Choon Yong-Basic Cognitive Skills

Author of Book: The Change Company
Date Read: January 18, 2025

Book Report

Book Reports #48 – Basic Cognitive Skills
Begin: 12/15/2024
Finish: 1/18/2025
Title: Basic Cognitive Skills
Author: The Change Company

Why I choose to read this book:
This book was used in our Basic Cognitive Skills class, It teaches us about cognitive skills to help us make better decisions by checking our perception, challenging our beliefs and examining our choices.

What I learned from this book:
This book teaches us way to understand the harmful, self-defeating behavior that resulted in incarceration and prevent us from achieving our life goals. We learn how behavior that is guided by a set of irrational or distorted beliefs. By challenging the distorted beliefs, we can eliminate self-defeating behaviors and unhealthy, negative feelings. This book also teaches us how to conduct a Rational Self Analysis (RSA) on our thinking. An RSA is a simple and effective way of doing “therapy” yourself. Consistently using the RSA tool in our daily life allow us to challenge our distorted beliefs and maintain effective control of our behavior.

Learn The ABC:
Learn how self-defeating behavior can unhealthy feelings are products of distorted thoughts and beliefs.
A – Activating event can be any situation of experience that happens in our life, good or bad: someone cutting ahead of you in line, getting a denial on your request for a transfer, or getting feedback from your work supervisor. Activating events include situation which present you with an opportunity to engage in irresponsible, illegal, or risky behaviors.
B – Beliefs are ideas about the world around you and how it operates. This includes your expectation of other people. and the assumption you make about their thoughts and feelings. It also includes your beliefs about what is right or wrong, or good or bad. You beliefs are what you say to yourself in your own head (self talk).
C Consequences are the emotional or behavioral outcome of an activating event, positive or negative. Examples of negative consequences are getting angry or upset (emotional consequences) or getting into a fight (behavioral consequences). Negative consequences include harmful of self-defeating behaviors, such as substance abuse, lawbreaking, or activities linked to criminal lifestyle.

The ABC and Rational Self Counseling:
Rational Self Counseling use the ABC to achieve three goals;
Goal #1 – To make your awareness or perception of (A) Activating Events more accurate or objective.
Goal #2 – To make your (B) Beliefs and thoughts more rational by identifying and challenging distortions.
Goal #3 – To (C) Consequently feel the way you want to feel an to act in a more rational manner.

Five Rules for Rational Thinking:
Learn and apply these rules to avoid distorted thinking and help you better manage your thoughts, feelings and behaviors. To effectively use rational self-counseling, you need to learn how to:
a) Check your perception to make sure are seeing things as they really are, rather than jumping to conclusion based on inaccurate assumptions or limited information,
b) Challenge your beliefs to ensure they are objective and rational,
c) Examine your choices to make sure they will result in consequences that are consistent with your short and long-term goals.
The five rules for rational thinking, to help you examine your thoughts to look for distortions in your perception, beliefs and choices. If you answer yes to all of these questions, you thinking is rational:
1) Are your thoughts based on objective reality/facts?
2) Are your thoughts helping protect your life and health?
3) Are your thoughts helping you achieve your short and long term goals?
4) Are your thoughts helping to keep you out of conflict with others?
5) Are your thoughts leading you to feel the way you want to feel without substance abuse, criminal lifestyle activities, or other harmful self defeating behaviors?

Check Your Thinking:
Conduct a Rational Self-Analysis (RSA) to check your thinking for distorted beliefs and to control how you think an feel.
Check your perception: make sure your awareness or perception of an activating event is objective and accurate. If your awareness is not accurate, your beliefs and consequences will probably be irrational. The Camera Check is a technique that helps you take an objective look at a situation. Camera create an objective and accurate image of a situation, undistorted by any bias or assumption. Camera Check provides the answer to the question: “Are your thoughts based on objective reality/facts?”
Challenge your Beliefs: Make sure your beliefs and thoughts are rational. This requires, you to examine your “self talk” to look for distorted beliefs. Doing a Rational Challenge requires to to take a step back an question your beliefs, You can challenge your thoughts and replace them with undistorted, rational beliefs that meet the requirements of the Five Rules of rational thinking. After a successful rational challenge, your beliefs will be objective and realistic, and they will be consistent with the positive consequences you hope to achieve.
Examine Your Choices: The payoff in rational self-counseling is having control you feel the way you want to feel and act the way you want to act. There are times when your thinking moves you in opposite direction, towards an undesirable or negative consequences. To prevent this, you can take a step back an challenge your beliefs by asking the 5 rules for rational thinking.

RSA a Tool to Check Your Thinking:
A RSA is a tool you can use to check yourself to make sure the consequences you experience are positive. RSA can help you get rid of irrational thinking habits that result in harmful or negative behaviors.

RSAs: A Good Habit to Develop:
You need to make rational thinking part of your daily life by practicing RSAs on a regular basis. Types of situations are appropriate for an RSA?
1) When you are in a difficult or negative situation that can lead to undesirable consequences.
2) When you are experiencing a strong negative emotional reaction to something.
3) Any time you are in conflict with someone, or are harboring resentment.
4) Whenever you are not feeling the way you want to feel, or acting the way you want to act.

How will this book contribute to my success after my release:
This book has helped me think rationally as part of my daily life and control how I feel and think. This information will be shared with communities which I hope to volunteer my teaching, tutoring and mentoring services.