NCJ Number
183028
Date Published
2000
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This overview of cognitive therapies focuses on cognitive restructuring approaches and cognitive skills approaches for achieving behavioral change in correctional settings.
Abstract
Cognitive therapies focus on the ways that people think. This encompasses a broad array of processes and skills that include problem-solving skills, the ability to plan for the future, the ability to empathize with others, flexibility, and anticipating the consequences of our actions. Cognitive also refers to the content of our thinking, our attitudes, beliefs, values, and the relatively stable manner in which we make sense of our surroundings. During the past decade, the cognitive treatment modalities have become a preferred approach to counseling and therapy. The cognitive and cognitive behavioral approaches that have proliferated in corrections, especially in programs for juveniles, generally fit into one of two models: cognitive restructuring, in which the interventions endeavor to change the content of beliefs, values, and attitudes; and cognitive skills, in which the interventions seek to improve cognitive processes, the structure and form of reasoning, rather than its content. This chapter's discussion of cognitive restructuring approaches addresses rational emotive therapy and its techniques, applications to offenders, and criminal personality groups. The overview of cognitive skills approaches focuses on direct decision therapy, cognitive skills programs for offenders, moral education approaches, and aggression replacement training. 1 figure, key concepts and terms, and discussion questions