A content analysis of thoughts and emotions elicited from depressed patients during cognitive therapy

A sample of 200 thoughts obtained from 50 depressed patients at the beginning of a course of cognitive therapy were analysed within the context of Beck's cognitive theory of depression. The results indicated that, of the three elements of the negative cognitive triad, negative view of self and of the world occurred more frequently than negative view of the future. Correspondingly, the principal themes referred to self-deprecation and a hostile world, with hopelessness occurring less frequently; inter- and intra-personal situations were equally represented. Anxious mood was reported as often as depressed mood with anger, directed inwards or outwards, being less frequent. Two raters were able to label the five logical errors listed by Beck reliably, although there was a certain degree of overlap; arbitrary inferences were the most frequent and personalization the least frequent. Emotions, themes and errors were not indiscriminately related; anger was predominantly associated with themes of hostile world and 'shoulds'; 'selective abstraction' was predominantly associated with depression and 'arbitrary inference' with anxiety; 'selective abstraction' was predominantly associated with 'shoulds' and 'arbitrary inference' with 'illness' themes. The conclusion was that Beck's early analysis of depressed thinking is valid cross-culturally and across time.