The Relationship between Affect, Behaviour, and Cognition in Behavioural and Cognitive Treatments of Depression and Phobic Anxiety

Abstract

Cognitive theories and therapies of emotional dysfunctions are based on the premise that the affective, behavioural, and cognitive response repertoires are fused and highly interdependent. Such views have been criticised with the argument that affect and cognition are relatively independent and that there is a much more direct and stronger link between affect and behaviour. In an attempt to clarify potential differences in the interplay between affect, behaviour, and cognition in unipolar depression and phobic anxiety, a quantitative review of the relative efficacy of performance-based (behavioural) versus cognitive intervention for these disorders was conducted. The relative superiority of cognitive over performance-based interventions in the treatment of unipolar depression supports the notion of a reasonably direct link between cognition and affect for this disorder providing a fairly effective pathway for treatment. On the other hand, the relative success of performance-based techniques in the treatment of phobias suggests that for these disorders the link between behaviour and affect is more direct and much stronger than the link between cognition and affect. It is concluded that the relative effectiveness of cognitive and performance-based intervention techniques depends on and points to differences in the specific type of affect-behaviour-cognition interface that underlies and is controlling depression and phobic anxiety.