Cognitive restructuring methods: what are they and how do they work?

The cognitive behavioral therapy It has been shown to be effective in dealing with multiple alterations and psychological disorders.

One of the most used methods in this type of treatment is cognitive restructuring, whose objective is to modify negative thoughts and dysfunctional beliefs that generate discomfort and emotional disturbances.

In this article we explain what the cognitive restructuring technique consists of and what are the main methods used and their differences.

• Recommended: "Cognitive restructuring: how is this therapeutic strategy?"

Cognitive restructuring: definition and theoretical bases

Cognitive restructuring is a psychological technique used in cognitive-behavioral therapy that serves to identify and correct dysfunctional thoughts or negative. This tool allows the psychologist and the patient to work together in the search for alternatives and in the restructuring of certain core ideas and beliefs that generate a subtle malaise that is difficult to detect by oneself.

This cognitive technique manages thoughts as hypotheses that must be verified or refuted through Socratic dialogue (a dialectical method that seeks hypothesis testing through inquiry and search for new ideas and concepts), asking questions, and conducting behavioral experiments (such as asking other people questions, daring to act in a certain way, observing someone's behavior, etc.) to test beliefs dysfunctional

Cognitive restructuring is based on the following theoretical foundations:

• How people structure their beliefs and ideas influences how they perceive the world and themselves, how they feel (including physiological reactions), and how they act.

• People's cognitions can be detected through psychological methods and tools such as interviews, questionnaires, the Socratic method or self-records.

• Cognitions can be modified to achieve therapeutic change (modification of the patient's behavior).

Cognitive restructuring methods

Cognitive restructuring, as a cognitive technique that it is, implicitly assumes the postulates of psychology cognitive that affirm that people react to events based on the meaning that they give them. we assign; that is, the important thing is not so much what happens, but what we tell ourselves is happening (or how we evaluate what happens to us).

The different methods of cognitive restructuring that have been implemented over the years assume that dysfunctional beliefs can cause affective and behavioral alterations, hence the main objective of all of them is to modify said beliefs by more coherent cognitions and functional, either addressing internal verbal behavior (what we believe about the world and about ourselves) or the core beliefs that define our personality (such as believing that we deserve to be loved by everyone).

Next, we will see two of the main methods of cognitive restructuring most used in cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Rational emotive behavioral therapy, developed by the American psychologist Albert Ellis (1913-2007), is a method of brief psychotherapy based on the premise that that most affective problems and disorders (and associated behaviors) have their origin in erroneous and irrational interpretations that we make of what we happens.

This therapy is based on the ABC cognitive model, where A represents the event or happening that is causing us problems; B, the beliefs or the interpretation that we make of said event; and C, the affective and behavioral consequences (including physiological reactions) that all this causes us.

According to Ellis, we suffer from affective problems because we tend to generate irrational ideas about certain events. For example, believing that we need to depend on other people, that it is better to avoid certain responsibilities or that certain events are catastrophic, are just some of them.

Catastrophizing (believing that something bad that happens to us is horrible and we will never be able to bear it), thinking in absolute terms (with thoughts such as “I must approve all subjects”) and overgeneralizing (if I ride a bicycle and fall, thinking that every time I ride I will fall), are three of the main cognitive ills that Ellis highlights in his theory.

The Ellis approach is basically about confronting those irrational beliefs with more positive and realistic thoughts. First, identifying the thoughts that generate discomfort and are based on dysfunctional beliefs; second, using an impetuous and counterarguing Socratic method; and third, through modeling techniques (imitation learning) and homework, patients learn to modify their beliefs based on what they have learned in therapy.

Another method of cognitive restructuring is the one included in cognitive therapy developed by the American psychiatrist Aaron Beck, which was originally thought to treat depressive disorders, although it is now also used to treat a wide variety of psychological disorders, such as anxiety, obsessive disorders, phobias or disorders psychosomatic.

To apply Beck's cognitive restructuring technique, it is first necessary to identify the thoughts dysfunctional that are generating emotional alterations through mental exercises and questions from the method socratic; Second, after you have identified dysfunctional beliefs, try to counteract them with methods such as self-testing. hypotheses (with real behavioral experiments) or the staging and interpretation of roles or "role-playing" (playing to be another person).

By last, In Beck's therapy, homework is a fundamental part so that patients can practice what they have learned in therapy..

In relation to the theoretical bases on which this method of cognitive restructuring is based, Beck states the following: people who suffer from affective and behavioral alterations do so due to an excess of negative and dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs, something similar to what he proposed Ellis.

Here are some examples of dysfunctional beliefs commonly addressed in Beck's cognitive therapy:

• dichotomous thinking: believing something in absolute terms, black or white, like thinking that everything is going to go wrong when you have a mistake.

• arbitrary inference: This dysfunctional belief (or cognitive bias) consists of assuming or drawing general conclusions about something without having sufficient evidence of it. For example, thinking that an entire academic year is going to be suspended because you have had a bad grade on an exam.

• overgeneralization: This dysfunctional idea, which we have already seen in Ellis's therapy, is a cognitive distortion that makes us draw general conclusions from specific and anecdotal events.

• magnification: exaggerate or give greater importance than it has to some event.

Differences between the Ellis approach and the Beck approach

It is clear that there are similarities between the two main methods of cognitive restructuring, Ellis's rational emotive behavior therapy approach and Beck's cognitive therapy approach; however, it is no less true that there are also certain differences.

Both therapies assume and base their therapeutic procedures on the idea that people suffer emotional disturbances due to irrational or dysfunctional cognitive patterns, ideas and beliefs that provoke. And both approaches try to modify those thoughts through cognitive and behavioral techniques.

With everything, In Ellis's therapy, rational debate is mainly used to test the validity of irrational beliefs., unlike what happens in Beck's, where he more frequently uses the hypothesis verification method to test the veracity of dysfunctional thoughts.

Something that also differentiates both therapies has to do with the ultimate foundation on which each therapy is built; Ellis puts a greater philosophical and humanist emphasis (he is in favor of a deep philosophical change in the person) and Beck a more scientific one, which does not prevent Ellis's postulates from being validated as well. scientifically.

Finally, another difference should be noted when approaching work with patients. Ellis's approach seeks to modify irrational beliefs with more aggressive and relentless questioning, whereas in the Beck's approach is about helping the patient to perform tasks that test these beliefs, with a more gentle approach.

Bibliographic references:

• Bados, A., & Garcia, E. (2010). The technique of cognitive restructuring. Barcelona, ​​Spain: Department of Personality, Psychological Evaluation and Treatment. Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona.

• Martin, G., & Pear, J. (2008). Behavior modification: what it is and how to apply it. Publisher: Prentice Hall. Madrid.