Abstract
Background
Cognitive and behavioraIn this sample of 42 adults with depression,l change procedures have been hypothesized to be key drivers of the therapeutic benefits clients experience in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). However, the extent to which these procedures operate through the same or different pathways in bringing about change is unclear. We evaluated whether cognitive or behavioral therapeutic procedures produce distinct coping skills using data from a randomized comparison of cognitive-only and behavioral-only treatments for depression.
Methods
Among 42 clients who participated in 8 weeks of cognitive-only or behavioral-only depression treatments, we examined treatment differences in cognitive and behavioral skills. Our analyses focused on overall skillfulness across both domains (i.e., skill strength) as well as the difference in cognitive versus behavioral skills (i.e., skill differentiation).
Results
Cognitive and behavioral treatments yielded similar skill strength, but differed in skill differentiation, with more cognitive skill emerging in cognitive treatment and more behavioral skill in the behavioral treatment.
Conclusions
Though both approaches produce similar skill gains, cognitive and behavioral therapeutic strategies do appear to translate into a greater development of the skills that were targeted in treatment.