Aaron T. Beck: Father of Cognitive Therapy and Pioneer in Depression Treatment

Category: Human Nature, Information Technology, Psychotherapy, Therapy

Last Updated: 31 Mar 2023

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Section 1 Abstract Biography Aaron T. Beck Aaron T. Beck (July 18, 1921) was born in Providence, Rhode Island USA, the youngest child of four siblings. Beck attended Brown University, graduating magna cum laude in 1942, then attended Yale Medical School, graduating with an M. D. in 1946. He is an American psychiatrist and a professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. Beck developed cognitive therapy in the early 1960s, he is widely regarded as the father of cognitive therapy,and his ioneering theories are widely used in the treatment of clinical depression. Beck also developed self-report measures of depression and anxiety including Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Youth Inventories. He is the President Emeritus of the Beck Inst and the Honorary President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, which certifies qualified cognitive therapists. Beck's daughter, Judith S. Beck, is also a researcher in the field of ognitive therapy and President of the Beck Institute. She is married with four children, Roy, Judy, Dan, and Alice. He has nine grandchildren. Section 2 Question #1 Beck developed cognitive therapy in the early 1960s. He had previously studied and practiced psychoanalysis. Beck designed and carried out a numberof experiments to test psychoanalytic concepts of depression. Fully expecting research would validate these fundamental precepts, he was surprised to find the opposite. This research led him to begin to look for other ways of conceptualizing depression.

Working with depressed patients, he found that they experienced streams of negative thoughts that seemed to pop up spontaneously. He termed these cognitions “automatic thoughts,” and discovered that their content fell into three categories: negative ideas about themselves, the world and the future. Beck then developed self-report measures of depression and anxiety including Beck Depression Inventory(BDI), Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Youth Inventories. Section 3 Question # 2

I think Beck seen human beings as basically being good. Beck states that depressive cognition could be a result of traumatic experience or incapable of adapting coping skills. Depressive people have a negative perception or belief about themselves and their environment. According to Beck,"If beliefs do not change, there is no improvement. If beliefs change, symptoms change. " I think this means that your thoughts and beliefs affect your behavior, He believed that bad behavior is caused due to bad thinking, and that thinking is shaped by our beliefs.

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