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RATIONAL-EMOTIVE AND OTHER COGNITIVE THEORIES

BIOGRAPHY

     Ellis (1913) grew up in New York City, where as young adolescent he dreamed of becoming a novelist.  In 1934, he graduated from city college of New York with a BA administration.  In his spare time, Ellis wrote fiction, but his literary efforts did not payoff.  After eight of his novels were rejected by publishers.  Ellis decided to study psychology and eventually earned his PH.D in clinical psychology from Columbia University.  Ellis began a practicing psychoanalysis but eventually became more active and directive with his parents, gradually developing his own approach to therapy.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

     The origin of the therapy can be traced to the philosophy of stoicism in ancient Greece, which distinguished an act from its interpretation.  According o stoics, “we are not so much disturbed by what happen to us, as by how we interpret what happen to us.  The approach more recently stems from COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY.  Despite Ellis original training and practice of psychoanalysis, he remained dissatisfied with this approach and hypothesized that his patient’s behaviors were influenced by their attitude and perceptions.  This hypothesis motivated Ellis to work diligently toward a rational approach to psychotherapy.

VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE

     Ellis bonds that human nature has the potential to control much of the pleasure and pain that seemingly results from life’s circumstances.  According to Ellis, the human psyche is intricately entwined with thoughts and feelings.  Ellis view of human nature can be summarized in his formulation of the ABC theory, which suggests that people come to therapy because of a disturbing consequence _(c), which is attributed to an activating event. (A), as if there were a casual relationship.  According to Ellis however, people are not disturbed by events themselves, but by the (B) belief they hold about those events.

DEVELOPMENT OF MALADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR

     Because human are self conscious creatures, they observe their disturbance and then make themselves disturbed all over again about being disturbed.  Maladaptive behavior, therefore, results from a number of illogical ideas Example: that being loved and approved by everyone is necessary for happiness.) that are held and perpetuated until a new way of thinking is learned.  These illogical ideas result in feelings of worthlessness, depression, rage, anxiety, mania, or self pity.  Although we are born with potential to be rational, we become illogical because of distortions during childhood and contemporary reinforcement of these distortions.

GOALS OF THERAPY

     The ultimate goal of the rational-emotive therapy is to reach clients to analyze and correct distortions of reality.  It aims to help clients to separate their rational from irrational beliefs.  Then the identified irrational beliefs are challenged; that is, the client is brought to a point of disputing irrational emotional beliefs.  Rational-emotive therapy aims to eliminate the irrational beliefs and substitute them with a new, more rational philosophy.  If this disputation is effective, it will be apparent in the diminished emotional distress, and it will result in clients assuming more responsibility for their own lives.

 FUNCTION OF THE THERAPIST

     In rational-emotive therapy the therapist is unequivocally verbal and directive, intentionally attempting to lead the patient to a healthier perspective.  By using persuasion and debate to attack self-defeating patterns, the therapist work as quickly as possible to help clients to face each of their illogical thinking.  Explorational thinking.  The process for the rational-emotive therapist, then, centers on showing clients how and when they are irrational.

MAJOR METHODS AND TECHNIQUES

     Rational-emotive therapy consists of three general phases.  In the cognitive phase the therapist presents the rationale for the therapy to the clients.  The emotive phase is devoted to helping clients become aware of their thoughts.  During the behavioristic phase clients are trained to verbalize alternative cognitions and to change their behavior, during each of these phases, techniques such as disputations, countering, and action homework may be used.

APPLICATION

      A transcript cannot completely capture the role that Ellis personality plays in how he applies rational emotive therapy, but the case of a 26-year old male commercial artist who is homophobic portrays a dramatic momentum.  In this case, Ellis quickly taps into the clients’ irrational, illogical thinking and trough disputation quickly attempts to dismantle it.  After eight sessions, the clients’ obsession is relieved.

OTHER COGNITIVELY BASED THEORIES

     Rational-emotive therapy is the most widely known cognitive approach; it is not the only one.  Aaron beck also developed a highly effective cognitive theory based on the rationale that the way people feel and behave is determined by how they structure their experience.  Emphasizing dysfunctional thinking, he tries to help clients to become more realistic in their interpretations of events by projecting less often.  Donald Meichenbaum has inaugurated a cognitive behavioral approach, which emphasizes that clients need to become aware of how they think, feel and behave in order to interrupt the scripted nature of their behavior in various situations.

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

     The cognitive approach to therapy is a proven short-term strategy for preventing clients from seriously passing judgments on themselves based on some inconsequential aspect of their behavior.  But it has been criticized by simplifying the complexity of human experience and for trying to implement a truly value approach to therapy.  Concerning multicultural counseling the cognitive approach is capable of transcending many cultural barriers but runs the risk of misconstruing as irrational the values of ethnic minority clients that are related to their particular world views.

CURRENT STATUS

     In recent years rational-emotive therapy and other cognitive approaches have come to enjoy wide acceptance.  Much of their following and support can be attributed to the empirical evidence that undergirds their efforts.  Also, Elis ‘two nonprofit institutes, with headquarters in New York City, promote rational-emotive in many areas.  Thousands of practitioners subscribe to a form of cognitive therapy today, making it one of the most popular modes of psychotherapy.

Gementiza, Mae Lannie M.

Sadicon Harlyn

BEED 3-A