Robert L Leahy

• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at Weill Cornell Medicine

Emotional schemas—cognitive frameworks that organize and guide beliefs, values, interpretations of, and reactions to emotions and emotional experiences—appear to underlie many clinically-relevant constructs, including self-validation, emotion and behavior regulation, and psychopathology. Although growing research suggests emotional schemas may also...

We often find ourselves defending our approach while attacking others as if this is a winner-take-all business that we are in. The only “winner” that matters should be the patient and patients are seldom acolytes of schools of therapy. In this chapter, I will take the position of explicating the cognitive therapy model, reviewing its history, exami...

Beck's cognitive model has stressed the influence of cognitive processing in eliciting and maintaining emotional disorders. The concept of schema is extended in Emotional Schema Therapy to account for beliefs, assumptions, and strategies that comprise problematic theories of emotion that result in unhelpful strategies of emotion regulation and acce...

Cognitive therapy has often been criticized as focusing exclusively on rational cogni¬tion rather than on the role of emotion in psychopathology. The Emotional Schema Therapy (EST) approach advances a model of how people think about and respond to their own emotions and those of others. Drawing on Beck’s schema model, the metacognitive model of Adr...

This study investigated the risk factors of suicide ideation, suicide behaviors, and self-harm, particularly the role of emotional schemas. Three hundred seventy-five university students participated and completed the Leahy Emotional Schema Scale (LESS), the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSSI), the Self-Harm Inventory (SHI), and the Suicide Beha...

Envy is a ubiquitous social emotion often associated with depression, hostility and shame. Often confused with jealousy which involves the fear or anger that a primary relationship is threatened by a third party, envy is an emotion focused on threats to status such that another person’s “gain” is viewed as a “loss” for the self. There is very littl...

The cognitive attentional syndrome (CAS) is characterized by threat monitoring, repetitive thinking, limitation in cognitive resources, unhelpful control strategies, and continued focus on the content of thinking (Wells 2000, 2002, 2006; Wells & Matthews in Cognition & Emotion, 8(3), 279-295, 1994). An alternative model of worry—the avoidance theor...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of group emotional schema therapy on emotional regulation, emotional schemas, and social anxiety. The research was quasi-experimental with a pretest and posttest design with a waiting list control group. The study population included 24 women aged 18 to 35 years old with social anxiety...

Emotional Schema Therapy: Distinctive Features offers a concise overview to what is distinctive about this new approach to helping clients cope with “difficult” emotions. Written by a researcher with many years of clinical experience, it provides an accessible, bitesize overview. Using the popular Distinctive Features format, this book-describes 15...

Published guides for the practice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) include a range of recommendations for the use of Socratic dialogue (or Socratic questioning) and guided discovery. While it is accepted that a specific dialogue process can be useful to support the way a therapist develops a cognitive case conceptualization (or case formulatio...

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a widespread psychiatric disorder that has important effects on human health. This study evaluated a new form of therapy based on emotional schema therapy (EST) that focuses on the individual's interpretations, strategies, and responses to his or her emotions. Treatment efficacy was assessed using the single-su...

This study investigated whether self-compassion and emotional invalidation (perceiving others as indifferent to one's emotions) may explain the relationship of childhood exposure to adverse parenting and adult psychopathology in psychiatric outpatients (N =326). Path analysis was used to investigate associations between exposure to adverse parentin...

The emotional schema model proposes that individuals differ in their interpretations, evaluations, and strategies about emotional experience. Fourteen dimensions that are related to problematic strategies of emotion regulation are identified. Specific interventions for several of these strategies are identified, and examples of implementation are d...

This chapter presents the author's observations on commonalities, differences, and new directions regarding the five approaches for treating major depressive disorder. It examines several ‘features’ of these models and will evaluate the degree to which these are distinctive. Each approach proposes that we stay in the present moment as much as possi...

Principled negotiation relies on a set of assumptions about rationality, respectful dialogue, and attempts to reach equilibrium where both sides achieve some desired ends at the lowest cost possible in the circumstances. However, international negotiation is often characterized by a wide range of distortions in thinking, including personalizing, la...

There is significant growing interest in the areas of mindfulness, acceptance, experiential avoidance, psychological flexibility, and emotional schemas. While, both emotional schemas and mindfulness have been related to psychopathology, this study is one of the first to empirically address the relationship between these constructs. Specifically, th...

Recently, a number of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) process accounts of anxiety disorders have emerged that go beyond an emphasis on cognitive reappraisal or habituation (Barlow, Allen, & Choate, 2004; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2011; Leahy, Tirch, & Napolitano, 2011; Mennin, Turk, Heimberg, & Carmin, 2005). Emotional Schema Theory (Leahy, 200...

The purpose of the present study was to examine three theoretical models that identify underlying processes that contribute to depression-Risk Aversion (Leahy, 1997a), Emotional Schemas (Leahy, 2002), and Psychological Flexibility (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2003). In addition, we examined the relationship among these transdiagnostic variables: 425...

In order to determine if there are developmental effects on information integration and dispositional attributions, 145 adolescents at two ages (13 and 18) were presented with information about hypothetical peers. Only older adolescents gave more extreme ratings of likeability for high consistency and low distinctiveness of behavior and only older...

What is Cognitive Restructuring? Basic Research Foundations of Cognitive Restructuring The Historical Context of the Cognitive Approach Cognitive Restructuring in Practice Examples of Specific Techniques Relationship to other Principles Research Issues and Unresolved Issues regarding Cognitive Restructuring Conclusion

Originally, the Beckian cognitive model focused on information processing biases that characterize depression, anxiety, anger, and personality disorders. Emotional schema therapy is a model of implicit theory of emotion, consistent with recent emphasis on theory of mind. Specifically, this model suggests that differences in the awareness, evaluatio...

Cognitive behavioral therapy has often been criticized for ignoring the role of the therapeutic relationship. In this article, I outline several dimensions for case formulation and intervention that suggest that the cognitive-behavioral approach can be a powerful theoretical model for understanding the causes of and the strategies for overcoming im...

Jealousy is a multidimensional cognitive, emotional, behavioral and interpersonal phenomenon. Jealousy can be a destructive and often dangerous emotional and interpersonal response to threats to a valued relationship. Despite the importance of jealousy as an issue for couples, there has been relatively little attention to this problem. Jealousy is...

Although cognitive-behavioral therapy has been criticized for not addressing the importance of emotion in psychotherapy, recent trends indicate a growing interest in this issue. So-called “Third Wave” approaches suggest that “cognitive” processes are often of little importance. In this article, I describe how learning theory, models of emotional pr...

Many patients will either refuse to enter treatment or will drop out of treatment where exposure and response prevention (ERP) are employed. Patients may have a number of “good reasons” for noncompliance with ERP. For example, they may view their intrusions as conveying responsibility, reflecting higher threat, as personally relevant, and as requir...

Bipolar disorder is a chronic and often devastating illness that may go undiagnosed because of its complex and diverse presentation. Clinicians can provide psychological treatments, in conjunction with pharmacotherapy, that can reduce the frequency, severity, and duration of manic and depressive episodes. Because bipolar disorder is characterized b...

Cognitive-behavioral treatment for all anxiety disorders involves exposure to feared situations and feared emotions. Dropout from therapy is a continued problem for final treatment effectiveness. A meta-emotional model of fear of negative emotions (and anxious sensations and thoughts) is advanced that can be used as a transdiagnostic treatment mode...

Bipolar individuals engage in risky behavior during manic phases that contributes to their vulnerability to regret during their depressive phases. A cognitive model of risk assessment is proposed in which manic risk assessment is based on exaggeration of current and future resources, high utility for gains, low demands for information to assess ris...

The universal and nonrandom distribution of anxiety, fears, and depression suggests that there may have been underlying evolutionary pressures leading to adaptations for pessimistic thinking. Symptoms and processes that today we may label as psychopathology may have solved problems in an evolutionarily relevant environment, providing variations in...

Three theoretical models of the relationship between cognition and emotion are examined: (a) ventilation theory (i.e., the greater expression of emotion, the better the outcome), (b) emotionally focused therapy (i.e., activation, expression, and validation of emotion facilitate acceptance and self-understanding), and (c) a cognitive model of emotio...

Generalized anxiety disorder is a chronic condition characterized by beliefs that worry prepares and protects, but that excessive worry is out of control. In this article, I review the cognitive-behavioral model of generalized anxiety, focusing specifically on problems related to excessive worrying. Noncompliance in self-help homework is reflected...

Individuals with different personality disorders are hypothesized to approach decision making with a variety of concerns related to their perception of their general efficacy, information demands, risk aversion, and utility of gains and losses. A variation of modern portfolio theory is employed to examine decision-making in a clinical population of...

This volume provides a guide to conducting cognitive therapy for bipolar disorder. The key theme is respect—people with bipolar disorder are treated as people and not as incidental hosts for the illness. Beyond clinical tools for addressing maladaptive cognitions, the authors provide strategies for helping clients address manic and depressive sympt...

The cognitive model of depression proposes that individuals who predict that the future will result in negative outcomes are more likely to maintain their depression and are more likely to have recurrent episodes of depression (Beck, 1976; Beck et al., 1987). Moreover, attribution models of helplessness and hopelessness stress the centrality of neg...

A multi-dimensional model of decision making, based on modern portfolio theory, is advanced that proposes that individuals consider in making behavioral decisions and contemplating risk. This model is specifically applied to depressive decision making. According to this model, depressed individuals view themselves as having few current and future r...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a widespread and persistent anxiety disorder with commonly associated features of depression and substance abuse. In this paper, we describe the diagnostic symptoms of PTSD, its prevalence and comorbidity, and a theoretical model of the emergence and maintenance of intrusive images, avoidance and anxiety. We...

Normative models of decision making imply that individuals will utilize a hedonic calculus about future utility ratios (subjective utilities) in considering current alternatives. In contrast, descriptive models of actual decision making indicate that individuals utilize heuristics, ignore base rates, and consider previous decisions when considering...

Individuals contemplate a number of factors in making decisions, including their tolerance of risk, their emphasis on maximizing gains, and their perception of current and future resources. I have proposed that depressed individuals utilize a scarcity and depletion "portfolio theory," such that they place less emphasis on maximizing gains, see them...

Traditionally, cognitive therapy has viewed psychopathology as a consequence of dysfunctional information processing and maladaptive assumptions or imperatives. However, one may also view dysfunctional behavior and cognition as purposive and as setting desired limits on individual change. Change always implies some risk and uncertainty and individu...

A functional utility model of depressive resistance is advanced, drawing upon modern portfolio theory of how individuals decide to allocate resources. According to this microeconomic model, depressed individuals believe they have few present and future resource and low utility of gain in a market that is volatile and downward sloping. Depression is...

Robert Leahy describes Aaron Beck's seminal model of depression, anxiety, anger, and relationship conflict and shows how each of these problems is handled by the cognitive therapist in the context of an interactive therapeutic relationship. Leahy demonstrates how uncovering resistance to change and using the therapeutic relationship enhances recove...

Beck's cognitive theory of psychopathology is integrated with Piaget's and Bowlby's structural cognitive-developmental theories. Automatic thought distortions, maladaptive assumptions, and early maladaptive schemas are formed at the preoperational level of intelligence and are marked by structural limitations of moral realism, imminent justice, dic...

The content and development of schemas and scripts of narcissistic investors are described. These patients view themselves as highly visible, with special talents and destiny, excessive obligation to others, and avoidant of satisfaction. Their investment styles focus on regret, immediate outcomes and the use of recent, salient and irrelevant inform...

Scripts are identified as role patterns which provide self-consistency and consistency in the behavior of others. Script holders construct an interpersonal reality which reaffirms their automatic thoughts and self-other schemas. Consequently, scripts are difficult to modify using traditional cognitive therapy techniques. Two scripts—the Victim and...

With increasing age, children explain wealth and poverty by referring to individual differences in work, effort, and intelligence rather than social-structural or political factors. Such explanations of inequality support a belief in a just world where the "losers" are viewed as obtaining their just due.

Reviews the book, Complexity of the Self: A Developmental Approach to Psychopathology and Therapy by Vittorio F. Guidano (see record 1987-98140-000 ). This book is a stimulating but often difficult book that attempts to offer a comprehensive developmentalGuidano expands on the earlier work to offer a comprehensive etiological theory of the self. In...

Although the existence of childhood depression has been debated for some time, there is a growing consensus among clinicians and researchers that depression exists among children (Bemporad, 1978; Carlson & Cantwell, 1980). Of equal importance, there is also increasing recognition that childhood depression may not be a unitary syndrome (Blatt, 1974;...

The development of knowledge of sex-trait stereotypes was related to changes in classification skills during childhood. Children of 4, 6, and 8 years of age were tested for knowledge of sex-trait stereotypes on the Williams, Bennett, and Best measure; ability to reclassify sex-traits; and on measures of consistent sorting and reclassification. Know...

720 6-, 11-, 14-, and 17-yr-olds from 4 social classes were interviewed about their concepts of economic inequality. Adolescents were more likely than children to explain and justify inequality by referring to equity and were more fatalistic in their conceptions of change and in justifying wealth and poverty. Younger Ss were more likely than adoles...

Retarded and nonretarded individuals matched on MA and CA were tested on role-taking, self-image, and imitation. Higher IQ, MA, real self-image, and ideal self-image were associated with less imitation. Higher IQ and MA were related to more positive ideal self-image, and higher MA was related to more positive real self-image. Retarded individuals h...

The parents (58 fathers and 70 mothers) of 104 10th graders completed the Block Child-Rearing Practices Report and a brief parental survey questionnaire; the adolescents were administered the Defining Issues Test. It was found that higher self-image disparity, more positive ideal self-image, and less positive real self-image were related to a highe...

Children and adolescents from 4 social classes were asked to describe rich and poor people and to indicate how the rich and the poor are different and similar to each other. Responses were classified into categories of person description, including peripheral (possessions, appearances, and behaviors), central (traits and thoughts), and sociocentric...

116 Ss at 13, 17, and 20 yrs of age responded to the Defining Issues Test and to the Bem Sex-Role Inventory (BSRI). The BSRI was divided into real self-image and ideal self-image formats. 17-yr-old and college-age males showed less preference on ideal image for masculine characteristics and more preference for feminine characteristics compared to 1...

82 graduate students, 33 1st graders, and 31 5th graders were presented with information about situations in which one child either helped someone (kindness) or gave something to someone (altruism), with Ss allocating rewards for different actors. Younger children used an additive principle by allocating greater rewards for behavior that led to pos...

• 82 graduate students, 33 1st graders, and 31 5th graders were presented with information about situations in which one child either helped someone (kindness) or gave something to someone (altruism), with Ss allocating rewards for different actors. Younger children used an additive principle by allocating greater rewards for behavior that led to p...

Sixty-two white middle class subjects forming two age groups (6 and 11 years) were given information about hypothetical peers who were described as hitting the subject child. Children indicated how much they thought the peer should be punished (spanked). Older subjects put more emphasis on situational or personal information about the peer (includi...

Related the development of the self-concept to L. Kohlberg's (1969) and G. M. Meade's (1934) theories on the importance of role taking, language, and the generalized other. 68 4th, 5th, and 6th graders were administered a role-taking task, a communication task, a self-image questionnaire, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. Results indicate th...

Studied the developmental changes in qualifications of descriptions of self and others provided by 93 males and females representing 8th-grade, 11th-grade, 12th-grade, and college levels. Ss completed questionnaires (including 6-point rating scales for 10 traits) describing themselves and 6 hypothetical individuals: "girl you like," "boy you like,"...

Horner's fear of success test was administered to 303 children between the 4th and 12th grades. There was an increase of fear of success imagery between the 4th and 10th grades and a decrease between 10th and 12th grades. Fear of success was related to sex only during high school, where it was associated with the course of study pursued by students...

Used corneal infrared photography to record the visual fixations of 24 infants (4-6 wks and 10-12 wks) exposed to simple geometric figures. Results indicate that Ss in both age groups showed decreasing fixation time to the feature that initially attracted most fixations. Young Ss limited their fixations to a smaller area of the visual field than di...