Survey – Testing Your Beliefs

This Survey – Testing Your Beliefs exercise guides clients through the process of carrying out a survey - a key intervention in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

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Professional version

Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Client version

Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Overview

Behavioral experiments are a key component of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and regarded as one of the most effective methods for bringing about cognitive change. Surveys (also known as “opinion polling” or “polling experiments”) are a type of observational experiment in which the therapist or client gathers information or opinions that are relevant to the client’s concerns. This can be a useful strategy for normalizing distressing symptoms, assessing other people’s judgments, discovering ‘typical’ behaviors, and ‘testing the water’ before the client engages in more active experiments.

This Survey – Testing Your Beliefs exercise guides clients through the process of carrying out a survey, including identifying a belief, designing a survey, evaluating the results, and reflecting on their learning.

Why Use This Resource?

Surveys can be an effective methods for bringing about cognitive change. This resource helps clients:

  • Gather helpful feedback from a wide audience.
  • Find out what other people think or do. 
  • Normalize symptoms they find distressing.

Key Benefits

Structured

Provides step-by-step guidance for developing and carrying out a survey.

Relective

Helps maximize clients' learning and belief change.

Flexible

Suitable for a wide range of difficulties.

Who is this for?

Social Anxiety Disorder

Testing fears of negative evaluation from others.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

Exploring beliefs about self-blame or perceived judgment.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Finding out whether intrusions are abnormal.

Eating disorders

Testing fears about food- or body-related judgments.

Perfectionism

Exploring others' attitudes towards mistakes and imperfection.

Integrating it into your practice

01

Identify

Help the client specify a belief or assumption they want to test.

02

Design

Support the client in creating a survey targeting their belief.

03

Predict

Ask the client to make specific predictions about the survey responses.

04

Collect

Choose appropriate methods for data collection (e.g., online survey, interviews).

05

Review

Compare predictions with actual responses and summarize the findings.

06

Reflect

Explore what the client has learned and identify alternative beliefs.

07

Re-rate

Ask the client to re-evaluate the strength of their original belief.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

A key component of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), behavioral experiments are regarded as one of the most effective methods for bringing about cognitive change (Bennett-Levy et al., 2004).  Behavioral experiments are experiential activities that aim to generate new data. Depending on one’s goal, new data might be sought to test the validity of the client’s existing beliefs, develop or test more adaptive beliefs, or to inform a formulation or case conceptualization (Bennett-Levy et al., 2004).

Surveys are a type of observational experiment in which the therapist and/or client gathers factual information or opinions relevant to the client’s concerns (Rouf et al., 2004). This Survey – Testing Your Beliefs exercise is designed to help clients carry out a survey. It divides the intervention into 4 segments: identifying a relevant belief; designing a survey; developing survey questions, making predictions, and recording the findings; and reflecting on what has been learned.

What's inside

  • A comprehensive overview of behavioral experiments.
  • Therapist guidance for designing and implementing surveys.
  • Detailed case examples illustrating real-world applications.
  • Key references and recommended further reading.
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FAQs

8–10 respondents are usually sufficient to generate meaningful data without overwhelming the client.
This depends on the belief. General public, peers, or specific groups may be appropriate depending on the issue. Avoid limiting surveys to therapists, as clients may discount this data.
Therapists or trusted third parties can collect data on the client’s behalf. Clients may also prefer anonymous or online formats.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

Depending on clients' needs, surveys can promote cognitive and emotional change by:

  • Normalizing troubling symptoms and concerns.
  • Providing benchmarks for what is considered normal.
  • Evaluating beliefs about other people's attitudes or judgments.
  • Gathering helpful information prior to riskier behavioral experiments.

References And Further Reading

  • Bennett-Levy, J. (2003). Mechanisms of change in cognitive therapy: The case of automatic thought records and behavioural experiments. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 31, 261–277. DOI: 10.1017/S1352465803003035.
  • Bennett-Levy, J., Westbrook, D., Fennell, M., Cooper, M., Rouf, K., & Hackmann, A. (2004). Behavioural experiments: Historical and conceptual underpinnings. In J. Bennett-Levy, G. Butler, M. Fennell, A. Hackman, M. Mueller & D. Westbrook (Eds.), Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy (pp. 1–20). Oxford University Press.
  • Craske, M. G., Kircanski, K., Zelikowsky, M., Mystkowski, J., Chowdhury, N., & Baker, A. (2008). Optimizing inhibitory learning during exposure therapy. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 5–27. DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2007.10.003.
  • Egan, S. J., Wade, T. D., Shafran, R., & Antony, M. M. (2014). Cognitive-behavioral treatment of perfectionism. Guilford Press.
  • French, P. (2009). Cognitive-behavioural therapy. In P. Barker (Ed.), Psychiatric and mental health nursing: The craft of caring (pp. 370–376). Hodder Arnold.
  • McManus, F., Van Doorn, K., & Yiend, J. (2012). Examining the effects of thought records and behavioral experiments in instigating belief change. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 43, 540–547. DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2011.07.003.
  • McMillan, D., & Lee, R. (2010). A systematic review of behavioral experiments vs. exposure alone in the treatment of anxiety disorders: A case of exposure while wearing the emperor’s new clothes? Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 467–478. DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2010.01.003.
  • Murray, H., Kerr, A., Warnock-Parkes, E., Wild, J., Grey, N., Clark, D. M., & Ehlers, A. (2022). What do others think? The why, when and how of using surveys in CBT. The Cognitive Behaviour Therapist, 15, e42. DOI: 10.1017/S1754470X22000393.
  • Padesky, C. A., & Greenberger, D. (2020). The clinician’s guide to CBT using mind over mood. Guilford Press.
  • Rouf, K., Fennell, M., Westbrook, D., Cooper, M., & Bennett-Levy, D. (2004). Devising effective behavioural experiments. In J. Bennett-Levy, G. Butler, M. Fennell, A. Hackman, M. Mueller, & D. Westbook (Eds.), Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy (pp. 21–58). Oxford University Press.
  • Teasdale, J., & Barnard, P. (1993). Affect, cognition, and change: Re-modelling depressive thought. Psychology Press.
  • Waller, G., Cordery, H., Corstorphine, Hinrichsen, H., Lawson, R., Mountford, V., & Russell, K. (2007). Cognitive behavioral therapy for eating disorders: A comprehensive treatment guide. Cambridge University Press.
  • Whittal, M. L., & McLean, P. D. (1999). CBT for OCD: The rationale, protocol, and challenges. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 6, 383–396. DOI: 10.1016/S1077-7229(99)80057-1.

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