| Cognitive distortion | Definition | Example |
|---|
| All-or-nothing thinking | Seeing things in black and white | You think that if you are not perfect, you are a failure. |
| Overgeneralization | Seeing a single negative event as part of a never-ending pattern of such events | While having a bad day, you predict that subsequent days will also be bad. |
| Mental filter | Focusing too strongly on negative qualities or events, to the exclusion of the other qualities or events | Although your overall appearance is fine, you focus persistently on the bad haircut you recently had. |
| Disqualifying the positive | Not recognizing or accepting positive experiences or events, thus emphasizing the negative | After giving a good presentation, you discount the positive feedback you received and focus only on what you didn’t like about your performance. |
| Jumping to conclusions | Making an unsubstantiated negative interpretation of events | Although there is no evidence for your inference, you assume that your boss didn’t like your presentation. |
| Personalization | Seeing yourself as the cause of a negative event when in fact you were not actually responsible | When your parents fight about finances, you think their problems are somehow your fault, despite the fact that their financial troubles weren’t caused by you. |
| Source: Copyright © 1980 by David D. Burns, M.D. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, William Morrow. For more information see the Permissions section. |