0.18 Cognitive perspectives on personality development  (Page 16/30)

…The idea of “collaborative empiricism” is central to the practice of cognitive therapy. In the course of therapy, the cognitive therapist works with his or her client to collect detailed information regarding the specific thoughts, feelings, and actions that occur in problem situations. These observations are used as a basis for developing an individualized understanding of the client which provides a basis for strategic intervention…For the cognitive therapist to intervene effectively, he or she must endeavor both to understand the individual’s subjective experience and to perceive objective reality accurately. (pp. 46-47; Pretzer&Beck, 2005)

More recent developments in cognitive therapy have focused on accepting the circumstances of one’s life, doing so not as an excuse, but in order to facilitate moving forward from that point. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) acknowledges the presence of suffering in human life, and focuses on using mindfulness to re-orient one’s relational framework to the circumstances of one’s life (Eifert&Forsyth, 2005; Hayes&Smith, 2005; Hayes, Strosahl,&Wilson, 1999). ACT has many elements in common with the traditional practice of Buddhist mindfulness, an approach that is taken directly in Radical Acceptance (Brach, 2003).

Brief Biographies of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck

Albert Ellis was born in 1913 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When he was 4 years old his family moved to New York City, and Ellis has remained there ever since. Although Ellis considered his childhood to have had no significant effect on his subsequent career in psychology, there were some rather dramatic factors that influenced the person he became. His father was a traveling salesman who was seldom home, and when he was home he paid little attention to his children. After his parents were divorced, Ellis seldom saw his father again. His mother wasn’t much more attentive, doing very little for the children, and often leaving them home alone. Ellis later wrote: “As for my nice Jewish mother, a hell of a lot of help she was!” (cited in Yankura&Dryden, 1994). Ellis was also very sick following tonsillitis and a strep infection. He needed emergency surgery, and then developed nephritis. Over the next 2 years, from 5 to 7 years old, he was hospitalized eight times, once for 10 months. Yet his parents remained uncaring, and he would sometimes go weeks without anyone from the family visiting him in the hospital. The illness kept him from playing sports or other games even when he was home from the hospital. Perhaps as a result of all of these circumstances, or perhaps because of his temperament, Ellis was painfully shy. He dreaded public activities, such as when he won an award for his excellent academic work, and he avoided making social overtures toward any girl he had a crush on (Yankura&Dryden, 1994).

Surprisingly, Ellis grew strong from these experiences. He thrived on his independence and autonomy, and turned his attention toward his schoolwork. He obtained praise from adults other than his parents, and at one point became something of a leader amongst the children in the hospital. Although his shyness plagued him for many years, he developed a strong sense of self-esteem based on his success in academics. Most importantly, he developed a sense of choosing to overcome his adverse childhood. He did not become a strong-willed individual because of his bad childhood, for example he describes his sister as never really being happy, but in spite of it, due largely to being born with an innate capacity for rational thinking (Yankura&Dryden, 1994).