Are humans rational? Mostly rational? Sometimes rational? Even with access to thousands of years’ worth of material that documents the human mind, the jury must surely be out.
What we can say is that each of us employs “habits of mind”. We personalise and catastrophise things, we give our attention to selected events, engage in all-or-nothing thinking and futilely attempt to predict the future and mind read. Certainly, many of our automatic thoughts seem irrational — they’re not particularly helpful to us reaching some kind of objective, clear view of the world. Enter cognitive behavioural therapy.
These are my notes from the Great Courses lecture four on CBT, delivered by Dr Jason M Satterfield, a clinical psychologist and neuroscientist. (I’m a sociologist wanting to understand CBT better for research reasons.)
Wave Two CBT: What lies beneath our automatic thoughts?
According to Beck, beliefs do. Common assumptions about the world, how it is and how it should be. They are the foundation for how we automatically respond to a situation through thought.
If we believe — to use a ridiculous example — that all Pizza Delivery Drivers are “pure evil” (clearly they are not), then we respond with automatic thoughts that reflect that belief when the doorbell rings and we see a Domino’s car parked out front.
Habits of mind can be changed. Satterfield suggests this can be done by identifying, evaluating and restructuring cognitions. Behaviours can also be analysed. This type of approach typifies Wave Two CBT.
Wave Three CBT
A different approach is taken in Wave Three CBT. Cognition, not the content of that cognition, is what’s important. Hayes’ Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) uses the bus analogy. You’re driving.
People who get on and off the imagined bus — good, bad or neutral — are your thoughts. As the driver, you keep driving towards your destination — which is your values, the life you want to live. The kids at the back singing bad 90s ganster rap shouldn’t stop you. Likewise, your irrational fears about pizza delivery drivers shouldn’t stop you collecting the pizza.
ACT is focused on: acceptance of thoughts, contact with the present, observation of the self, awareness of personal values, and commitment to living those values. You drive the bus towards your values, or eat pizza according to your values. (I’ve made my bed with the pizza analogy and will now commit to sleeping in it.)
Both ACT and Wave Two CBT accept that the mind is capable of many irrational thoughts but advocate different levels of intervention in response.
Watch the lecture here.