Cognitive distortions

Cognitive distortions are irrational or exaggerated thoughts that can cause some psychological problems to become worse. By following these wrong thought, they make if very hard to do the things they want to do. This may cause problems such as depression.

There are many forms of cognitive distortions. Some of these include:

"All or nothing thinking": This is when a person believes that everything can be grouped into two lists. One list is good. The other list is bad. The person sees everything as either good or bad. There is no other option. Also known as black or white thinking.
Overgeneralization: People who over generalize make fast opinions with little knowledge. They think experiences from their past will decide the future.
Filtering Out the Positive: People who filter out the positive make small things seem more important than they are.
Mind Reading: These people think they know what other people are thinking. They believe that their negative guesses are facts.
Fortune Telling: These people think they can guess the future and that their negative guesses are facts.
Emotional Reasoning: People who reason emotionally believe that their negative feelings are facts.
Should Statements: These people think that they should be able to act at a certain level. If they can not act at that level, they can feel shame.
Labeling: People who label give people general tags that might not define the person very well.
Personalization: People who think that someone is personally responsible for anything that goes wrong.

Related pages

Cognitive bias

Reference

http://www.ananddhillon.com/blog/2008/06/cognitive-distortions/ Archived 2009-01-07 at the Wayback Machine
http://www.uwec.edu/counsel/pubs/defn.htm Archived 2009-02-07 at the Wayback Machine