Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is the most extensively researched form of psychotherapy, with strong evidence for treating depression, anxiety disorders, PTSD, OCD, eating disorders, insomnia, and chronic pain. Developed from Aaron Beck's cognitive therapy and Albert Ellis's rational emotive behavior therapy, CBT is based on the cognitive model: that psychological distress is maintained not by events themselves but by the individual's interpretation of those events — their automatic thoughts, underlying assumptions, and core beliefs.
Cognitive Model
Beck's cognitive model proposes that negative automatic thoughts arise from deeper cognitive schemas (core beliefs) that develop through early experiences. In depression, the cognitive triad involves negative views of the self ("I'm worthless"), the world ("everything is terrible"), and the future ("things will never get better"). These schemas bias information processing — attention, memory, and interpretation all become negatively skewed, creating a self-reinforcing cycle. CBT targets these cognitive distortions through systematic techniques.
CBT uses both cognitive and behavioral techniques. Cognitive restructuring teaches patients to identify automatic negative thoughts, evaluate the evidence for and against them, and develop more balanced alternative interpretations. Behavioral activation increases engagement in rewarding activities to counter the withdrawal and avoidance that maintain depression. Exposure therapy (for anxiety) involves systematic confrontation with feared stimuli to allow extinction of fear responses. Behavioral experiments test the accuracy of negative predictions directly.
Cognitive Psychology Foundations
CBT draws heavily on cognitive psychology: the concept of schemas from memory research, attentional bias from attention research, interpretation bias from language processing research, and cognitive distortions from judgment and decision-making research. Modern "third wave" CBT approaches (acceptance and commitment therapy, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy) integrate metacognitive awareness and defusion techniques rather than challenging thought content directly.