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Developing a theoretical understanding of therapy techniques: an illustrative analogue study
Daniel Freeman1, Philippa A Garety, Philip McGuire
1Department of Psychology, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, UK. D.Freeman@iop.kcl.ac.uk
The British Journal of Clinical Psychology
|July 12, 2005
Summary
Disconfirmatory reasoning, a style of thinking that considers alternatives, is linked to better belief evaluation and lower depressive symptoms. This reasoning style may be beneficial for individuals with delusions in therapy.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Psychological interventions often involve clients reviewing unhelpful beliefs.
- A theoretical understanding of how beliefs are reviewed in therapy is lacking.
- Examining therapeutic techniques can inform potential interactions with symptom processes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the feasibility of researching therapy techniques through an analogue study.
- To examine links between symptoms, reasoning style, and belief evaluation.
- To investigate the role of confirmatory and disconfirmatory reasoning in belief evaluation.
Main Methods:
- An analogue study with 30 individuals without psychiatric illness.
- Participants completed measures of depression, anxiety, and delusions.
- Reasoning style was assessed using Wason's 2-4-6 task before and after instruction in disconfirmatory reasoning, followed by a belief evaluation task.
Main Results:
- Disconfirmatory reasoning was associated with less hasty data gathering, consideration of more hypotheses, higher intellectual functioning, and lower depressive symptoms.
- Strong confirmatory reasoning correlated with higher depression and preoccupation with delusional ideation.
- Individuals using disconfirmatory reasoning reported more evidence both for and against their beliefs.
Conclusions:
- Belief evaluation in therapy may involve confirmatory and disconfirmatory reasoning processes.
- Disconfirmatory reasoning, characterized by thorough data gathering and consideration of alternatives, may enhance belief evaluation.
- Findings suggest that individuals with delusions, who often exhibit hasty data gathering and difficulty considering alternatives, might benefit from belief evaluation techniques in therapy.