Isolating therapeutic procedures to investigate mechanisms of change in cognitive behavioral therapy for depression
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Background: Isolating a therapeutic procedure might be a powerful way to enhance our understanding of how cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) works. The present study explored new methods to isolate cognitive procedures and to study their direct impact on hypothesized underlying processes and CBT outcome. Method: The effects of a cognitive therapy skill acquisition procedure ( n = 36) were compared to no procedure ( n = 36) on cognitive therapy skills, dysfunctional thinking, distress, and mood in response to induced distress following a social stress test in healthy participants. Results: Participants reported more cognitive therapy skills after the procedure that focused on the acquisition of cognitive therapy skills compared to no procedure, but there were no differences in dysfunctional thinking, distress, and mood between the groups. Conclusions: By demonstrating an experimental approach to investigate mechanisms of change, including the pitfalls that come along with it, the present experiment provides a blueprint for other researchers interested in the underlying mechanisms of change in CBT for depression.
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Failure to maintain the boundary between active elements and mechanisms is a common problem in psychotherapy process research.
“Failure to maintain the boundary between active elements (e.g., cognitive change proced ures) and mechanisms (e.g., cognitive change) is a common problem in psychotherapy process research (Bruijniks et al., 2018; Lorenzo-Luaces et al., 2015).”
From Measuring the active elements of cognitive-behavioral therapies (2023) · cites this paper as Bruijniks et al., 2018
The Introduction (p. 2) says distinguishing therapeutic procedures from change processes could improve research on mechanisms, and Table 3 (p. 7) recommends making that distinction. Neither passage establishes that failure to maintain the boundary is a common problem across psychotherapy process research. (LLM, conf=0.82)
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Measuring the active elements of cognitive-behavioral therapies
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Bruijniks, S. J. E., Sijbrandij, M., Schlinkert, C., & Huibers, M. J. H.
- Affiliations
- Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (NL)
- University of Pennsylvania (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bruijniks, Sanne J. E.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-10-01
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 4
- ISSN
- 2043-8087 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2902076369
- Cited by
- 20
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 6 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 2.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- cognitive behavioral therapy, depression, mechanisms of change, skill acquisition, dysfunctional thinking, social stress, mood
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