Ellis REBT

• Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)

  • this is an action oriented therapeutic approach that stimulates emotional growth by teaching people to replace their self-defeating (irrational) thoughts, feelings and actions with new and more effective ones
• The main aim of REBT is to teach clients how to identify irrational beliefs and challenge them through cognitive restructuring.
• the basic theory of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT)

  • ellis defines rational thought in the context that all people have fundamental goals, purposes and values, in life, that underlie their attempts to be happy and satisfied
  • if people choose to stay alive and be happy, then they act rationally, or self-helpfully, when they think, emote and behave in ways to achieve these goals
  • however, people act irrationally, or self-defeatingly, when they sabotage these goals
• the ABC;s of human disturbance

  • ellis argues that 'emotions' and feelings of 'emotional disturbance' are largely due to our direct thoughts ideas, or constructs
• A - activating event

  B - beliefs about what happened at A - rational or irrational

  C - consequences
• core musts

  • absolutistic evaluations of shoulds, oughts, musts, commands and demands
• core musts

  • important things that happened in the past MUST effect your later life
  • people who do bad things MUST have soem accountability
  • I MUST be competent at the things I do
• core musts - wiki

  I must under all conditions and at all times, perform well

  I must win the approval of others
• development

  • Ellis sees the human child as having innate abilities to think rationally, but also an innate tendency to think irrationally
  • children are brought up by adults who also have a tendency to think irrationally
  • this means that individuals are unlikely to have been lucky enough to experience a totally rational upbringing
• other irrational beliefs

  • need for approval "to be happy I must be loved by the persons who are important to me"
  • Demands about others 'most people who have been unfair to me are generally bad individuals
  • awfulizing "it is terrible when things to not go the way I would like"
  • emotions are externally caused "I can not help how i feel when everything is going wrong"
• four common irrational beliefs identified by ellis :

  1. Demandingness: The belief that things must be a certain way, and it's a catastrophe if they're not.
  2. Awfulizing: Seeing situations as unbearable or catastrophic rather than inconvenient or challenging.
  3. Low Frustration Tolerance: Believing that one cannot tolerate difficult or uncomfortable situations.
  4. Global Evaluation of Self-Worth: Linking one's overall self-worth to specific achievements or failures.
• associations with irrational beliefs

  • high levels of anxiety
  • high levels of depression
  • social dysfunction
  • isolation and withdrawal
  • anger, guilt and jealousy
  • relationship problems
  • problems of dealing with criticism
  • lack of control over situations
  • low self-esteem
• The core premise of REBT is that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected, and by changing our thoughts, we can change our emotional and behavioral responses
• homework Assignments:

  • REBT often includes assignments for individuals to practice and reinforce new rational beliefs in their daily lives.
  • This might involve keeping a journal of irrational thoughts, disputing those thoughts, and replacing them with rational alternatives.
• Rational emotive therapy is designed to help individuals acquire the following six personality traits:

  • self-interest
  • self-direction
  • tolerance
  • acceptance of uncertainty
  • flexibility
  • self acceptance
• evaluation

  • positive: Ellis provides very clear description
  • for ellis, his descriptions focus on systems to uncover the cognitive and belief structures of individuals
  • provides a clear system for understanding and exploring the structure of an individuals cognition, specifically referencing his ABC model
  • has applied value - including clinical psychology, business, education and personal growth
• evaluation - criticism

  • focuses heavility on cognition
  • Overemphasis on Cognitive Aspect:Some critics argue that REBT may place too much emphasis on cognitive aspects, potentially overlooking the role of emotions and interpersonal dynamics in psychological distress.
• evaluation - Practical application- REBT therapy (Supporting+)Ellis's approach to cognitive therapy is called rational emotive behaviour therapy or REBT for short. The idea of REBT is that by vigorously arguing with a depressed person the therapist can alter the irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy.There is some evidence to support the idea that REBT can both change negative beliefs and relieve the symptoms of depression (David et al. 2018).This means that REBT has real-world value.
• evaluation - adopts an internal locus of control

  • one of irrational beliefs identified by ellis, is that emotions are externally cause "i can not help how I feel when everything is going wrong'
  • the REBT approach allows the individuals to work through the problem themselves, and not rely on anything external e.g. antidepressants, increasing self esteem and causing an internal locus of control which has more positive outcomes e.g. hayes et al which found internal LOC is associated with academic success
• evaluation - negative

  Many cases of depression are not traceable to life events and it is not obvious what leads the person to become depressed at a particular time. This type of depression is sometimes called endogenous depression. This means that Ellis' model can only explain some cases of depression and is therefore only a partial explanation
• evaluation: empirical validity

  • ellis work is the most heavily researched theory in contemporary psychology
  • The efficacy of REBT has been supported by numerous studies, and its principles have been integrated into various therapeutic modalities.
  • DiGuiseppi, Doyle and dryden et al
• evaluation - parsimony

  • ellis theory has been described as simplistic due to its relatively few concepts
  • however, ellis defended his approach by arguing that many groundbreaking ideas appear simple. while the theory seems straightforward, its application is more complex