The role of personality in cognitive-behavioral therapies

Trait-based theories of personality explain behavior across situations based on a set of broad personality attributes or dimensions. In contrast, recent social-cognitive theories of personality emphasize the importance of context and take a combined nomothetic/idiographic approach to personality. The social-cognitive perspective on personality resembles cognitive-behavioral therapies, which explain behavior in particular situations based on interactions of specific cognitions, mood states, and stimulus conditions. This article considers how contemporary personality theory and research might be integrated into the study of the outcomes and processes associated with cognitive-behavioral therapies. We propose that applying the social-cognitive perspective on personality to the study of how cognitive-behavioral therapies work provides both validation of current theories and promising directions for additional research. We review the research literatures on cognitive theories of psychopathology and cognitive-behavioral treatments to examine how the topic of personality has been addressed in those literatures to date. We then explore some commonalities between cognitive theories of psychopathology and psychotherapy and recent social-cognitive approaches to personality, suggesting that an integration of the two areas is overdue.

Duke Scholars

Author Timothy J. Strauman Psychology & Neuroscience