The cognitive orientation holds that how people interpret events shapes their emotions and behavior. It was developed by Aaron T. Beck (cognitive therapy) and Albert Ellis (rational emotive behavior therapy), and it merged with behavior therapy into cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Vocabulary & evolution of terms

• Automatic thoughts: Beck's term for quick, unbidden thoughts that come with emotions. First described in depression, the idea now runs through CBT worksheets and thought records.
• Schemas: borrowed from earlier psychology (Bartlett, Piaget) to mean deep core beliefs that filter experience. Jeffrey Young later extended it into schema therapy.
• Cognitive distortions: Beck's thinking errors, later popularized in lists by David Burns (such as all-or-nothing thinking and catastrophizing). Newer approaches tend to focus less on disputing thoughts and more on one's relationship to them.