THINKING ERRORS

(FROM AARON BECK’S COGNITIVE THERAPY AND THE EMOTIONAL DISORDERS, 1976) 

 COMMON COGNITIVE ERRORS (and the assumptions behind them)
1. OVERGENERALIZING  (“If it is true in one case, it applies to any case that is even slightly similar.”)
2. SELECTIVE ABSTRACTION  (“The only events that matter are failures, deprivation, etc.  I should measure myself by errors, weaknesses, etc.”)
3. EXCESSIVE RESPONSIBILITY –ASSUMING PERSONAL CAUSALITY  (“It’s all my fault.” Or “I am responsible for all this.”)
4. ASSUMING TEMPORAL CAUSALITY – PREDICTING WITHOUT SUFFICIENT EVIDENCE (“If it has been true 
in the past, then it is always going to be true.”)
5. SELF-REFERENCES  (“I am the center of everyone’s attention, especially of bad performances or personal attributes.”)
6. “CATASTROPHIZING”  (“I always think of the worst because it is the most likely to happen to me.”)
7. DICHOTOMOUS THINKING  (“Everything is either one extreme or another – black or white; good or bad; etc.”)