeating individuals who need to be taught to change crooked thinking from self-defeating musts, shoulds, oughts, and demands. People can be helpful and loving as long as they do not think irrationally. The three areas in which people hold irrational beliefs are in thinking that they must be perfect, that others must be perfect, and that the world must be a perfect place in which to live. The goal of the therapy is to teach people to think and behave in a more personally satisfying way by making them realize they have a choice between self-defeating, negative behavior and thought and a more efficient, enhancing, positive behavior. This is accomplished by teaching people to take responsibility for their own logical thinking and the consequences or behaviors that follow it. Ellis theorized that a belief system - what people tell themselves about an event - determines responses or feelings toward that event. People naturally and easily think crookedly, express emotions inappropriately and behave in a self-defeating manner. REBT teaches how to do otherwise. Irrational beliefs cause trouble. Lists of common irrational beliefs that lead to negative emotions and stress in children, adolescents, and parents are included in the chapter. Irrationals beliefs can form a chain of further irrational beliefs. The categories of those thoughts are self- defeating beliefs, highly rigid and dogmatic beliefs, antisocial beliefs, unrealistic beliefs and contradictory beliefs. The goal of REBT is to teach people to think and behave in a more personally satisfying way by making them realize they have a choice between self-defeating, negative behavior and efficient, enhancing, positive behavior. The first objective of therapy is to show a person how irrational beliefs or attitudes create dysfunctional consequences such as anger, depression, or anxiety. The second objective is to teach the client how to dispute or crumble the irrational beliefs and replace them with rational thoughts. This will allow the client to escape the cycle of negative feelings and be free to choose behaviors that eliminate the problem or the disappointing impact of the problem. "A, B, C, D, and E" refer to these ideas. A is the activating event. B is the person's reaction to the event. C represents the consequences or feelings resulting from the person's evaluation of the activating event. D represents the disputing arguments that can be used to attack the irrational self-messages included in the evaluation of the activating event. E is the answers given to the questions raised in D. REBT is direct, didactic, confrontational and verbally active counseling. Several factors help counselors detect irrational thinking. They can look for overgeneralizations, distortions, deletions, catastrophizing, absolutes, condemning and fortune-telling. Once the irrational beliefs are recognized, the counselor disputes and challenges them. Ultimately