2023-02-19 06:04:04
Unhelpful thinking styles
Mental filterThis thinking style involves a filtering in and filtering out process – a sort of tunnel vision, focusing on only 1 part of a situation and ignoring the rest.
Usually this means looking at the negative parts of a situation and forgetting the positive parts, and the whole picture is coloured by what may be a single negative detail.
Jumping to conclusionsWe jump to conclusions when we assume that we know what someone else is thinking (mind reading) and when we make predictions about what is going to happen in the future (predictive thinking).
PersonalisationThis involves blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong or could go wrong, even when you may only be partly responsible or not responsible at all. You might be taking 100 per cent responsibility for the occurrence of external events.
CatastrophisingCatastrophising occurs when we blow things out of proportion, and we view the situation as terrible, awful, dreadful, and horrible, even though the reality is that the problem is quite small.
Black and white thinkingThis thinking style involves seeing only 1 extreme or the other. You are either wrong or right, good or bad and so on. There are no in- betweens or shades of grey.
Shoulding and mustingSometimes by saying “I should…” or “I must…” you can put unreasonable demands or pressure on yourself and others.
Although these statements are not always unhelpful – for example “I should not get drunk and drive home” – they can sometimes create unrealistic expectations.
OvergeneralisationWhen we overgeneralise, we take 1 instance in the past or present, and impose it on all current or future situations. If we say “You always…” or “Everyone…”, or “I never…” then we are probably overgeneralising.
LabellingWe label ourselves and others when we make global statements based on behaviour in specific situations.
We might use this label even though there are many more examples that aren’t consistent with that label.
Emotional reasoningThis thinking style involves basing your view of situations or yourself on the way you are feeling. For example, the only evidence that something bad is going to happen is that you feel like something bad is going to happen.
Magnification and minimisationIn this thinking style, you magnify the positive attributes of other people and minimise your own positive attributes. It’s as though you’re explaining away your own positive characteristics.
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