Aron. T. Beck and His Work - A Short Overview

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Aron. T. Beck and His Work – A Short Overview

Aron. T. Beck was born on July 18, 1921, in Rhode Island. He did his graduation from Brown University in 1942 and was an outstanding student, achieving magna cum laude and earning the William Gaston Prize for Excellence in Oratory and the Francis Wayland Scholarship. In 1946 he got his medical degree from Yale medical college.

He is an American psychiatrist and professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the father of cognitive therapy, and his theories are extensively used in the treatment of clinical depression. Judith Beck, daughter of the beck is a cognitive therapy researcher and president of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.

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Aron. T. Beck and His Work - A Short Overview — Aron. T. Beck and His Work – A Short Overview

Professional Life

Throughout his professional life, he worked more on psychoanalysis. Beck’s research differs from the traditionally used method of psychoanalysis he worked more instead of only focusing on distorted thoughts. Beck struggled to help his depressed clients by capturing their emotions While working as a psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania. he finds out that many of the depressed patients suffer from recurrent negative thoughts until they believe it to be true. He theorized that in order to change the symptoms, he must change their distorted thinking. This belief led to the development of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Books by Aaron Beck

Following are the books written by Aron T beck

The Diagnosis and Management of Depression (1967)
Depression: Causes and Treatment (1972)
Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders (1975)
Cognitive Therapy of Depression (with John Rush, Brian Shaw, & Gary Emery, 1979)
Cognitive Therapy in Clinical Practice: An Illustrative Casebook (with Jan Scott & Mark Williams, 1989)
The Integrative Power of Cognitive Therapy (with Brad Alfred, 1998)
Prisoners of Hate: The Cognitive Basis of Anger, Hostility, and Violence (1999)
Scientific Foundations of Cognitive Theory and Therapy of Depression (with David Clark, 1999)
Cognitive Therapy of Personality Disorders (with Arthur Freeman, 2003)
Cognitive Therapy with Inpatients: Developing A Cognitive Milieu (with Jesse Wright, Michael Thase, & John Ludgate, 2003)
Cognitive Therapy with Chronic Pain Patients (with Carrie Winterowd & Daniel Gruener, 2003)
Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: A Cognitive Perspective (with Gary Emergy & Ruth Greenberg, 2005)
Schizophrenia: Cognitive Theory, Research, and Therapy (with Neil Rector, Neal Stolar, & Paul Grant, 2008)
Cognitive Therapy of Anxiety Disorders: Science and Practice (with David Clark, 2010

Contact details:

Questionnaires can be used only after getting permission from Aron Beck through email.

Aaron T. Beck Psychopathology Research Center

3535 Market Street Room 2032 Philadelphia, PA 19104-3309

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (215) 898-4102 (215) 573-3717

Aaron T. Beck Tools

Aaron T. Beck develops many tools such as BAI, BDI, and etc.. but here we discuss only two.

Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation

Introduction

The Beck scale for suicide ideation (BSS) is developed by Aaron T Beck and Robert A Steer in 1991. it consists of 19 items that measure the patient‘s suicidal intent, among which 5 items are used for screening whereas the rest of the 14 items measures the intensity of the ideation.it is more than an assessment tool as it aids in identifying how vulnerable a person would be to the idea of suicide.

BSS is helpful in assessing the thought patterns, attitude, and intentions of the person regarding suicide. The Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSS) developed for use with patients of 17 years and over.

Reliability

The average reliability coefficient of beck suicide scale is .90 (Inpatient), and .87 of the Outpatient .and Test-retest reliability is .54

Administration:

The questionnaire can be given to the individual in Urdu or English depending upon the understanding and level of the client. Clients who are unable to read due to illiteracy or any physical problem were readout. It will take about 5-10 minutes to fill the questionnaire. The test can be administered individually or in a group.

Interpretation:

Responses are summed up after completing the questionnaire.

Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS)

BHS was developed by Dr. Aaron T. Beck in 1988, 1993. It was intended to measure three key aspects of hopelessness. Hopelessness has been defined as the manifestation of a ‘thinking style’ characterized by negative futuristic attributes, anticipations, and expectations. . Currently, the most extensively utilized instrument for the evaluation of hopelessness is the Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS)

Inconsistent about future
Lack of motivation
Expectations

The test is constructed to measure the beliefs and prospect of a person regarding his/her future life .it is a powerful predictor of suicidal intentions. It measures the negative thoughts and beliefs about the future of the person. Beck developed this scale in order to predict suicidal trends among individuals in the future. The concept behind this scale was gathered from the social psychologist Ezra Scotland. Out of the scale’s 20 items, seven (items 1, 5, 6, 8, 13, 15, and 19) are negatively scored, with the respondent awarded a point if they indicated ‘No’ to any of these items.

Reliability:

The internal reliability coefficients are reasonably high (Pearson r= .82 to .93 in seven norm groups), but the BHS test-retest reliability coefficients are modest (.69 after one week and .66 after six weeks). Dowd and Owen both positively reviewed the effectiveness of the instrument, with Dowd concluding that the BHS was “a well-constructed and validated instrument, with adequate reliability”.

Administration:

The test is designed for adults, age 17-80. It consists of 20 true/false items with patients either endorsing a pessimistic statement or denying an optimistic statement. Clients are given the questionnaire and ask to read each statement carefully and select the most suitable option accordingly.

Interpretation:

The test is carefully administered with the help of a psychologist and interpreted. Scoring is simply done by adding each marked item. Using the scoring template, one counts the number of blackened circles. Scoring is done by adding all the marked items and can range from 0 to 20. The higher the scores are higher will be the level of hopelessness. Scores ranging from:

0 to 3 ____ normal

4 to 8_____ mild hopelessness

9 to 14 _____moderate hopelessness

Scores greater than 14 ____severe hopelessness (Beck & Steer, 1988).

Suggested Uses

The BHS is highly recommended for measuring extent of negative attitudes in clinical and research settings.
REFERENCES:

. Velting DM (1999) Personality and negative expectations. Trait structure of the Beck Hopelessness Scale. Pers Indiv Differ 26: 913-921.
Abramson LY, Metalsky GI, Alloy LB (1989) Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychol Rev 96: 358-372. 7

Information:

The purpose of our website is only to help students to assist them in finding the best suitable instrument for their research especially in Pakistan where students waste a lot of time in search of the instruments. It is totally free of cost and only for creating awareness and assisting students and researchers for good researches. Moreover, it is necessary for you to take the permission of scales from their representative authors before use because copyrights are reserved by the respected authors.

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