Читать книгу Introduction to Abnormal Child and Adolescent Psychology - Robert Weis - Страница 176

Cognitive therapy focuses primarily on the client’s patterns of thinking about herself, others, and the future. One cognitive therapist, Aaron Beck (1976), argued that people experience psychological distress and impairment when they engage in systematic errors in thinking called cognitive biases and cognitive distortions. A cognitive bias occurs when someone selectively attends to negative aspects of her life rather than looking at situations in a more balanced, realistic way. For example, a girl with social anxiety who is giving a class presentation might focus exclusively on her classmates’ laughs or snickers rather than on her teacher’s nods of approval. Similarly, a boy with depression might attend to the fact that only one classmate sits with him during lunch instead of feeling supported by his friend who chose to spend time with him.