Eleven Common Thinking Errors:
I applied for is that they have decided not to offer it to me”).
Do any of these ways of thinking seem familiar to you? If so, which seem the most familiar? In Cognitive and Rational Emotive
Therapy, the idea of thinking errors is central to the understanding of emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems. You will
find, in fact, that in nearly all approaches to therapy, working to correct these ways of thinking will be a part of treatment.
- All or nothing thinking: Placing experiences in one of two opposite categories
- Overgeneralization: Drawing sweeping inferences (e.g., “I can’t control my temper”)
- Discounting the positives: Deciding that if a good thing has happened, it couldn’t
- Jumping to conclusions: Focusing on just one aspect of a situation in deciding
I applied for is that they have decided not to offer it to me”).
- Mind reading: Believing one knows what another person is thinking, with very
- Fortunetelling: Believing one knows what the future holds, while ignoring other
- Magnifying/Minimizing: Evaluating the importance of a negative event, or the lack of importance of a positive event in a distorted manner.
- Emotional reasoning: Believing that something must be true, because it feels like it is true.
- Making “should” statements: Telling oneself one should do (or should have done) something, when it is more accurate to say that one would
like to do (or wishes one had done) the preferred thing.
- Labeling: Using a label (“bad mother,” “idiot”) to describe a behavior, and then imputing all the meanings the label carries.
- Inappropriate blaming: Using hindsight to determine what one “should have done,” even if one could not have known the best thing to do at
the time; ignoring mitigating factors; or ignoring the roles played by others in determining a negative outcome.
Do any of these ways of thinking seem familiar to you? If so, which seem the most familiar? In Cognitive and Rational Emotive
Therapy, the idea of thinking errors is central to the understanding of emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal problems. You will
find, in fact, that in nearly all approaches to therapy, working to correct these ways of thinking will be a part of treatment.
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| |
 |
| Christian Wolff, Psy.A., Licensed Psychologist Associate • Psychotherapist & Counselor 820 NW 21st Avenue, Suite B. Portland.Oregon. 97209. 503.381.2032. christian@christianwolff.com |
Eleven Common Thinking Errors |