The cognitive behavioral paradigm is a mixture of behavior therapy and cognitive science. Behaviorism says that a behavior is likely to be continued if it is reinforced. Some ways a behavior is reinforced is by getting attention, no longer doing a certain …show more content…
A schema is how a person fits new information in with their previous knowledge. If the new information doesn’t fit into the current schema it may be altered to fit. A single word can alter how we read and process information. An example would be the word man if you read a story about a man looking for a home you might picture a man buying a new home. If we added homeless before the man it would change the picture entirely. People make up schemas to organize the mass amount of information we are bombarded with on a daily basis. We assign people and words into categories to make sense of them and how they remember …show more content…
A person with depression or anxiety may not realize how their thinking patterns are adding to their disorder. If a person with depression thinks negatively about everything that happens and is overly critical of themselves that can give them a negative outlook on life. Therapists track a person’s daily thoughts to see what their schemas and cognitive biases shape their thoughts. Beck’s theory was that if a wife is criticized and praised whichever she remembers the next day with after her attitude. Once therapists realize a thinking pattern they can offer counterexamples. If you feel like you failed, they will give you examples of ways you have succeeded. Therapists will point out the contradictions in your thinking; in hopes that it will change your thoughts which will eventually change your schema and your general