Defining Cognitive Distortions
Cognitive distortions can be subtle. It's hard to recognise them if they're a constant part of your thought processes. However, they can be damaging as it's challenging to change what you don't acknowledge needs changing.
While these distortions come in various forms, they all share the following characteristics:
- They are consistent patterns of thinking or believing.
- They are false or inaccurate.
- They have the potential to cause psychological harm.
The Impact
We have all succumbed to several cognitive distortions at one point or another. The distinction between those who occasionally encounter a cognitive distortion and those who grapple with them long-term lies in the capacity to identify and rectify these incorrect thinking patterns.
The ability to recognise and respond to these distortions can be honed with practice. These distortions have also been shown to correlate positively with depression symptoms. This suggests that where cognitive distortions are plentiful, depression symptoms are likely to follow.
The Pioneer Experts: Aaron Beck and David Burns
Much of what we know about cognitive distortions comes from the research conducted by two experts: Aaron Beck and David Burns, both eminent figures in psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Aaron Beck:
Aaron Beck launched his career at Yale Medical School, graduating in 1946. His passion for researching depression, suicide, and effective treatments ignited during his psychiatry rotations during his residency.
Beck joined the University of Pennsylvania's Department of Psychiatry in 1954, where he still holds a position as Professor Emeritus. In addition to his vast array of publications, Beck also founded the Beck Initiative, training therapists to conduct cognitive therapy, significantly contributing to its growth today.
His major contribution to psychology is the development of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Beck noted that many of his patients struggling with depression were operating based on false assumptions and distorted thinking. He hypothesised that by changing these thought patterns, their symptoms could change too.
David Burns:
Dr. David Burns, another leader in depression and treatment research, also honed his skills at the University of Pennsylvania. Burns graduated from Stanford University School of Medicine before completing his psychiatry residency at the University of Pennsylvania.
Burns' work draws heavily from Beck's research, particularly the focus on the impacts of distorted thinking and methods to correct this thinking. His book, Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, has sold more than 4 million copies in the United States alone, making Burns well-known outside purely academic circles.
The Different Types
All-or-Nothing Thinking / Polarised Thinking:
This is characterised by viewing situations, events, or people in absolute terms. People with this cognitive distortion struggle to see in shades of grey, leading to rigid and unfair self-assessment.
Overgeneralisation
This involves making a general rule based on one incident or evidence, leading to catastrophic thinking about how things will always be in the future.
Mental Filter
People with this distortion selectively focus on the negative aspects of a situation, filtering out the positive ones. This leads to a skewed understanding of reality.
Disqualifying the Positive
This is the tendency to take positive experiences or traits and explain them away.
Jumping to Conclusions
This can be broken down into two sub-types: "mind reading," where one assumes to know what others are thinking, and "fortune telling," where one predicts negative outcomes with no evidence.
Magnification or Minimisation
This involves blowing things out of proportion (magnification) or downplaying the importance of something (minimisation).
Emotional Reasoning
This refers to the tendency to treat emotions as facts and make decisions based on how one feels rather than objective reality.
Should Statements
These are self-imposed rules about behaviour that can lead to guilt or frustration when the expectations are not met.
Labelling and Mislabelling
This distortion involves attaching a label to oneself or others based on a single event or behaviour.
Personalisation
This involves taking things personally when they are not directly connected to oneself, which can lead to feelings of guilt and inadequacy.
Control Fallacies
These are beliefs that one has no control over life's events or, conversely, that one has complete control over everything and everyone.
Fallacy of Fairness
This is the belief that life should be fair, which can lead to resentment and disappointment when life is inevitably unfair.
Fallacy of Change
This involves the belief that one can change others through pressure or manipulation.
Always Being Right
This distortion leads people to constantly test their actions and decisions against an internal measure of correctness and can lead to perfectionism.
Heaven's Reward Fallacy
This is the belief that one's hard work will always pay off, leading to disappointment when this is not the case.
Treatment
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a kind of talk therapy that helps identify the connections between emotions, thoughts, and behaviours. A main tenet of CBT is identifying cognitive distortions and replacing them with more accurate and healthy ways of thinking.