Clinical and Positive Psychology
The field of clinical psychology seeks to assess, diagnose and treat mental and emotional pathology. Traditionally in treating psychological disorders, focus has been placed on alleviation of negative symptoms. Due to this focus, there may be a tendency to neglect aspects of a patient’s healthy functioning. Current cognitive theories have focused on the role of maladaptive thoughts in the development of emotional disturbance and psychopathology. The field of positive psychology has aimed to bridge this gap by emphasizing factors that are responsible for adaptive functioning, such as positive emotions and personal strengths.
Cognitive Therapy
Theorists such as Albert Ellis and Aaron T. Beck have proposed theories that explain the interplay between cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. According to Ellis’ Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), people’s irrational beliefs contribute to unhealthy negative emotions and self-defeating behaviors. Ellis has identified four core irrational beliefs: demandingness, awfulizing, low frustration tolerance, and global ratings of self, others, and the world (Ellis, 1994). The Shortened General Attitudes and Belief Scale (SGABS; Lindner, Kirkby, Wertheim, & Birch, 1999) measures many of these irrational beliefs, and provides an overall assessment of irrational thinking by scores on subscales which include self-downing, need for achievement, need for approval, need for comfort, demand for fairness, and other downing. In addition, there is a scale to measure rational beliefs.
Irrational Beliefs, Automatic Thoughts, and Schemas
Irrational beliefs and automatic thoughts have been shown to be related to emotional distress (Szentagotai & Freeman, 2007). More specifically, research shows that such irrational beliefs and faulty cognitions can result in anxiety (Zwemer & Deffenbacher, 1984), depression (Nelson, 1977; Thyer & Papsdorf, 1981; McDermut, Haaga, & Bilek, 1997), and anger (DiGiuseppe & Froh, 2002; Hogg & Deffenbacher, 1988; Tafrate, Kassinove, & Dundin, 2002). Therapeutic approaches to REBT involve disputing and challenging these irrational beliefs to develop a more effective and adaptive way of thinking, with the goal of changing unhealthy negative emotions and problematic behaviors.
Social Networks
Interpersonal factors may also be related to certain types of psychopathology. For example, Vanderhorst and McLaren (2005) found that having few social support systems was related to increased levels of depression and suicidal ideation. Another study by Jackson, Weiss, Lunquist, & Soderlind (2005) showed that perceptions of low social support and increased interpersonal factors contributed to self-reported eating disturbances in college-aged women. Froh et al. (2007) suggest that the association between negative affect and quality of interpersonal relationships may be bidirectional in that poor interpersonal relationships may lead to emotional disturbance. Conversely, a high degree of negative emotions may result in a deterioration of the number and quality of social relationships.
Best Practices in Psychotherapy
Both cognitive approaches (i.e., REBT, Cognitive Therapy) and Interpersonal Therapy have been shown to be effective (de Mello, de Jesus Mari, Bacaltchuk, Verdeli, & Neugebauer, 2004; Engels, Garnefski, & Diekstra, 1993) for treating emotional disturbance. REBT and Cognitive Therapy challenge and dispute irrational beliefs and cognitive distortions, while Interpersonal Therapy deals with current social context. Both factors appear to be important, as evidenced by the findings of Froh et al. (2007), in which quality of interpersonal relationships was found to be a mediating variable between irrational beliefs and life satisfaction in a non-clinical sample. Additionally, Segrin & Taylor (2007) examined the relationship between interpersonal relations, social skills, and psychological well-being. They found that positive relationships mediated the association between social skills and psychological well-being, with satisfaction with life as one of its major indicators.
Happiness and Life Satisfaction
Pavot & Diener (1993) define life satisfaction as “a conscious cognitive judgment of one’s life in which the criteria for judgment are up to the person”. Life satisfaction is thought to be one of the three core components of happiness, along with high frequency of positive affect and low frequency of negative affect. Together these comprise what is known as “subjective well-being” (Diener, 1984; Diener, Suh, Lucas, & Smith, 1999). Given that these three factors are related, decreasing negative affect alone may not be sufficient for increasing a person’s rating of well-being. Happiness is also a result of increased positive affect.