For example, “Why aren’t you happy? Is it because of something I did?” For example, “I can’t help it if the quality of the work is poor, my boss demanded I work overtime on it.” The fallacy of internal control has us assuming responsibility for the pain and happiness of everyone around us. If we feel externally controlled, we see ourselves as helpless a victim of fate. If I had only pushed my husband to leave on time, this wouldn’t have happened.” For example, “We were late to the dinner party and caused the hostess to overcook the meal. A person sees themselves as the cause of some negative external event that they were in fact, not resposible for. We also compare ourselves to others trying to determine who is smarter, better looking, etc. Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to us. Or they may inappropriately shrink the magnitude of significant events until they appear tiny (for example, a person’s own desirable qualities or someone else’s imperfections). This is also referred to as “magnifying or minimizing.” We hear about a problem and use what if questions (e.g., “What if tragedy strikes?” “What if it happens to me?”).įor example, a person might exaggerate the importance of insignificant events (such as their mistake, or someone else’s achievement). We expect disaster to strike, no matter what. Another example is a person may anticipate that things will turn out badly, and will feel convinced that their prediction is already an established fact. For example, a person may conclude that someone is reacting negatively toward them and don’t actually bother to find out if they are correct. In particular, we are able to determine how people are feeling toward us. Without individuals saying so, we know what they are feeling and why they act the way they do. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. If something bad happens once, we expect it to happen over and over again. We come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure. You place people or situations in “either/or” categories, with no shades of gray or allowing for the complexity of most people and situations. Things are either “black-or-white.” We have to be perfect or we’re a failure–there is no middle ground. For instance, a person may pick out a single, unpleasant detail and dwell on it exclusively so that their vision of reality becomes darkened or distorted. We take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. By refuting negative thoughts over and over again, they will slowly diminish overtime and be automatically replaced by more rational, balanced thinking.Īaron Beck first proposed the theory behind cognitive distortions and David Burns was responsible for popularizing it with common names and examples for the distortions. By learning to correctly identify distorted thoughts, a person can then respond to the distorted thoughts by balancing them with thoughts that are more balanced, and based on fact/reality rather than negative feelings. But with examination, we can often find evidence that our thoughts are NOT factual, but based on a set of negative thought patterns that have developed based on our feelings, rather than factual evidence.Ĭognitive distortions are at the core of what many cognitive-behavioral therapists and other kinds of health professionals try and help a person learn to change their thinking style. Our automatic thoughts can feel rational and accurate, and most of all, they can feel factual. These are typically thoughts that occur automatically, and are usually used to reinforce negative thinking or emotions. What’s a ‘cognitive distortion’ and why do so many people have them? Cognitive distortions are ways that our thought patterns can convince us that something is true or false.
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