Beck's theory is that thinking preceded and caused depression. First, he proposed people hold dysfunctional beliefs that predispose them to depression. These are rigid, extreme, and unhelpful beliefs about the world. They create automatic, negative thoughts that center around the cognitive triad. The cognitive triad is the self, the world, and the future. For instance, these thoughts may be I am not pretty because I have brown hair, everyone hates brown hair, and therefore everyone hates me. Which would be a truly unfounded view of how the world views me, and completely negative, and false beliefs. Negative beliefs and feelings about the triad are maintained by cognitive errors such as all or none reasoning and arbitrary inference. This theory
