ABC Model Worksheet: See How Your Beliefs Shape Your Feelings and Actions
The classic CBT and REBT exercise for seeing that it is your beliefs about an event, not the event itself, that drive how you feel and act.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
About this tool
The ABC model was developed by psychologist Albert Ellis as the heart of rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT), and it became a building block of cognitive behavioral therapy. It captures a deceptively simple idea: an Activating event (A) does not directly cause your emotional and behavioral Consequences (C). What sits in between is B, your Beliefs about the event. Two people can face the same event and react completely differently because their beliefs differ.
Most of us collapse A and C together. We say "the traffic made me furious" or "his comment ruined my day," as if the event reached in and set the feeling. The ABC model pries that apart so you can see the belief doing the real work, often a rigid demand ("this should not be happening") or a catastrophic interpretation ("this is unbearable"). Once the belief is visible, it can be examined and, if it is unhelpful, disputed.
Filling in the worksheet trains a precise habit of mind. The discipline is to keep A strictly factual, write the belief out in plain words, and notice how the feeling and the behavior both flow from it. That separation is what gives you a place to intervene, rather than feeling at the mercy of events.
Ellis introduced the ABC framework in the 1950s as the foundation of rational emotive behavior therapy, one of the earliest structured cognitive therapies. Its central claim, that the appraisal of an event shapes emotional and behavioral reactions more than the event itself, went on to become a foundational idea across cognitive behavioral therapy more broadly (Ellis & Harper, 1997; Dryden & Branch, 2012).
This worksheet works best for a reaction you can trace to a specific, nameable event: a comment, a message, a decision, a moment in a conversation. It is less suited to a low mood or anxiety that arrives without an obvious trigger, since there is no clear A to anchor the entry. If that is what you are noticing, a mood tracker alongside a thought record may capture the pattern better than a single ABC entry.
Compare your emotion intensity before and after step D. A meaningful drop suggests the disputed belief was doing real work in driving the reaction. If intensity barely moves, the belief you challenged may be a surface thought rather than the deeper one underneath it; the Downward Arrow Technique is built for digging past a surface belief to the core belief driving it. If the same belief and the same intense reaction keep showing up across many entries, that is a pattern worth bringing to a licensed therapist through our directory at /therapist/.
References
- Ellis A, Harper RA. A Guide to Rational Living. 3rd ed. Wilshire Book Company; 1997.
- Dryden W, Branch R. The CBT Handbook. Sage Publications; 2012.
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 14). ABC Model Worksheet. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tools/abc-model
ABC Model Worksheet FAQ
What does ABC stand for in CBT?
A is the Activating event, B is your Beliefs about it, and C is the Consequences, meaning the emotions and behaviors that follow. The model shows that B, not A, mainly drives C.
How is the ABC model different from a thought record?
They overlap. The ABC model is a compact way to separate event, belief, and consequence, drawn from REBT. A thought record adds a structured evidence-weighing step. Many people use ABC to understand a reaction quickly, then a thought record to work through it in depth.
What is the D in ABCD?
D stands for Disputing the belief: questioning whether the belief at B is true, logical, and helpful, then forming a more flexible alternative. It is the change step that REBT adds to the basic model.
Is my information saved?
No. Everything stays in your browser and is never uploaded or stored. The PDF is generated on your own device.
Does the ABC model help with anger?
Yes. Anger often follows a rigid demand at B, such as 'they should not have done that,' rather than the event itself. Writing the activating event, the demand behind the anger, and the consequences separately can make the belief easier to spot and question before it drives a reaction you regret.
Is this ABC model worksheet free to use?
Yes. The interactive worksheet and the PDF download are both free, with no account or sign-up required. Your entries stay in your browser and are never uploaded or stored.