Cognitive Distortions
What is All or Nothing Thinking?
Sometimes this is called black and white thinking!
This can sound like, "if I don't do this perfectly, then it means I have failed."
What does a thought sound like if it's over-generalizing?
Any thought that makes a pattern based on a single event, or is overly broad in its conclusions.
e.g., I got bit by a dog, therefore all dogs are bad.
I had a bad math teacher in 6th grade, all math teachers are bad.
"If you are not with me than you are my enemy."
This is black or white/all or nothing thinking. someone can disagree with you or feel differently, and still care about you.
George was engaging with "should" thoughts (and it resulted in him feeling increasingly more frustrated)
What is a mental filter?
Only paying attention to certain kinds of evidence. Example: only seeing our failures and not our successes
What does it mean to disqualify the positive?
Discounting the good things that have happened or that you have done.
E.g., That doesn't count
There are a lot of different distortions that we can interpret here!
-blaming
-personalization
-jumping to conclusions
-mind reading
Joy and Sadness are both being influenced by their own mental filters! A great example of how our emotions can impact the ways we interpret and feel about our experiences
These new experiences allowed Hiccup to counter and challenge the previous beliefs he held that were over-generalizations.
e.g., "everything we thought we knew about you guys is wrong."
What are the two ways we jump to conclusions?
Mind reading and fortune telling!
Mind reading: imagining what others are thinking
Fortune telling: predicting the future
What are magnifying (catstrophizing) or minimizing thoughts?
Blowing things out of proportion (catastrophizing) or inappropriately shrinking something down to make it less important.
e.g., If I get a bad grade on this exam then I won't pass this class and then I will never graduate, which means I will never go to college
e.g., My house caught on fire but that's not important compared to what other people go through.
Because Anakin was worried about his dream, over time he began to believe that his fears were signs that something bad was going to happen
Phoebe taught Rachel not to spend her time and energy on trying to mind-read. Who cares if you are having fun!
What is emotional reasoning
I feel bad so that means I must have done something bad.
I feel embarrassed so that must mean every one is judging me.
Why are "should" "must" "ought" thoughts unhelpful?
Using critical words like "should" "must" or "ought" can make us feel guilty or like we have already failed.
If we apply these thoughts to others, we will likely feel frustrated and judgmental towards them
Here we saw an example of Flik disqualifying the positives (he was unable to see the good he had done!)
What is Labeling?
Assigning labels to ourselves or other people
"I am dumb."
"They are bad."
What is a personalization thought?
Blaming yourself or taking responsibility for something that wasn't completely your fault.
Conversely, blaming other people for something that was your fault.
Some thoughts we can see Howie experiencing are: -emotional reasoning
-Catastrophizing