1. COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS AMONG TEACHERS:
ITS IMPACT ON THE CLASSROOM ATMOSPHERE
Ashwini N.V Ganig, Asst. Professor,
Montfort College, Bangalore

2.  Cognitive distortions are systematic errors in reasoning that
may lead to faulty assumptions and misconceptions. (Beck
& Weishaar, 2008; Dattilio & Freeman, 1992).
 These errors in reasoning give rise to inaccurate mental
representation and justifications of thoughts, feelings and
actions of the self, others and the world.

3. SPECIFIC COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS
 PERSONALIZATION: This refers to a tendency in individuals
where one attributes himself/herself to be the cause for external
events.
 DICHOTOMOUS THINKING: Individuals with a tendency to
think in an either-or fashion view situations in just two categories,
each falling at the extremes.
 ARBITRARY INFERENCE: This refers to a tendency in
individuals where one jumps to conclusions without having any
supportive evidence to testify the assumption made.

4.  OVER GENERALIZATION: This refers to a tendency of seeing
patterns and applying this faulty understanding to make sense of
dissimilar situations.
 SELECTIVE ABSTRACTION: This refers to a tendency where the
individual pays attention to just one aspect of the situation and
makes judgments without taking into consideration the entire
context.
 MAGNIFICATION AND MINIMIZATION: Magnification refers
to exaggerating the significance of an event. Minimization refers to
perceiving a situation in a lesser light than it truly deserves.

5.  LABELLING: This refers to attaching labels to oneself or others
instead of to one’s behaviour.
 EMOTIONAL REASONING: This refers to assuming ones feelings
as facts.
 MUST-AND-SHOULD THINKING: This refers to having fixed
ideas about how one and others should feel, think and behave. This
thinking pattern compels individuals to set rigid rules.

6. METHODOLOGY
 The non-experimental method of case study was employed for
this study. A workshop was conducted for a group of 32 teachers
facilitating classes for primary and high school students. The
purpose of the workshop was to help teachers recognize their
unhelpful thinking styles.
 The rationale for the design of the workshop comes from the idea
that individuals can be psycho-educated on cognitive distortions
and be asked to identify it themselves (Neenan, M &.Dryden,W,
2004).

7. Case of J.J
 J.J is a 42 year old male, teaching Mathematics for high
school students in a private school for the last 21 years.
 J.J reported that he had noticed five unhelpful thinking
patterns in him, namely personalization, arbitrary inference,
must and should thinking, labeling, and minimization. He also
reported his understanding of how these thinking styles were
affecting the classroom atmosphere.

8.  PERSONALIZATION: ‘Students fail because of me. Students
bunk classes because of me’.
 ARBITRARY INFERENCE: ‘I can tell what a student is
thinking by just looking at him’
 MUST-AND-SHOULD THINKING: ‘Students must not
speak during class. They should only be looking at the board’.

9.  LABELING: ‘He must be an idiot to not be able to
understand such a simple problem’
 MINIMIZATION: ‘Nothing will happen even if i don’t teach
anything in the classes’

10. Recommendations
 Promoting mental health among teachers
 Assessing the ability of a mental health professional before
employing
 Developing modules and training programmes for teachers