Aaron Temkin Beck is an American psychiatrist and a professor emeritus in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania. He is widely regarded as the father of cognitive therapy, and his pioneering theories are widely used in the treatment of clinical depression. Beck also developed self-report measures of depression and anxiety including Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)[1], Beck Hopelessness Scale, Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSS), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Beck Youth Inventories. He is the President of the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research and the Honorary President of the Academy of Cognitive Therapy, which certifies qualified cognitive therapists.

It is possible to identify several recurrent themes in constructivists’ work. The psychotherapist M. J. Mahoney has listed five such common themes, which stands out in Aaron Temkin Beck‘s work as well as the writings of other constructivists.:

– Humans are active agents with the power to effect changes in their own lives. This theme stands in contrast to the view that humans are passively controlled by larger forces.
– Humans are actively engaged in ordering their experiences through assigning emotional as well as intellectual significance to them.
– These processes of ordering are primarily self-referential; that is, they underlie a person’s sense of selfhood or personal identity.
– On the other hand, humans are not isolated individuals; they cannot be understood apart from their relationships to other people, larger communities, and symbol systems.
– Humans continue to grow and develop over the entire course of their lifespan.

His work at the University of Pennsylvania inspired Dr. Martin Seligman in refining Seligman’s own cognitive techniques and exercises and later work on Learned helplessness.

Aaron Temkin Beck is noted for his research in psychotherapy, psychopathology, suicide, and psychometrics, which led to his creation of cognitive therapy, for which he received the 2006 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), one of the most widely used instruments for measuring depression severity. Beck is also known for his creation of the Beck Hopelessness Scale and the Beck Anxiety Inventory, and has founded the Beck Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in which his daughter, Dr. Judith Beck, works. Beck believed that depression is due to unrealistic negative views about the world. Depressed people have a negative cognition in three areas that are placed into the depressive triad. They develop negative views about: themselves, the world, and their future. Beck starts treatment by engaging in conversation with clients about their negative thoughts.[citation needed] Cognitive therapy has also been applied with success to individuals with anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and many other disorders. In recent years, cognitive therapy has been disseminated outside academic settings, including throughout the United Kingdom, and in a program developed by Dr. Beck and the City of Philadelphia.