Cognitive Distortions

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Overview

• Cognitive distortions are irrational thoughts influencing perception, emotions, and behaviors.
• Normal to have occasionally but harmful when frequent or extreme.

Types of Cognitive Distortions

Magnification and Minimization

• Exaggerating or minimizing the importance of events.
• Example: Believing one's achievements are unimportant or mistakes are overly significant.

Catastrophizing

• Focusing on the worst possible outcomes.

Overgeneralization

• Drawing broad conclusions from single or few events.
• Example: Feeling awkward during an interview and concluding you are always awkward.

Magical Thinking

• Believing that thoughts, actions, or emotions can influence unrelated situations.
• Example: Thinking your wish for someone's harm caused their accident.

Personalization

• Believing you are responsible for events outside your control.
• Example: Thinking a parent’s mood is your responsibility.

Jumping to Conclusions

• Interpreting situations with little to no evidence.

Mind Reading

• Assuming the thoughts and beliefs of others without sufficient evidence.
• Example: Assuming someone thinks you’re unattractive because they declined a date.

Fortune Telling

• Expecting negative outcomes without evidence.

Emotional Reasoning

• Assuming emotions reflect reality.
• Example: Feeling like a bad friend and believing it to be true.

Disqualifying the Positive

• Not recognizing positive aspects while focusing on negatives.
• Example: Receiving compliments but focusing on criticism.

Should Statements

• Believing things should conform to a certain standard.
• Example: Believing you should always be perfect.

All-or-Nothing Thinking

• Thinking in absolutes like "always," "never," or "every."
• Example: Believing you never do a good enough job.