Cognitive Therapy (CT) for depression presents a rationale for symptom reduction early in treatment. The rationale is described in lay terms as an ABC sequence, such that A represents a recent event, B represents automatic thoughts about the event, and C represents the resulting affective response. A previous study (Kanter, J. W., Kohlenberg, R. J., & Loftus, E. F. (2004). Cognitive Therapy and Research, 28, 229) that compared the CT rationale to an alternative (by flipping the terms of ABC into an ACB theory in which affect is assumed to proceed and cause cognition) suggested that the CT rationale may operate through demand characteristics because the alternative was equally influential. However, that study did not allow for the possibility that demand characteristics were differentially operative (perhaps one rationale produced real changes in identification of automatic thoughts while the other produced demand responding). The current study extended the previous study by manipulating demand characteristics directly and by adding a 1-week follow-up condition. Results indicate that the influence of the cognitive rationale is robust and, in contrast to the previous study, may not be dependent on demand characteristics.
