Cognitive Distortions of Great Proportions!

This semester I'm taking a course in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). In short, CBT deals with thoughts and emotions as being the foundation of behavior (which is probably not the best definition). Therapists often attempt to help the client change/modify their maladaptive behaviors and/or cognitive distortions, for example.

So, in today's class we briefly discussed a few of the typical cognitive distortions. I learned these in my undergraduate courses too and I still find them interesting:

Absolutistic Thinking - Looking at situations or experiences in an "all-or-nothing" way; Also known as "dichotomous thinking," or "polarized thinking." Thus, the person tends to categorize experiences, etc., in 1 or 2 opposite categories.

Example: "I am completely terrible at this" or "School sucks"

Overgeneralization - Taking [the concept of] what happens in one instance/situation and overextending it by applying it to other instances/situations, related or unrelated.

Example: "I'm no good at ping pong. Therefore, I'm not good at any racket sports."

Personalization - Relating a negative event to oneself even though there is no evidence to support that they themselves caused the event; OR believing one is the target of an [negative] event even though there is no evidence to support it.

Example: "If I would have been home, mom wouldn't have died." (person as cause)
Example: "That darn telemarketer called me just so I'd miss the best part of my soap opera!" (person as object of negative event)

Selective Abstraction - Taking a detail out of context and letting it be representative of the whole experience. Usually, the negative is focused on.

Example: Having an awesomely fun time for about 5 hours at a party and, during the party one has 5 minutes worth of a bad time, and then concludes that "This party sucked."

** It is much more common for people to selectively abstract the negative than it is for people to selectively abstract the positive.

Magnification/Minimization - Magnifying the negative and minimizing the positive.

Example: "I served in Iraq, won a Bronze Star, and became Mayor of the city. Anyone could have done it." (Minimization)

Example: "I am so angry that you forgot to put a new roll of toilet paper on." (Magnification)

Arbitrary Inference - Reaching or jumping to a [negative] conclusion when there is no evidence to support it.

Example: "I know he hates me." (mind reading)
Example: "I just know I am going to get struck by lightning." (negative prediction)