The belief that if something is true in one situation, it will be true in all similar situations.

State University of New York at Albany

• Overgeneralizing

• Using selective abstraction

• Taking excessive responsibility

• Assuming temporal causality

• Making excessive self-references

• Catastrophizing

• Engaging in dichotomous thinking 


Types of Cognitive Distortions

Whitbourne, S. K. (2023). Abnormal psychology: Clinical perspective on psychological disorder. (10th ed.). McGraw Hill.

Types of Cognitive Distortions Reference

Overgeneralizing

Seriously considering only situations of failure, defeat, frustration, or dispossession.

Using Selective Abstraction

When a person believes that they are guilty of every aversive event that happens to them or to the people whom the person is close to. 

Taking Excessive Responsibility

The assumption that if a situation happened before, it would always happen. 

Assuming Temporal Causality

Believing that your imperfections and slips are the focus of people’s attention. 

Making Excessive Self-References

Continuously expecting the worst and being convinced of its occurrence.

Catastrophizing

The tendency to perceive things as one extreme or another instead of a mix of both. 

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