Cognitive therapy may be helpful in treating individuals with avoidant personality disorder. This therapy assumes that the patient’s faulty thinking is causing the personality disorder, and therefore focuses on changing distorted cognitive patterns by examining the validity of the assumptions behind them. If a patient feels he is inferior to his peers, unlikable, and socially unacceptable, a cognitive therapist would test the reality of these assumptions by asking the patient to name friends and family who enjoy his company, or to describe past social encounters that were fulfilling to him. By showing the patient that others value his company and that social situations can be enjoyable, the irrationality of his social fears and insecurities are exposed. This process is known as cognitive restructuring.
Paula Ford-Martin
Further Reading
American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th ed. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, Inc., 1994.
Further Information
National Mental Health Association. 1021 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA, USA. 22314-2971, fax: (703)684-5968, (703)684-7722, (800)969-NMHA. Email: infoctr@nmha.org. http://www.nmha.org.
Albert Bandura
1925-American psychologist whose work is concentrated in the area of social learning theory.
Albert Bandura was born in the province of Alberta, Canada, and received his B.A. from the University of British Columbia. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Iowa, focusing on social learning theories in his studies with Kenneth Spence and Robert Sears. Graduating in 1952, Bandura completed a one-year internship at the Wichita Guidance Center before accepting an appointment to the department of psychology at Stanford University, where he has remained throughout his career. In opposition to more radical behaviorists, Bandura considers cognitive factors as causal agents in human behavior. His area of research, social cognitive theory, is concerned with the interaction between cognition, behavior, and the environment.
Taken from : The Gale Encyclopedia Of Psychology 2ND Edition - Bonnie Strickland
