Cognitive Beharoral Therapy and Claudia Allen's Cognitive Levels - Research Paper Example

Beck was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and during the 1960s developed cognitive therapy out of an initial effort to test psychoanalytical approaches to depression (Craske, 2010). His implementation of his new psychological drew on both behavioral and cognitive understandings to aid patient dysfunctions. Albert Ellis would also make significant contributions to cognitive behavioral therapy through his work as a psychologist. While Ellis work was initially rejected it gradually gained esteem, making Ellis one of the most influential psychologists of the 20th century.

Cognitive-behavioral therapy itself is a talk therapy that seeks to restructure the patients’ negative thought patterns through a goal-oriented approach. In these regards, the theory draws on both cognitive notions of thought as dictating behavior, and behaviorist notions of instinctually altering human actions. Another prominent contributor to 20th century cognitive psychological thought was Claudia Allen. Claudia Allen was a psychological at the Eastern Pennsylvania Psychiatric Institute in the 1960s where she developed many of the tenants of the cognitive disability model.

The cognitive disability theory was developed as a means of aiding patients with mental disorders that disrupted their daily existence. The main focus of concern became the implementation of cognitive-behavioral methods as a means of producing ‘functional cognition’ within these individuals (Craske, 2010). Allen developed a sequence of six levels of ability that she argued equated to levels of functional performance on a continuum that would be disrupted by mental illness or disorders. These levels would combine and evolve into what is now referred to as the Allen Battery.

The Allen Battery consists of a variety of tools psychologists use to aid patients with Allen’s cognitive disability methods. The first of these is the ACL Screens; these screens function to assess the patient’s current functioning according to the six levels. The next element of the battery is the ADM manual and the related projects from S&S (Allen, 1992). These tools allow the psychologists to further categorize and understand the patient’s level of mental illness or disorder. They are important elements as they provide a perspective that augments the ACL Screens.

The next element of the battery is the sensory stimulation kit (Allen, 1992). This kit functions by examining the patient’s