Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective


ANXIETY_DISORDERS_PHOBIAS

About The Author

Aaron T. Beck is university professor of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and Director of the Center for Cognitive Therapy in Philadelphia.

Gary Emery is director of the Los Angeles Center for Cognitive Therapy and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at UCLA.

Ruth L. Greenberg is a psychologist in private practice, and trains psychotherapists at the Center for Cognitive Therapy.

Learning Objectives

  1. Discuss terms and concepts related to fear and anxiety.
  2. Examine the causes of anxiety, as well as its adaptive function.
  3. Analyze symptoms of anxiety as manifestations of the hyperactivity of certain vital bodily systems.
  4. Explain the importance of cognitive processing in estimating danger and in activating primitive strategies for dealing with the danger.
  5. Discuss how a certain set of “rules” are used to classify relatively innocuous events as dangerous, and how these “rules” exaggerate the probability of a negative outcome.
  6. Explain how a pervasive sense of vulnerability is the core psychological problem in anxiety disorders.
  7. Explore and define generalized anxiety disorders.
  8. Comprehend the diverse meanings of various simple phobias.
  9. Review the combination of factors involved with agoraphobia.
  10. Obtain greater understanding of the “evaluation anxieties,” including social anxieties, public speaking anxiety, and test anxiety.
  11. Examine the treatment of anxiety and the working principles of cognitive therapy.
  12. Better understand the effects of cognitive restructuring when used with anxiety disorders.
  13. Describe techniques for addressing the imagery component in anxiety and for using imagery to alleviate the disorder.
  14. Explore the affective components of anxiety.
  15. Investigate the behavioral components of anxiety.
  16. Describe the component of cognitive restructuring having to do with the patient’s major concerns and underlying assumptions.

Course Description

At the forefront of the cognitive revolution, renowned psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck turned to information processing in order to understand the sources, consequences, and cures of anxiety disorders and phobias. In the first half of this classic text, Beck elaborates on the clinical picture of anxiety disorders and phobias and presents an explanatory model to account for the rich complexity of these phenomena. Cognitive psychologist Gary Emery then details the therapeutic principles, strategies, and tactics developed on the basis of the cognitive model of anxiety disorders and phobias.This fifteenth anniversary edition of the foundational work on cognitive therapy features a new introduction by Beck, in which he offers an up-to-date appraisal of the current state of cognitive therapy and its application to the treatment of phobias and anxiety.

Comments:

"Excellent resource. I gained a lot of insight into several areas. Thank you."

- W.L., RN, MI