The ABC Model of Cognition
Albert Ellis' attempt to explain the mechanism of mental health and illness is based on three components that trigger specific consequences, see for yourself!
Mental health and mental illness are the two states in which a mind can be found and scientists tried and are still trying to identify the models that can give an explanation to the reasons why some individuals are healthy and others are not. Mental illness is a category that encompasses impairment and disability to adjust to daily life and also distress, altogether leading to psychological suffering. The ABC cognitive model claims that dysfunctional emotions, thus suffering, come from our beliefs which help us appraise the events, the persons and even our inner world. Irrational beliefs lead to dysfunctional emotions and rational beliefs lead of course to functional emotions. This model was developed by the psychologist Albert Ellis and the three letters come from: activating events, beliefs and consequences.
Looking back in history, the abolition of psychological suffering had variant courses and approaches. The common factor was, though, the definition of suffering, with the core of it being the lack of accomplishing the desires related to the own person, to others and to life in general. In Buddhism it is thought that suffering comes from desires, so the one who destroys desire destroys his suffering. The Epicures were trying to reduce mental pain by reducing the desires to minimum necessities. The Pantheists claimed that evil and suffering are just an illusion, so everything happening is good.
By contrast, the ABC model says that suffering comes from the way we express our desires. If we eliminate our desires we would live a life of indifference which would stop us from engaging in daily tasks and also to stop us from developing as human beings.
Demanding versus Preferences
There are four dimensions which describe the way we state our desires. The first one is "demanding versus preferences". Demanding is an irrational process of thinking because it does not have logical, empirical and practical support. A person who thinks in terms of demanding would say things like "everybody must love me" or "everyone must be fair", which is obviously an irrational belief. Instead, they could think like his: "it would be wonderful if everybody loved me, but if this doesn't happen I won't go crazy because it's normal. I'm human too and even I don't love everyone".
Awfulness versus Badness
The second dimension of stating desires is "awfulness versus badness". People who think according to the first category tend to dramatize all the time, considering all negative events as being unbearable and terrifying. By contrast are those who are more realistic and see all the negative events as being bad and undesirable but realizing at the same time life has ups and downs and now they are to bear the present reality.
Low Frustration Tolerance versus Tolerance to Frustration
Another dimension is the "low frustration tolerance versus tolerance to frustration". These people cannot bear to feel frustration and develop an anxiety related to it.
Global Evaluation versus Unconditional Acceptance
The last dimension which leads to dysfunctional or functional emotions is "global evaluation versus unconditional acceptance plus behavior evaluation". Those who evaluate themselves in global terms are most exposed to developing depression. The mechanism is the following: they have a failure in one particular domain and then they over generalize it and consider their entire self as being unworthy or inefficient. This can happen also towards other people. The remedy is acceptance of self and others, consider people as being valuable for the simple fact that they are human and also a specific evaluation of behavior, reducing the tendency to generalize.
Many people might understand that the model tries to eliminate negative emotions, but the key word is dysfunctional. As mentioned in the beginning, irrational beliefs lead to dysfunctional emotions: demanding, LFT, others-downing leads to anger, demanding and awfulness leads to anxiety, demanding and self-downing leads to depression or guilt. The functional versions of these negative feelings are: sadness, discontentment, regrets.
In conclusion, the ABC cognitive model developed by Albert Ellis tries to explain the mechanism of mental health and illness by describing three components: activating events, which work as activators for a series of patterns, beliefs, which actually give birth to certain emotions and consequences, which are results of inner interpretations. This model claims that in order to achieve mental health it is important to pay attention to the way we state our desires and to the expectations we have from ourselves, from others and from life in general.
Looking back in history, the abolition of psychological suffering had variant courses and approaches. The common factor was, though, the definition of suffering, with the core of it being the lack of accomplishing the desires related to the own person, to others and to life in general. In Buddhism it is thought that suffering comes from desires, so the one who destroys desire destroys his suffering. The Epicures were trying to reduce mental pain by reducing the desires to minimum necessities. The Pantheists claimed that evil and suffering are just an illusion, so everything happening is good.
By contrast, the ABC model says that suffering comes from the way we express our desires. If we eliminate our desires we would live a life of indifference which would stop us from engaging in daily tasks and also to stop us from developing as human beings.
Demanding versus Preferences
There are four dimensions which describe the way we state our desires. The first one is "demanding versus preferences". Demanding is an irrational process of thinking because it does not have logical, empirical and practical support. A person who thinks in terms of demanding would say things like "everybody must love me" or "everyone must be fair", which is obviously an irrational belief. Instead, they could think like his: "it would be wonderful if everybody loved me, but if this doesn't happen I won't go crazy because it's normal. I'm human too and even I don't love everyone".
Awfulness versus Badness
The second dimension of stating desires is "awfulness versus badness". People who think according to the first category tend to dramatize all the time, considering all negative events as being unbearable and terrifying. By contrast are those who are more realistic and see all the negative events as being bad and undesirable but realizing at the same time life has ups and downs and now they are to bear the present reality.
Low Frustration Tolerance versus Tolerance to Frustration
Another dimension is the "low frustration tolerance versus tolerance to frustration". These people cannot bear to feel frustration and develop an anxiety related to it.
Global Evaluation versus Unconditional Acceptance
The last dimension which leads to dysfunctional or functional emotions is "global evaluation versus unconditional acceptance plus behavior evaluation". Those who evaluate themselves in global terms are most exposed to developing depression. The mechanism is the following: they have a failure in one particular domain and then they over generalize it and consider their entire self as being unworthy or inefficient. This can happen also towards other people. The remedy is acceptance of self and others, consider people as being valuable for the simple fact that they are human and also a specific evaluation of behavior, reducing the tendency to generalize.
Many people might understand that the model tries to eliminate negative emotions, but the key word is dysfunctional. As mentioned in the beginning, irrational beliefs lead to dysfunctional emotions: demanding, LFT, others-downing leads to anger, demanding and awfulness leads to anxiety, demanding and self-downing leads to depression or guilt. The functional versions of these negative feelings are: sadness, discontentment, regrets.
In conclusion, the ABC cognitive model developed by Albert Ellis tries to explain the mechanism of mental health and illness by describing three components: activating events, which work as activators for a series of patterns, beliefs, which actually give birth to certain emotions and consequences, which are results of inner interpretations. This model claims that in order to achieve mental health it is important to pay attention to the way we state our desires and to the expectations we have from ourselves, from others and from life in general.
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