DevYou

In the last post, we looked at the first cognitive distortion on the list: All or Nothing Thinking. Today, let’s look at the second: Over-generalizing.

When we over-generalize, we apply something specific too broadly. It’s a destructive form of exaggeration. Perhaps it’s easiest to see in examples:

Example One: Reginald at the Supermarket

Reginald parks his car at the local supermarket and goes inside to do his shopping. When he comes out, someone has dinged his door. He thinks: Bad things always happen to me.

Example Two: Dead-end Shirley

Shirley is stuck in an unfulfilling, dead-end job. One day, while on lunch break, she runs into an old friend whom she hasn’t seen in years. It turns out, her friend is very successful. Shirley thinks: I’ll never be a success.

Example Three: Emil’s Dinner of Doom

Emil is engrossed in a television show when he suddenly remembers that he had been cooking something in the oven. He runs to the kitchen only to find his dinner is burned to a crisp. He thinks: Why do I always screw up?

Notice how each of the example thoughts above take a specific thing (“Someone has dinged my car”, “I’m not as successful as I’d like to be”, “I burned my dinner”) and over-generalize it so that it’s gigantic? (“Bad things always happen to me”, “I’ll never be a success”, “Why do I always screw up?”)

In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at the next cognitive distortion on the list: Mental Filter.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 9:56 am and is filed under Cognitive Therapy, Emotion, Mind. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.