16 Cognitive Distortions

16 Cognitive Distortions

By Christine Ferch

Cognitive distortions are biased perspectives we have on ourselves and the world around us, and they are irrational thoughts and beliefs which we reinforce over time. The problematic part of cognitive distortions is that we do not know we are reinforcing these thoughts or beliefs, and they are often subtle. Due to these two factors, they are difficult to change, because if you do not know they exist, change is not required.

All cognitive distortions or false and inaccurate patterns of thinking have the potential to cause psychological damage. However, altering these beliefs or patterns can reduce distress and risk to mental health as cognitive distortions are related to depression, with practice we can improve our ability to identify these beliefs and replace them with rational and factual thoughts.

Two psychologists Beck and Burns identified 16 common cognitive distortions individuals face:

1. All or nothing/polarized thinking: this is black or white thinking, no grey areas and as an extreme, it is either amazing or awful
2. Overgeneralization: This can be a sneaky distortion, hard to identify when we are engaging in it, so be careful. Students often engage in this thinking when they receive a bad grade, and they believe they are a failure or incompetent. This distortion often leads to negative thoughts of self and the environment.
3. Mental filter: ruminating about a single negative piece of information and negates all the other positive ones creating the contradiction. Mental filter over time can create a pessimistic perspective of everything around us because we inevitably only focus on the negative.
4. Disqualifying the positive: the bonus to this distortion is it considers the positive. However, rejects the positive quickly instead of embracing. For example, one may receive a compliment but attribute the compliment coming from an alternative place than a direct compliment to the client. This distortion can contribute to the continuation of negative thinking and patterns despite contradictory evidence.
5. Jumping to conclusions: An inaccurate belief, we know what the other person is thinking like we have developed the ability to be a mind reader. This distortion is jumping towards negative interpretations. A person may see a person walking down the street with a scowl on their face and believe the scowl directed at them even with no evidence to indicate the scowl is for them. Some people may see this as taking someone else’s behaviours personally. 
6. Jumping to conclusions fortune-telling: when we hold onto conclusions and predictions as truth based on little evidence, they are fact.
7. Magnification: is stealthy at changing our perspective or distorting it, so things are exaggerated or minimized in meaning or importance
8. Emotional Reasoning: We have all engaged in this at some point! This is when we accept our emotions as fact, but just because we feel something, does not make it accurate.
9. Should statements: We all have times when we feel like we “should” do something. However, if we hang on too tightly to the “should” or “out to’s” or “must do” they can be damaging if we fail to live up them. This leads to guilt and shame and disappointment for the future.
10. Labelling and Mislabeling: these are the extreme forms of over-generalization. We are assignment judgement to value ourselves or others based on only one experience.
11. Personalization: This is when we take everything personally or assign blame to ourselves without any logical reasoning, we could be to blame.
12. Control Fallacies: these manifest as two different beliefs 1. We have no control over our lives, we hopeless victims of fate 2. We are in complete control of ourselves and our surroundings, gives us responsibility for the feelings of those around us. These beliefs can be damaging as we take on too much when we think we are responsible to an extent, with how others are feeling. We have no to remember. We will not have complete control over what happens or over a situation.
13. The fallacy of Fairness: The world will be unfair so it can be distressing to believe the world is fair is not based on reality and can foster negative feelings when provided with proof, there is an unequal balance in the world.
14. The fallacy of Change: When we expect others to change if we pressure or encourage them enough to do so. This fallacy is accompanied but believes our happiness and success rests on other people. If we force others to change around us, we will change and get what we want.
15. Always be Right: We all know that one person who always needs to be right. Perfectionists falter to this thinking. Wrong is unacceptable and will fight to the death to prove they are right.
16. Heavens Reward Fallacy: Belief our struggles, suffering, and hard work will result in just reward. However, sometimes, no matter how hard we work or what we sacrifice, we will not achieve what we want to achieve. However, on the positive, we may find something different than what we wanted.

As one can see, these 11 distortions and 5 fallacies play a significant role in how our negative thinking can develop. However, one we can identify the distortions or fallacies, causing the most distress, Cognitive Behavior Therapy techniques can help reduce this distress by providing alternative answers to the negative thinking and refuting it. When we engage in this technique, it becomes habitual, and slowly, our negative distortions or fallacies become less distressing, and thinking becomes more positive or realistic.

For more information on Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, Cognitive distortions, please contact us at admin@ovcs.ca, we can help!