ellis abc model

• Activating Event

  External events that are negative mainly, and these can trigger irrational beliefs, such as losing a job.
• Beliefs

  The person may always succeed to reach perfection, when it doesn't go smoothly it can be seen as a disaster. After losing my job the irrational belief that I wasn't good enough for my job.
• Consequences

  The consequences can be emotional or behavioural. After losing a job and not feeling good enough, there would be consequences emotionally as they would not be able to support their family as they are not earning money.
• strength is the psychological treatment of depression. His approach to cognitive therapy is called REBT. The idea is by vicariously arguing with a depressed person it can alter their irrational beliefs that are making them unhappy. There is evidence that REBT can change negative beliefs and relieve the symptoms of depression. This shows that REBT has real world value.
• limitation is that it only explains reactive depression and nt endogenous depression. There seems to be no doubt that depression is caused by life events. How we respond to negative life events at least seems to be partly the results of our beliefs. But some cases of depression are not traceable as they come from within, not from life events. The Ellis ABC model is not useful for explaining endogenous depression.
• The ABC model of depression is controversial as it located the responsibility for depression purely with the depressed person. Critics say this is effectively blaming the depressed person which can be seen as unfair.  On the other hand, provided that it is used appropriately and sensitively, the application of the ABC model in REBT does appear to make at least some depressed people achieve more resilience and feel better by relieving their symptoms.