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Which statement best describes cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT)?
- A A talking therapy that helps a person change the way they interpret situations and the way they act in response You picked ✓
- B A therapy that helps a person change their behaviour by using rewards and punishments, with little attention to how they interpret situations You picked ✕
- C A therapy that helps a person change how they interpret situations by analysing dreams from childhood, with little attention to current behaviour You picked ✕
- D A counselling style that mainly reflects a person's statements back to them so they can find their own solutions You picked ✕
- E A therapy that helps a person change how they interpret situations but deliberately leaves their behaviour unchanged You picked ✕
Correct!
Incorrect
The answer is A: A talking therapy that helps a person change the way they interpret situations and the way they act in response
Explanation
Why A is correct
See Mental Health. Option A is correct because cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy, not a drug or a relaxation exercise, that helps a person change how they relate to unhelpful thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Its name tells you its two targets: cognitive, meaning thinking, and behavioural, meaning what the person does. In a session the person and therapist work out together how thoughts, feelings and actions feed each other, and practise different ways of responding. By changing the way a person relates to negative thoughts and feelings, CBT can reduce distress and improve coping. It sits among the mental health tools in lifestyle medicine alongside mindfulness and motivational interviewing, and it is one of the options when stress has reached an extreme level.
- CBT: a talking therapy, not a drug or a relaxation exercise.
- Targets: unhelpful thinking (cognitive) and what the person does (behavioural).
- Effect: changes how a person relates to negative thoughts and feelings, reducing distress.
Why the other options are incorrect
- B. A therapy that helps a person change their behaviour by using rewards and punishments, with little attention to how they interpret situations: This describes behaviour therapy based on reward and punishment, but CBT also works on how a person interprets situations. Changing behaviour alone is not enough. It would be correct only for a purely behavioural intervention. Your answer
- C. A therapy that helps a person change how they interpret situations by analysing dreams from childhood, with little attention to current behaviour: This describes psychoanalytic therapy, which explores childhood dreams and the unconscious rather than current thought and behaviour patterns. CBT deals with present difficulties rather than childhood origins. It would be correct for a question about psychoanalysis. Your answer
- D. A counselling style that mainly reflects a person's statements back to them so they can find their own solutions: This describes a person-centred or reflective counselling style, not the structured cognitive and behavioural work of CBT. Reflecting statements back can be helpful, but it is not the same as changing unhelpful thought and behaviour patterns. Your answer
- E. A therapy that helps a person change how they interpret situations but deliberately leaves their behaviour unchanged: This is closer to cognitive therapy, but it misses the behavioural component of CBT. CBT requires both cognitive and behavioural change. Leaving behaviour untouched means it is only half the therapy. Your answer
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