Mental processes can go off course in many directions. This list is from the office health center, adapted from and credited to an early edition of the book Thoughts & Feelings: The Art of Cognitive Stress Intervention by Matthew McKay, Martha Davis and Patrick Fanning:
- All or Nothing Polarized Thinking: Things are black or white, fatalistic, extreme. There is no middle ground.
- Overgeneralization: General conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence.
- Mental Filter: Filter out positive aspects and focus on what doesn't work. Negative aspects are magnified.
- Mind Reader: Project fears and vulnerabilities into the thoughts of others. You think you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do.
- Personalization: Owning more than your share of the responsibility for a problem. Thinking that everything people say or do is some reaction to you.
- Approval Seeking: Neglect your own needs to gain approval from others.
- Perfectionism: Unrealistic high standards even if outcome has little consequence.
- Should Statements: Ironclad rules about how you and others should act. "Oughts", "shoulds" and "musts" leave you feeling inadequate, pressured or resentful.
- Disqualifying Positive Feedback: Inability to accept compliments, appreciation.
- Catastrophizing: You expect disaster. Predict negative outcomes without enough information. Ask a lot of "what if" questions.
- Blaming: Hold people responsible for your pain or blame yourself for everything.
- Myth of Change: Expect others will change to please you if you pressure or cajole enough.
- Poor Me: Perceive yourself as a victim.
- Fallacy of Fairness: You feel resentful because you think you know what is fair yet other people don't agree with you.
- Labeling: Generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgment.
Yes, they mostly come down to imbalance, self-focus, over-judging, negativity, and a few other categories of bias ... but they're not bad as a qualitative start!
(cf. Don't Panic (2010-11-17), Worksheets as Training (2013-04-02), NLP (2013-05-06), Oblique Life (2013-08-14), Emotional Intelligence (2015-04-14), Negative Thinking Patterns (2015-08-28), ...) - ^z - 2015-09-28
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