From Cognitive Therapy to Design
Students that take my cognitive design class are often surprised to find that we use many techniques straight from cognitive therapy. And why not, a cognitive therapist has to “get inside the mind” of their patients just as a cognitive designer needs to get inside the minds of their clients. For instances, The New Handbook of Cognitive Therapy Techniques is required reading. We make use of the ABC technique for modeling a person’s environment in terms of antecendents (A) or activating events, the beliefs (B) generated in response to the activating events and consequents (C), that both emotionally and behaviorally flow from the beliefs. It is a very simple technique but if applied with discipline produces authentic design-relevant ideas nearly every time. I’ve blogged on this before including a link to some slides.
So I am always on the look out for new insights from the cognitive therapist that are relevant to designers that focus on how the mind really works. A new and promising source is the International Journal of Cognitive Therapy. For example, they recently had a special issue devoted to mental control. Here is a sample from one of the articles on Mental Control of Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts:
”…analysis revealed that students primarily reported worry-related intrusive thoughts, suppression was used frequently despite limited success, distraction strategies were used most often and “do nothing” least often, and failures in thought control were attributed to personal failures of willpower or strength, or to the importance of the thought.”
Good insights into the cognitive needs and coping strategies for any designer working on a project involving intrusive thoughts.
