In plain language
Cognitive behavioural therapies assume that much of our unnecessary suffering comes from dysfunctional beliefs — for example, that we must succeed or be approved of by others in order to be worthwhile. But which of these beliefs actually matter for well-being, and do they affect positive feelings (like joy and life satisfaction) as much as negative ones (like depression and anxiety)? This study put those questions to the test using the Common Beliefs Survey-III, a questionnaire measuring six distinct types of dysfunctional belief.
Four hundred and fifty-seven university students completed measures of six dysfunctional belief dimensions, seven negative indices of well-being (depression, anxiety, stress, guilt, hostility, hopelessness, and suicidal thinking), three positive indices (life satisfaction, joviality, and state self-assurance), and social desirability. Even after controlling for the tendency to present oneself in a socially desirable light, three belief types predicted poorer well-being: believing self-worth depends on success (self-downing), believing self-worth depends on approval, and holding demanding, unrealistically high expectations of events and people. The other three belief types (blame proneness, belief the past is all-powerful, and belief that emotions are caused externally) were not related to well-being.
Importantly, beliefs predicted about twice as much variance in the negative indices (14%) as in the positive indices (7.3%), and different beliefs mattered for different outcomes — self-downing uniquely predicted depression while need for approval uniquely predicted anxiety. For therapy, this suggests that practitioners of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and related approaches should target specific belief types depending on which aspect of well-being they aim to improve, and that these beliefs are relevant to the general population, not just clinical samples.
Key findings
- Self-downing, need for approval, and demanding perfection beliefs were all significantly related to lower well-being, even after controlling for socially desirable responding.
- Blame proneness, belief that the past is all-powerful, and belief that emotions are caused externally were not related to well-being.
- The three significant belief types predicted 14% of the variance in negative indices of well-being but only 7.3% in positive indices — dysfunctional beliefs relate more strongly to negative states.
- The optimal predictors depended on the outcome: self-downing uniquely predicted depression (but not anxiety), need for approval predicted anxiety (but not depression), and demanding perfection was the only unique predictor of hostility.
- The six-factor structure of the Common Beliefs Survey-III was largely replicated in this Australian sample of 457 students, supporting a multidimensional view of dysfunctional beliefs.
- Students rated dysfunctional beliefs near the middle of the scale, suggesting these beliefs — and interventions targeting them — are relevant to the normal population, not just clinical groups.
How to cite
APA
Ciarrochi, J., & West, M. (2004). Relationships between dysfunctional beliefs and positive and negative indices of well-being: A critical evaluation of the Common Beliefs Survey-III. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 22(3), 171–188. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JORE.0000047306.55720.4e
BibTeX
@article{ciarrochi2004relationships,
author = {Ciarrochi, Joseph and West, Melissa},
title = {Relationships between dysfunctional beliefs and positive and negative indices of well-being: A critical evaluation of the Common Beliefs Survey-III},
journal = {Journal of Rational-Emotive \& Cognitive-Behavior Therapy},
year = {2004},
volume = {22},
number = {3},
pages = {171--188},
doi = {10.1023/B:JORE.0000047306.55720.4e}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.