SLS 1510 - Midterm Exam Review and Study
Guide Questions and Correct Answers
Cognitive Distortions
Define and identify
All-or-nothing thinking
You see things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you
see yourself as a total failure
Overgeneralization
You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
Mental filter
You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all
reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.
Disqualifying the positive
You reject positive experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason or other. In
this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday
experiences.
Jumping to conclusions
You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly
support your conclusion.
Mind reading
, You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don't bother to
check it out.
The Fortune Teller Error
You anticipate that things will turn out badly and feel convinced that your prediction is an
already-established fact.
Magnification (catastrophizing) or minimization
You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else's
achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable
qualities or the other fellow's imperfections). This is also called the "binocular trick."
Emotional reasoning
You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: "I feel
it, therefore it must be true."
"Should statements"
You try to motivate yourself with should and shouldn't, as if you had to be whipped and
punished before you could be expected to do anything. "Musts" and "oughts" are also
offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct should statements toward
others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment.
labeling and mislabeling
This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a
negative label to yourself: "I'm a loser." When someone else's behavior rubs you the wrong
way, you attach a negative label to him: "He's a damn louse." Mislabeling involves describing
an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.
Guide Questions and Correct Answers
Cognitive Distortions
Define and identify
All-or-nothing thinking
You see things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you
see yourself as a total failure
Overgeneralization
You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
Mental filter
You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all
reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.
Disqualifying the positive
You reject positive experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason or other. In
this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday
experiences.
Jumping to conclusions
You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly
support your conclusion.
Mind reading
, You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don't bother to
check it out.
The Fortune Teller Error
You anticipate that things will turn out badly and feel convinced that your prediction is an
already-established fact.
Magnification (catastrophizing) or minimization
You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else's
achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable
qualities or the other fellow's imperfections). This is also called the "binocular trick."
Emotional reasoning
You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: "I feel
it, therefore it must be true."
"Should statements"
You try to motivate yourself with should and shouldn't, as if you had to be whipped and
punished before you could be expected to do anything. "Musts" and "oughts" are also
offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct should statements toward
others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment.
labeling and mislabeling
This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a
negative label to yourself: "I'm a loser." When someone else's behavior rubs you the wrong
way, you attach a negative label to him: "He's a damn louse." Mislabeling involves describing
an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.
