Handout: Cognitive Errors in Depression
Handout: Cognitive Errors in Depression
Using this sheet, write in examples of each cognitive error that you observe in your friends, roommates, acquaintances, or even yourself. Make sure you explain how the example reflects the cognitive error.
Cognitive Error Description Example
Overgeneralization Drawing a global conclusion
on the basis of a single fact
Selective abstraction Focusing on a single, insignificant
detail while ignoring
more important features
of a situation
Personalization Incorrectly taking responsibility
for negative events in the world
Magnification and
minimization Evaluating a situation by magnifying
small, negative events and minimizing
large, positive events
Arbitrary inference Drawing a conclusion
in the absence of sufficient evidence
Dichotomous thinking Seeing things as reflecting one extreme
or another (that is, black versus white)