COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS

COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS
43 WAYS THAT THE MIND FOOLS US www.spiral2grow.com
COGNITIVE
DISTORTIONS
43 WAYS THAT THE
MIND FOOLS US
www.spiral2grow.com

OVERVIEW
 In general, cognitive distortions represent the
different means by which individuals modify their
experiences, thereby creating dysfunctional
subjective constructs.
 Cognitive distortions, one of the main concepts of
Cognitive Therapy (CT) or Cognitive Behavioral
Therapy (CBT) refers to inflated inaccurate thoughts.
 Aaron Beck first developed the theory behind
cognitive distortions and David Burns made it
popular.

THE PROBELM WITH
 If these irrational thoughts and beliefs are about
ourselves or the world around us they usually
reinforce negative thinking.
 These biased ways of thinking also lead to
problematic emotional states and behavior, like
anger, anxiety, low self-esteem, worry, depression as
well as relationship problems.

GENERAL SOLUTION
FOR COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS
 By challenging and refuting distorted thoughts and
replacing them with more accurate ones, we can
decrease worry and live life with a more positive
outlook and lifestyle.
 Identifying these thinking errors and be aware of
them, so that we can alter our thinking to more
rational and objective thoughts.

 Black-or-White Thinking also called Dichotomous Thinking (All-or-
Nothing).
 It is a categorical way of thinking for the purpose of making a
quick judgment.
 Black-or-white thinking is a binary way of thinking when you see
things in absolute terms.
 In this case, you place people or situations in clear categories
“either/or”, with no shades of gray.
 Examples for thoughts in such categories are: good or bad, right
or wrong, fair or not fair. Individuals that utilize this way of
thinking use words such as “never”, “always”, and “every.”
 When we think in a black or white way, we may form the basis of
perfectionism problems, which causes us to fear any mistake or
imperfection because it can lead to seeing oneself as a total
"loser," that generates feelings of inadequacy and worthlessness.
01. "BLACK OR WHITE" THINKING

 Aaron Beck says that “our tendency to amplify the
importance of certain situations – believing them to be
a matter of life and death over-mobilizes our apparatus
for dealing with threats and thus overrides normal
functioning.
 It has been said that ‘evolution favors anxious genes.’ It
is better to have ‘false positives’ (false alarms) than
‘false negatives’ (which miss the danger) in an
ambiguous situation.
 One false negative – and you can be eliminated from
the gene pool. Thus, the cost of survival of the lineage
may be a lifetime of discomfort.”
02. SURVIVAL PRIORITY

 We use filtering when we concentrate so strongly
on one aspect of a task or a situation and avoid
other aspects.
 We have a very narrow view of the situation that
limits our capacity to see the reality in its right
context.
 Mental filters are driven by our history and
experience, in which we project our mental models
that already exist in our mind toward the reality.
 It is a biased view of reality that keeps us seeing
things only within the box and limits our openness
to consider other perspectives and possibilities.
03. FILTERING

 At times we believe that every thought we have is true when in
fact they may not be so.
 Steven Hayes explains that most of us tend to look “from” our
thoughts instead of “at” our thoughts, since ideas arise
convincingly inside our heads in the form of language.
 In addition, certain concepts are defended and maintained
because they exist in networks – or “relational frames” – with
other thoughts.
 In this way, ideas become entrenched and we become “fused”
with our thinking.
 A possible indicator of cognitive fusion is when we say “I’m
right and I can give you the reasons.” Remember: You don’t
have to believe everything you think.
04. COGNITIVE FUSION

 Focusing on the negatives and minimizing or ignoring the
positives is another example of a cognitive distortion.
 In this case an individual will focus on the one thing that went
wrong instead of the things that went right.
 We take the negative details and magnify them while
minimizing all the positive aspects of a situation.
 When we diminish the positives we come up with several
reasons why the positive events in our lives don’t count.
 For example, one may say, “I just got lucky that my proposal
was accepted” or “I got promoted at work, only because no
one else wanted it”.
 Concentrating on the negative and minimizing the positives
will nearly always be disappointing and prevent you from
enjoying your accomplishments and achievements.
05. DISCOUNTING THE POSITIVES

 Unrealistic optimism refers to an underestimation of
the likelihood of experiencing negative events and to
an overestimation of the probability of experiencing
positive events.
 It is a misjudgment based on faulty understanding of
real risks.
 Believing that all is rosy and everything will turn out
fine provides the important benefits of encouraging us
to stick with our goals and overcome challenges.
 Unchecked optimism can easily detach us from the
cold harsh truths of reality.
 Don't let optimism exceed the bounds of reality.
06. UNRALISTIC OPTIMISM

 Overgeneralization is defined as taking a single or a
few selected negative experiences and making them
universal or expecting them to be true forever.
 An individual practicing this cognitive distortion may
say “I didn’t have friends in middle school, I’ll never
have friends in high school” or “I wasn’t able to pass
the test, I’ll never pass any tests”.
 In this cognitive distortion, we come to a general
conclusion based on a limited or a single incident of
evidence.
 A person may see a single, unpleasant event as part of
a never-ending pattern of defeat.
07. OVERGENERALIZING

 A stereotype is a macro thought or belief that may or may not
accurately reflect reality.
 The brain memory is organized into schemas which are clusters
of knowledge or a general conceptual framework that provide
models that were created based on our knowledge, experience
expectations about events, objects, people, and situations in
life.
 This attribute of memory leads us to rely on stereotype, which
are simplified and standardized conceptions or images held in
common by members of a group.
 While stereotypes are an essential feature of human memory,
they can cause problems when the attributes associated with
the group are incorrectly extended to an individual.
 Examples of stereotypes are: All blond women are dumb. All
Blacks are great basketball players.
08. STEROTYPING

 Jumping to conclusions is defined as making
interpretations without actual evidence.
 In this case, often individuals will make those
interpretations negative.
 One may claim, without cause, “I know my teacher
doesn’t like me because of the way he looks at me.”
09. JUMPTING TO CONCLUSIONS

 We may engage in "Fortune-Telling" when we
predict that things will turn out badly.
 We imagine that something bad is about to
happen, and we take this prediction as
a fact even though it's unrealistic.
 An example of fortune telling is saying to
ourselves “I just know I’m going to have a bad
journey.”
10. FORTUNE-TELLING

 In this case, we assume we know what people think without
having sufficient evidence of their thoughts. “He thinks I’m
an idiot.”
 It is also about the tendency to attribute positive or negative
motives to someone.
 It is clearly impossible to correctly know a person's
intent for behaving as they do.
 We are also unable to determine how people are feeling
toward us.
 For example, a person may conclude that someone is
reacting negatively toward them but doesn’t actually bother
to find out if they are correct.
 Another example is when a person may anticipate that
things will turn out badly, and feel convinced that the
prediction is already an established fact.
11. MIND-READING/
ASSUME INTENT

 Denial is considered one of the most primitive
psychological defense mechanisms and is defined as a
refusal to accept reality.
 It takes place when we deny an event, thought, feeling
or memory as if it does not exist or did not happen
because it is so painful to accept.
 For example, a person who is a functioning alcoholic
will often simply deny they have a drinking problem,
pointing to how well they function in their job and
relationships.
12. DENIAL

 “Catastrophizing” takes place when individuals
expect the worst scenario to happen. They expect
disaster to strike, no matter what the reality is.
 “Catastrophizing” is also referred to as “magnifying or
minimizing.” We make the issue bigger than it is or
don't see the importance of the event when it is
required to do so.
 For example, a person might inflate the importance
of irrelevant events (such as their mistake, or
someone else’s success).
 Or they may without proportion shrink the extent of
significant events until they appear small (for
example, a person’s own desirable qualities or
someone else’s imperfections).
13. CATASTROPHIZING

 People with this distortion label themselves based on
mistakes or shortcomings.
 They will often use negative language such as “I’m a
failure, I’m a loser, or I will never be successful or be
anything.”
 Personalization is a twist where a person believes that
everything others do or say is some kind of direct,
personal reaction to them.
 We take everything personally rather than seeing that
other individuals act because of their own personal
issues or “baggage.”
14. PERSONALIZATION

 Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe
they can control events affecting them.
 If we feel externally controlled, we see ourselves as a victim of
destiny. For example, “I can’t help it if the level of my work is low,
my boss insisted I work on it over the weekend.”
 The fallacy of internal control requires us to assume responsibility
for things that are beyond our control, such as the pain and
happiness of other people. For example, “You are not happy
because of my actions.”
 This fallacy describes an inappropriate external locus of control.
 In this error, we see ourselves as helpless and externally
controlled as someone or something else is responsible for our
pain, loss or failure.
 In this view, we remain stuck, unable to affect our own lives or
anything else in the world.
15. CONTROL ERROR

 Fallacy of fairness refers to a strong belief and
expectations that life and relationship should be
governed by some kind of rules, principles and standards.
 If life or situations do not happen based on these
principles, we feel resentful as we think that it is not fair.
The reality is that life was not designed to be fair. Life is
the way it is.
 People who go through life applying measuring
parameters against every situation judging its “fairness”
will often be disappointed and angry and will have a
negative attitude.
 When we have this distortion, it won't be surprising that
things will not always work out in our favor, even when
we think they should.
16. FALLACY OF FARINESS

 Similar to a fallacy of fairness, you have a list of rules
and regulations about how we and others should
behave.
 We criticize ourselves or other people with “shoulds”,
“shouldn'ts”, “musts”, “ought tos” and “have tos”.
 When individuals use cue words such as should, ought
to, and must, it indicates the presence of this distortion
 People who break the rules make us angry, and we also
feel guilty when we violate these rules.
 This is why focusing on what we “should” or "ought to
be," rather than the actual situation we are faced with,
will simply anger and stress us out.
17. SHOULDS

 The karma error is a mistaken belief that “we will
get what we deserve.”
 Good things happen to good people and bad things
happen to bad people.
 This is sometimes used to explain situations that fit
our belief system or as an excuse to blame the
victim; “he got what he deserves.”
 Regrettably, when this "karma" doesn’t take place,
we feel angry with ourselves and others.
18. THE “KARMA” ERROR

 Blaming takes many forms.
 We might hold other people responsible for our pain, or
at times blame ourselves for problems that we are not
responsible for.
 If we blame, we focus on separation and move away
from personal responsibility.
 In blame mechanism, we deny our right and
responsibility to assert our needs, say no, or attend to
our needs.
 When we adapt a blaming attitude, we are stuck in the
past and find fault instead of solving the problem.
19. BLAMING

 Emotional reasoning is a cognitive distortion process that
takes place when individuals believe that what they are
feeling is true regardless of the evidence.
 This way of thinking relies on the fast track of our
emotional system to make a quick decision, while using
emotions to interpret the level of perceived threat during
events.
 Emotional reasoning, contrary to logical reasoning, may
happen automatically and amplifies the effects of other
cognitive distortions.
 For example, "if we feel stupid and dull, then we must be
stupid and dull." We assume that our "negative" emotions
reflect the way things really are. If we feel we are weak,
useless, stupid we just accept it. The underlying statement
of such an error is: “I feel it, therefore it must be true.”
20. EMOTIONAL REASONING

 This cognitive distortion assumes that other
people must change their behavior to fit our
needs and for the purpose of making us happy.
 We even strongly believe and expect that if we
just persuade or put enough pressure on others,
they will change.
 This way of thinking is considered selfish as it is
only about us and about our needs. To change
others we might also engage in manipulative
behavior to get what we want from them.
21. FALLACY OF CHANGE

22. GLOBAL LABELING

 In a being right error we strongly think we are correct in our
thinking and self-justification becomes a mission.
 We dogmatically hold onto our opinion, belief, or defend
our action.
 The idea of being wrong is impossible and questioning
ourselves is unthinkable. As such, we discount evidence and
ideas of others and go to great lengths to demonstrate our
rightness.
 For example, "I know I am right, and I am not interested in
your opinion or in reading your article.
 Being right becomes more important than being wise, and
it is manifested by having a rigid personality that is
defensive and not happy.
23. BEING RIGHT

 In reward error thinking, we are attached to the
outcome and always expect a "reward" for our actions.
 We are not driven by doing the right thing, but rather
focusing on doing the things that will lead us to gain
the desired reward.
 We expect our sacrifice and even self-denial to pay off,
as if someone or the universe is keeping score.
 Unfortunately, when the reward doesn’t come, we feel
bitter and angry with ourselves and others.
24. REWARD FALLACY

 In unrealistic comparisons we interpret events in
terms of standards that are unrealistic or invalid.
 When we say “Others are more successful than I
am," we focus primarily on others who do better
than us and find ourselves inferior in the
comparison.
 We compare ourselves to other people, job
colleagues etc, and view them as being smarter and
happier than we are, and better at handling life than
we are.
25. UNREALISTIC COMPARISON

 In hindsight thinking we look back at decisions we
made in the past and make judgments about the
decision we made.
 We often think we should have handled things in a
different or a better way. But the fact is that in
hindsight thinking we know now what we didn't know
before and this judgment is not correct nor
constructive.
 We need to put ourselves in the time of our decision
to include our experience, knowledge and what we
knew then. In addition, we must add the uncertainty
factor that we had during that time.
26. HINDSIGHT THINKING

 Similar to hindsight thinking the regret orientation error
makes us focus on all the things that we could have done
better in the past, rather than on what we can do better
now.
 “I could have had a better job if I had tried harder.” “I
shouldn’t have said that.”
 In regret orientation we beat ourselves up about it and
hold onto that regret too tightly for too long.
 The remedy to a regret orientation is accepting what we
have done and what has happened to us and then doing
what is within our power to change the consequences.
27. REGRET ORIENTATION

 In what if thinking, the person considers something as
if it was true, and pretty soon, it becomes true.
 When this happens, the belief and the phenomenon
cannot easily be differentiated.
 In this case, we continually ask what if something
happens, and are not satisfied by any of the answers.
 We might say ". . .but what if I fail the exam?" or "what
if I mess up the emergency stop?", "what if I choose a
different career?", “What if it happens to me?”, "what
if . . .
28. “WHAT IF” ERROR

 It is an egocentric perspective when we are concerned
always with ourselves.
 We attribute personal meaning to everything that
happens.
 Because we think that the universe revolves around
us, we often think that others should care primarily
about what our desires are and what interests us.
 As such, we hardly ever think about what someone
else might want or need. These thinking patterns,
attitudes, and behaviors prompt us to lead an
extremely self-centered lifestyle.
29. EGOCENTRIC THINKING

 This error prevents us from changing the way we think,
despite new or additional information.
 We reject any evidence or arguments that might contradict
our thoughts, especially our negative thoughts.
 For example, if we think that we are unlovable, we might
say to ourselves "My friends hang out with me only
because they must feel sorry for me.”
 When we use statements like "No, it is much more
complicated than that!" or "You just don't understand," it
may be an indication of inability to disconfirm error.
 The antidote to this error is to recognize the way our
emotions distort our perceptions.
 We can also try to reframe the situation and see it in a
more objective, realistic way.
30. INABILITY TO DISCONFIRM

 When we adopt a judgment perspective, we measure
ourselves and others according to arbitrary standards,
finding where we and others fall short.
 We view ourselves, others and events in terms of
evaluations of “good” or “bad,” “right” or “wrong” and
“superior” or “inferior,” rather than simply describing,
accepting, or understanding.
 In this case, we may say to ourselves “I didn’t perform as
well as I am supposed to.” “Look how successful he is, I’m
not that successful.”
 The way to overcome such issues is by suspending
judgment until we have the opportunity to understand the
situation or the person and also by having compassion and
appreciation.
31. JUDGMENT FOCUS

 In entitlement error the underlying assumption is that
because we want something very much, we ought to
have it.
 In this case we confuse desire with obligation.
 An entitled person may say "I want this very badly, and
you are a bad person if you don't provide it to me."
 Sense of entitlement is an unrealistic, unmerited or
inappropriate expectation of favorable living
conditions and favorable treatment at the hands of
others.
32. ENTITLEMENT FALLACY

 In this case, we may think we see a pattern while in
fact the pattern is not there; the outcome or the
observation is simply the result of random events and
as such the basis for identifying the pattern is not
valid.
 We think we recognize a pattern that is different from
what we actually see.
 The opposite can also occur, where we may fail to
recognize a pattern that is present.
33. PATTERN DISCERNMENT

 Ignorance is an attitude in which we choose a narrow
worldview; avoiding to inquire, examine and learn.
 We ignore or deny information and evidence that
contradict our perspective or beliefs.
 We are all ignorant to some degree. Yet, if we stay
curious and open, we avoid this form of deliberate
ignorance and choose learning and wisdom instead.
34. IGNORANCE

 Cognitive dissonance is a state of having inconsistent
thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes, especially as relating to
behavioral decisions and attitude change.
 It occurs when two opposing thoughts reside in the same
mind, generating inner conflicts and psychological distress.
 A tense and uncomfortable contradiction exists unless your
actions support your thoughts and beliefs. To bridge the
gap and relieve this tension people often revise their
thoughts to support their actions.
 People who cannot stop drinking persuade themselves that
drinking is beneficial.
 So, cognitive dissonance is resolved by choosing one
thought, idea, value or belief over the other.
35. COGNITIVE DISSONANCE

 Dissociation is a psychological term used to describe a mental
exit from reality.
 Dissociation is when a person loses track of time and/or person,
and instead finds another representation of their self in order to
continue in the moment.
 People who use dissociation often have a disconnected view of
themselves in their world.
 Their concept of time and their own self-image may not flow
continuously, as it does for most people.
 In this manner, a person who dissociates can “disconnect” from
the real world for a time, and live in a different world that is not
cluttered with thoughts, feelings or memories that are
unbearable.
36. DISSOCIATION

 Compartmentalization is an unconscious psychological
defense mechanism used to avoid cognitive
dissonance.
 Compartmentalization is similar but a lesser form of
dissociation, wherein parts of oneself are separated
from awareness of other parts and behave as if one
had separate sets of values.
 An example might be an honest person who cheats on
his/her income tax return and keeps the two value
systems distinct and un-integrated while continuing to
being unaware of the cognitive dissonance.
37. COMPARTMENTALIZATION

 The mind does not easily tolerate ambiguity and
uncertainty; it creates irrational accounts when plausible
explanations are unavailable, however faulty.
 Confabulation is the unconscious production of fabricated,
distorted or misinterpreted memories about oneself or the
world , without the conscious intention to deceive.
 Its job is to create meanings and explanations and as such
assembles beliefs from a number of sources in order to
integrate together personal unknowns.
 In this error we create a seemingly probable story to
account for unexpected events or behavior.
 This is why people often for unconscious reasons fill
memory gaps with fabrications that they believe to be real.
38. CONFABULATION

 Magical thinking is the idea of believing that the laws of the
universe, physics, economics, or cause and effect, don't
apply to us.
 Magical thinking is also described as the belief that
thoughts and reality are connected and that thinking can
influence the actual world.
 For example, believing in miracles, being superstitious
(example, “I’m feeling better this morning, but if I tell
anyone the pain might get worse”) or trusting that wishful
thinking will cause the outcome we are hoping for.
 Magical thinking especially comes out when a high degree
of chance, accident, hope, fear, and danger are perceived.
39. MAGICAL THINKING

 Reaction formation is a defensive process in which
"unacceptable" emotions, which are anxiety-producing, are
mastered by exaggeration of the directly opposing
tendency.
 It is the alteration of unwanted or dangerous thoughts,
feelings or impulses into their opposites.
 For instance, a woman who is very angry with her husband
and would like to leave the marriage may instead be overly
kind and generous toward her husband and express her
strong desire to stay in the marriage forever.
 She is incapable of expressing the negative emotions of
anger and unhappiness with her husband, and instead
becomes overly kind to publicly demonstrate her lack of
anger and unhappiness.
40. REACTION FORMATION

 Projection, a human psychological defense, is the act of
attributing one's own feelings, thoughts or traits onto
another person and imagining or believing that the other
person has those same feelings, thoughts or traits.
 Projection is especially used when the thoughts are
considered unacceptable for the person to express, or they
feel completely uncomfortable for having them.
 For example, a spouse may be angry at their significant
other for not listening, when in fact it is the angry spouse
who does not listen.
 Projection is often the result of a lack of insight and
acknowledgement of one’s own motivations and feelings.
41. PROJECTION

 Tunnel vision is the tendency to only see or focus on limited
perspective or priority while neglecting or ignoring other
important priorities or elements that are part of a bigger
picture.
 Many of the reasons for tunnel vision are boil down to
causing - strong and uncomfortable feelings like fear and
pain.
 Ultimately, moving out of the tunnel is about finding clarity,
even if it feels scary and overwhelming. To do that, we have
to face what is actually going on instead of ignoring the
reality.
 We have to find the courage to face our feelings and our
current reality, and moving from where we are toward the
life we envision.
42. TUNNEL VISION

 Escapism is a way of attempting to negate our personal
responsibility and to avoid the discomfort of existential
worry or fear that we all must deal with.
 We are trying to avoid “spending time” with parts of
ourselves and parts of our reality that we deny or disown.
 Our fantasies act as a means of dissociating our minds from
the “I” that possesses these qualities.
 Escape to fantasy is sometimes practiced by people who
present a facade to friends, partners and family members.
Their true identity and feelings are commonly expressed
privately in an alternate fantasy world.
43. ESCAPISM/FANTASIZING

 Cognitive Distortions are exaggerated and
irrational thoughts.
 The distortions amplify during times of stress,
overload, or threat, as we tend to resort to a
simplistic, primal form of thinking that
incorporates many of these fallacies.
 Contemporary psychologists and psychiatrists
such as Albert Ellis, Aaron Beck and David Burns
assert that our emotional suffering is largely
attributable to automatic thinking that is
distorted in some way.
SUMMARY

 If we can conquer our distorted thinking we can
relieve our emotional suffering.
 Conquering our cognitive distortion requires us to
refute these patterns of negative thoughts and
irrational feelings by what is called cognitive
restructuring and is the basis for a type of therapy
called Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or CBT.
 Identifying thinking errors and cognitive distortions
and after that challenging and restructuring our
thinking are critical steps towards improving our
stress resistant thinking and building a healthy
mental state that leads to realism, optimism and
happiness.
SUMMARY CONTINUE

 Aaron T. Beck and Gary Emery, Anxiety Disorders and Phobias:
A Cognitive Perspective
 Beck, A. T., Cognitive Therapies and Emotional Disorders
 Burns, D. David., Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy
 Leahy, L. Robert., Cognitive Therapy: Basic Principles and
Applications
 Lynn, et al., Rendering the Implausible Plausible
 Piaget, The Essential Piaget
 Steven C. Hayes, Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life
 Spence Donald, The Mythic Properties of Popular
Explanations
 Stuart A. Vyse, Believing in Magic: The Psychology of
Superstition
 Theodore R, Sarbin, Believed-In Imaginings: A Narrative
Approach
 Yurica, C. L., Inventory of Cognitive Distortions
REFERENCES

COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS

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