Introduction:
The ABCDE model of REBT was developed by Albert Ellis, the founder of REBT, as a way to uncover irrational or self-defeating beliefs that lead to problematic emotional or behavioral consequences in our lives. (REBT is a form of cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT.) These consequences might be depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, behavioral problems, relationship problems, anger, etc. All people occasionally hold irrational beliefs or engage in thought process errors. This is not something that only people with mental health problems do, this is something all humans do. Learning to spot our thinking errors allows us to challenge them in real-time and avoid the reactions or consequences that are causing problems in our lives.
- NOTE: This exercise is best done with a therapist. An REBT therapist can help you uncover triggers, problematic consequences, thinking errors, and find new, healthier ways of thinking.
Instructions:
- Start by listing all “Activating events” or “triggers” that lead to problematic emotional or behavioral consequences in your life. Internal triggers are things like thoughts or memories. External triggers are things that happen in the world (examples: someone insults you; you miss the bus; it snows and the roads are icy).
- List the problematic or undesirable emotional or behavioral Consequences that occur after these activating events.
- List all of the Beliefs or ways of thinking that link the activating events to the problematic consequences. Then, examine the beliefs you listed and see if you can spot any of these beliefs or ways of thinking on the common thinking errors page. Also look at your perceptions or your beliefs about your perceptions. Are your perceptions accurate? For example, if we thought someone was being rude to us we might ask if the person was truly being rude or if they intended to be rude.
- Practice Disputing the thinking errors or self-defeating / irrational beliefs you identified. See if you can spot the logical errors in the examples on the common thinking errors page.
- Finally, think of new, rational and Effective (healthy/helpful) beliefs and ways of thinking that you can use to replace your old beliefs or ways of thinking. Are there any philosophies of life that you agree with that might guide your life and encourage you to stop believing and thinking in self-defeating or fallacious ways? Could you create your own philosophy of life if there are none that you identify with? See the values exercise page (coming soon) if you need help developing your own philosophy of life.
A (Activating event/s — internal or external; list as A1, A2, A3, and so on, if there are more than one)
B (Belief/s or ways of thinking — conscious or implicit; list as B1, B2, B3, and so on, if there are more than one)
C (Consequence/s — emotional or behavioral; list as C1, C2, C3, and so on, if there are more than one)
D (Disputation/s of beliefs or ways of thinking)
E (Effective new beliefs / life philosophy)
Further Explanation of the ABCDE model:
We all experience Activating events in life that trigger emotional and behavioral Consequences. Our Beliefs or automatic thoughts determine these consequences, to a great extent.
The same event can lead to different consequences, depending on the beliefs of the individual. For example, person #1 spills a drink on their pants and they make a joke about it, they try to dry it off, and then go about their day not giving it much more thought. Person #2 spills the same kind of drink on their pants and they get angry, they become embarrassed—they let this event ruin their whole day.
What is the difference between these two reactions? There could be a variety of factors that come into play — such as, personality differences, their life history, etc. — however, a major factor is how they think about the event.
Person #1 in this example seems more likely to hold adaptive (healthy/helpful) beliefs and ways of thinking, such as: that they should only focus on what they can control (the drink has already been spilled; there is nothing they can do to change that, but they can control how they react to it); that their worth and esteem comes should come from themselves, not what others think of them (this mitigates feelings of embarrassment); that frustrations are part of life and that it benefits us to accept that life is messy and complicated (this prevents them from having low frustrations tolerance).
Person #2 in this example seems more likely to hold irrational or self-defeating beliefs and ways of thinking, such as: worrying about things outside of their control (examples: what others think about them, what happens in the world, etc.); that it is unacceptable and horrible that frustrating things happen; that because this happened the rest of their day will be just as bad. These beliefs and ways of thinking are maladaptive (unhealthy).
Person #2, for whatever reason, might be predisposed to thinking in this way, but they can learn to challenge this way of thinking. By practicing this they are changing their habitual ways of thinking and actually “rewiring” their brains. They can learn to spot and Dispute their irrational or self-defeating beliefs (see: common thinking errors). From there, they can go on to adopt new, more Effective beliefs—and they may even adopt an effective philosophy of life that helps them to live, think, and act in a healthier, happier or more content way.