Identifying Faulty Thinking Styles Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (Exercise Included)

Apr 30, 2020

One of the basic premises of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is what you think will affect how you feel and what you do. Your thoughts, feelings, and behavior are connected. Changing your behavior could be as simple as changing your thoughts about a situation (reframing it), therefore changing the way you feel about it, which produces another set of behaviors.

Try This Now: CBT Assessment

Think of a situation where things didn't work out so well for you.

How did these thoughts make you feel?

What action did you take as a result?

Your current thinking style may have come about because of faulty perceptions instead of actual events. Recognizing faulty thinking styles may help you see where that perception went wrong, and you can begin changing your outlook.

Faulty Thinking Styles:

Generalizing the Specific - When you come to a broad conclusion based on a single incident. Using words like, "Always," "Never," "Nobody" and "Everyone."
Mind-reading - Believing that other people are having negative thoughts about you.
Magnification and Filtering - Amplifying negative details about circumstances and ignoring the positive ones
Polarized thinking - "All or nothing" thinking. Extremes of good or bad
Catastrophizing - Always expecting disaster
Personalization - Thinking everything somebody else does or says is a direct reaction to you
Blaming - Holding other people responsible for your problems. "She has made me feel awful." "That business ruined my life."
Self-blame - You feel responsible for pain around you. Blaming yourself in somebody else's situation
Rigid Thinking - Being resentful because you believe you are right, try to prove it, and expect others to change their views.

Understanding that these types of thinking styles are not accurate representations of the truth will help you in dismissing and disputing negative thoughts about yourself and others.

Try this exercise and fill out the form:

Event:

Negative Thought or Belief and its Strength (out of 100%):

Type of Faulty Thinking Style:

Negative Feelings and How Badly You Felt (out of 100%):

Evidence to Support this Thought:

Is There Another Way to Look at This:

Evidence for Alternative View:

How Much Do You Still Believe in Initial Thoughts (out of 100%):

This exercise assesses the accuracy of negative thoughts and challenges your mind to work harder and find other facts or positive events that dispute the negative. Having balanced critical thinking and reframing the negative event are important techniques that you can start working on as you learn how your mind works through continuously filling out different Thought Records and practicing Thought Awareness.

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