Cognitive distortions

Cognition : Processing of information about the world around us includes

mental process of thinking ,knowing, attending and remembering(Crider).

Cognitive distortion: cognitive distortion is an exaggerated or irrational

thought pattern involved in the onset or perpetuation of psychological
states, such as depression and anxiety.

Cognitive distortions are thoughts that cause individual to perceive reality

inaccurately.

Checklist of cognitive distortions

 Selective abstraction: Drawing a conclusion based only one part of

the information. e. g. my whole dinner party was failure because my
desert did not turn out as I would hopped.

 Arbitrary inference: Drawing an unjustified conclusion. e.g. my

partner appears stressed , he/she must be about to leave me
 All or nothing thinking (also called black & white, polarized or
dichotomous thinking ): Viewing a situation in only two categories
instead of on a continuum. Something is either good or bad, right or
wrong; there is no room for middle ground. e.g. I answered one
question wrong, so I am failure.
 Catastrophizing : Expecting serious consequences from minor
problem. e.g. thinking that one’s daughter who is late at home, has
been involved in an accident.
 Personalization : Assuming responsibility for all negative events.
Have you ever noticed yourself saying “it’s all my fault”-even when it
is not all your fault. e.g. my sister is in bad mood, she must be angry
with me.
 Overgeneralization : Viewing a single negative event as the norm.
e.g. my boyfriend broke up relation with me, so no one ever love.

 Mental filtering: Ignoring all the positive aspects of a situation and

focusing on the negative aspects of the situation. e.g. receiving
feedback from coach, he says you are a great player, you have
wonderful initiative and have creative ideas but you could more work
on being punctual, ignoring the all positive compliment & focusing on
negative feedback.

 Disqualifying or discounting the positive: You unreasonably tell

yourself that positive experiences, deeds or qualities do not count.
e.g. I only came first by chance.

 Labelling : Put a fixed, global on one’s self or others without

considering that the evidence might more reasonably lead to a less
disastrous conclusion. e.g. I am loser, he is no good.
 Jumping to conclusion:
A. Mind reading: You assume that people are reacting negatively to
you when there is no definite evidence for this. e.g. your boss advises
you to take some leave from annual leave, then deciding that your
work is not good, your boss would take interview for your
replacement while you are on leave.

B .Fortune-telling: Making predictions that things will turn out badly

based on little evidence. e.g. you might be feeling down one night
and think when I wake up in the morning, I am going to even worse.
 Magnification /minimization: Unreasonably magnifying the negative
and /or minimizing the positive. e.g. getting high marks doesn’t mean
I am smart.
 Emotional reasoning: Using emotions as evidence. e.g. I know I do
a lot of things okay at work but I still feel like I’m a failure.

 “Should” and “must” statements (also called imperatives): You

have a precise, fixed idea of how you or others should behave and
you overestimate how bad it is that these expectations are not met.
e.g. it is terrible that I made a mistake. I should always do my best.

 Tunnel vision: You only see the negative aspects of a situation. e.g.
my son’s teacher can’t do anything right. He is critical and insensitive
and lousy at teaching.
 Magical thinking: It involves believing that the course of events in
the world depends on your actions and thoughts. e.g. eating a certain
type of food before a sports game will secure the game.

 Always being right: Trying to prove yourself to be right prioritizing

this above everything (including seeking the actual truth or showing
compassion for someone else’s feelings). e .g the internet
commenters who spend hours arguing with each other over an
opinion or political issue far beyond the point where reasonable
individuals would conclude that they should “agree or disagree” are
engaging in “Always Being Right” distortion.

 Understanding your ability to cope: When you are faced with a

challenge, you might start to doubt yourself and underestimate your
ability to cope. This can cause you avoid certain experiences, fear
change and hold yourself back from growth. e.g. I am not strong
enough to handle this situation.

 Dichotomous thinking: Everything is either one extreme or another

(black or white, good or bad).

 Blame : Blame happens when you hold someone else accountable

for something that is not completely in their control. It is like
personalization but the blame is directed externally, rather than
internally.
 Self- references: I am the center of everyone’s attention especially
my bad performances. I am the cause of misfortunes.
 Excessive responsibility (assuming personal causality): I am
responsible for all bad things, failure etc.

 Assuming temporal causality (predicting without sufficient

evidence): It has been true in the past, it’s always going to be true.

 Making demands: You think that because you try very hard to be
kind and considerate to others, they really ought to be just as kind
and considerate in return. Using words like should, must, need to,
ought, have to.

 Low frustration tolerance: You often procrastinate on college

assignments, thinking, it’s just too much hassle. I’ll do it later when I
feel more in the mood.

 Inability to disconfirm: You reject any evidence or arguments that

might contradict your negative thoughts. e.g. when you have the
thought I am unlovable, you reject as irrelevant any evidence that
people like you.

 Polarized thinking: It is automatic and makes us generalized

situations without stopping to examine them first. Polarized thinking is
an extreme simplification of reality. Things are either black or white,
good or bad. e.g. I never do anything right.
 Control fallacies: A control fallacy manifests as one of two beliefs:
(a) That we have no control over our lives and we are helpless
victims of fate or (b) that we are in complete control of ourself and
our surroundings . Both beliefs are damaging and both are equally
inaccurate.
 Fallacy of fairness: While we would all probably prefer to operate in
a world that is fair, the assumption of an inherently fair world is not
based on reality and can foster negative feelings when we are faced
with proof of unfairness of life.
 Fallacy of change: Another fallacy distortion involves expecting
others to change if we pressure or encourage them enough. This
distortion is usually accompanied by a belief that our happiness and
success rests on other people. A man who thinks “if I just encourage
my wife to stop doing the things that irritate me, I can be a better
husband and a happier person” is exhibiting the fallacy of change.

 Heaven’s reward fallacy: This distortion is a popular one. The

“heaven’s reward fallacy” manifests as a belief that one’s struggle,
one’s suffering and one’s hard work will result in a just reward.
Sometimes no matter how hard we work or how much we sacrifice,
we will not achieve what we hope to achieve that can result in
disappointment, frustration, anger and even depression.

Cognitive distortions in depressive disorder

 Exaggeration/Magnification
 Overgeneralization
 Ignoring the positive
 Selective abstraction
 Arbitrary inference
 Personalization
 Catastrophizing
 Self blaming

Cognitive distortions in hypomania

 Magnification
 Being always right
 Reality distorting thinking

Cognitive distortions in GAD

 Catastrophizing
 Fortune telling
 Overestimation
 Overgeneralization
 Jumping to conclusion

Cognitive distortions in panic disorder

 Emotional reasoning
 Catastrophic misinterpretation of bodily & mental experiences
Cognitive distortions in social phobia
 Mind reading
 Catastrophizing
 All or nothing thinking
 Emotional reasoning
 Labelling
 Mental filtering
 Overgeneralization
 Personalization
 Minimizing or disqualifying the positive

Cognitive distortions in OCD

 Thought-action fusion
 Magical thinking
 An inflated sense of responsibility
 Compulsions and safety seeking behaviours
 Overestimation
 Intolerance of uncertainty
 The need for control

Cognitive distortions in hypochondriasis

 Overgeneralization
 Overestimation
 Catastrophizing
 Personalization
 Tunnel vision
Cognitive distortions in suicidal behaviour
 Magnification/minimization
 All or nothing thinking
 Overgeneralization
 personalization

Cognitive distortions in eating disorders

 All or none thinking (black & white)

 Catastrophizing
 Personalization
 Overgeneralization
 Disqualifying the positive
 Magnification and minimization
 Should or must statements
 Labeling
 Polarized thinking

Cognitive distortions in schizophrenia

 Jumping to conclusions
 Intentionalising
 Catastrophizing
 Emotional reasoning
 Dichotomous thinking
 Arbitrary inference
 Tunnel vision

Cognitive distortions in personality disorder

 Risky decision making

 Deficient feedback processing
 Dichotomous thinking
 Jumping to conclusion
 Monocausal attribution
 Paranoid cognitive style
 Dissociation
 All or nothing thinking
 Always being right
 Magnification and minimization
 Blaming to others
 Reality distorted thinking
 Overgeneralization
 Need for control
 Cognitive distortions in conversion disorder

 Magnification and minimization

 Personalization
 Overgeneralization
 Tunnel vision
 All or nothing thinking
 Disqualifying the positive
 Inflated sense of responsibility
 Tolerance of uncertainity
 Deficit in problem solving

Cognitive distortions in sexual dysfunction

 Magnification and minimization

 Personalization
 Overgeneralization
 All or nothing thinking
 Jumping to conclusion
 Tunnel vision
 Should or must statements