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The reconstruction of depressive self-schemata through cognitive psychotherapy

Terry Mac Pace, University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Abstract

This study had two primary purposes: To evaluate the effectiveness of Beck's cognitive therapy for depression (Beck, Rush, Shaw, and Emery, 1979) and to examine the role of depressive self-schemata in depression and in the mediation of responsiveness to treatment for depression with cognitive therapy. Thus, this study sought to test both pragmatic and theoretical hypotheses. Beck's (1967, 1976) cognitive theory of depression posits the existence of depressive cognitive self-schemata that distort the information processing of the depressive, fostering the negative view of the self associated with depression. Based on cognitive theory, cognitive therapy is an approach to psychotherapy focused on altering the cognitive processes and self-schemata associated with depression. The results of this study found short-term individual cognitive therapy was effective in reducing the severity of syndrome depression for mildly and moderately depressed college students. In addition, the self-schemata of depressed students as assessed by self-referent information processing measures were found to be depressive. As depression improved following cognitive therapy self-schemata were reconstructed and became less depressive. ^

Subject Area

Health Sciences, Mental Health|Psychology, Clinical

Recommended Citation

Pace, Terry Mac, "The reconstruction of depressive self-schemata through cognitive psychotherapy" (1989). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8918560.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8918560

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