EBRR Class Report # 18 : Basic Cognitive Skills.
Begin: 12/13/2024
Finish: 2/6/2025
Title: Basic Cognitive Skills
Instructor: CO Cota
Why I choose to take this class:
To learn more about cognitive skills. I could use the cognitive skills to make better decisions by checking my perception, challenging my beliefs and examining my choices.
What I learned from this class:
This class teaches the way to understand the harmful, self-defeating behavior that resulted in incarceration and prevent us from achieving out life goals. We learn how behavior that is guided by a set of irrational or distorted beliefs, we can eliminate self-defeating behaviors and unhealthy, negative feelings. This class 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 belief and maintain effective control of our behavior.
Learn The ABC:
learn the self defeating behavior and unhealthy feelings are the products of distorted thoughts and beliefs.
A – Activating Event can be any situation or 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 unhealthy to engage in irresponsible, illegal or risky behavior.
B – Beliefs are Ideas about the world around you and how it operates, and the assumptions you make about your thoughts and feelings. It also includes your beliefs about what is right or wrong or good or bad. Your 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 consequence are getting angry or upset (emotional consequences) or getting into a fight (behavioral consequences). Negative consequences includes harmful or self-defeating behaviors, such as substance abuse, law breaking, or activities inked 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 and perception of (A) Activating events more accurate and objective.
Goal # 2: To make your (B) Beliefs an thoughts more rational by identifying and challenging distortions.
Goal # 3: To (C) Consequently feel the way you want to feel and to act in a more rational manner.
Five Rules for Rational Thinking:
Learn and apply these rules to avoid distorted thinking an 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 you are seeing things as they really are, rather than jumping to conclusion based in inaccurate assumptions or limited information.
b) Challenge your beliefs to ensure they are objective an 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 question, your 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 an long term goals?
4) Are your thoughts helping to keep you out of conflicts 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 and feel.
Check you 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 and accurate image of a situation, undistorted by any bias or assumption.
Camera Checks Provide the Answers to The Questions:
” Are your thoughts based on objective reality/facts?”
Challenge your Belief:
Make sure your thoughts and beliefs are rational. It requires you to examine your ‘self-talk’ to look for distorted beliefs. Doing a rational challenge requires you to take a step back and question your belief. 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 to feel the way you want to feel and act the way you want to act. There are times when your thinking moves you in the opposite direction, towards an undesirable or negative consequences. To prevent this, you can take a step back and 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 situation 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 emotional reaction to something.
3) Any time you are in conflict with someone, or are harboring resentment.
4) Whenever you are not feeling that way you want to feel/or acting the way you want to act.
How will this class contribute to my success upon release:
This class 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.
