| Subject: 7 errors in thinking method |
Author:
Thalia
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Date Posted: 07:02:38 04/29/09 Wed
In reply to:
Thalia
's message, "Pride and Love" on 06:17:07 04/28/09 Tue
7 ERRORS IN THINKING METHOD
"Let REASON go before every enterprize, and counsel before every action."--Ecclesiasticus 38:33
7 ERRORS IN THINKING METHOD BASED ON COGNITIVE THERAPY
1) CLOSED-MINDED: Also called selective editing, selective attention, selective perception, selective abstracting, specific abstracting, mental filtering, mental editing, preferential selection, a cognitive bias, impaired abstract reasoning, ignoring, tunnel vision, being in a closed system, being closed to investigation or examination, "taking things out of context," "having blinders on," "seeing through rose colored glasses," "tailoring the facts to fit," "hearing only what you want to hear," and "seeing only what you want to see." This is the choosing of only some of your cognitions for conscious processing, and, usually, just the good or just the bad. It can be basing the whole on only one or a few details while ignoring more important or other existing facts. For example, you may have a negative bias. Thus, you find the negative, the fault, the error to focus on, so that you can maintain your negative evaluations. Twenty good things may have happened, but you consciously notice only the one or two negative things. Or you may be Pollyannaish and notice only the few good things while ignoring the many bad.
2) DISCREDITING: Also known as discounting, disqualifying, disconfirming, minimizing, undergeneralizing, the "binocular trick," being myopic or shortsighted, "missing the big picture," and "missing the forest for the trees." This is the error of reducing a lot of evidence to a little. For example, we can do this when we deny our compliments, achievements, and good qualities. Or, when we deny our faults, failings, and frailties. It is the error of under regarding the relative significance of events. Its opposite is dramatizing. Instead, consider other views.
3) DRAMATIZING: Also known as magnifying, exaggerating, awfulizing, catastrophizing, sensationalizing, "making the news newsworthy," "taking things too seriously," "making a federal case out of it," "blowing things out of proportion," and "making mountains out of mole hills." It is "missing the trees for the forest," "seeing only the big picture," or being presbyopic or hypermetropic. Catastrophizing occurs when you make too much of an event, and imagine doom and gloom as the result of it. For example, you may believe that some insignificant error of yours will cause you to be fired. We can also sensationalize events to be good omens, harbingers of good fortune when they are no more than ordinary events. For example, you may believe that some small thing you did well will get you promoted. It is the error of over regarding the relative importance or meaning of evidence or events. Its opposite is discrediting. Instead, reality test the predictions. Keep track of their accuracy.
4) JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: Also known as mind reading, fortune telling, assuming, just guessing, making arbitrary conclusions, making an invalid extrapolation, and making an arbitrary inference. It is the making of an inference about something that has little or no evidence to support it. We may assume that something is going to occur only to find out later that it had little or no chance to. It is making conclusions without much data to support them, and even in the face of greater contrary evidence. Instead, try other perspectives.
5) ONE-WAY-OR-THE-OTHER: Also called absolutistic, extremist, dichotomous, polarized, dualistic, judgmental, linear, one-dimensional, pigeonhole, either-or, all-or-nothing, and black-or-white thinking. It is thinking in categorical extremes, placing all of experience into one of two categories. Extremist thinking can be characterized as the intolerance of ambiguity. It leads to the narrowing and constricting of thought pathways, and is the insistence of categorizing everything into extremes, into opposites, into one end of some continuum. The middle ground and-or the majority of instances are not recognized. Instead of percentages it believes only in absolutes. Absolutes do occur, but not nearly as often as combinations of them or variations on them. Instead use both-and thinking. Often both ends of a continuum can be applied to the same event, and also additional information. Things can be good, neutral, bad, or mixes of each. Rarely is something a total loss, a total failure. Stop pigeonholing and instead note or use the following: gradations in between, moderate, intermediate, middle ground, intermediate range, some of the time, most of the time, but not all of the time, often, a few times, sometimes, a few times, partially, continuous dimensions, shades of gray, not discrete categories, on a continuum, relative rather than absolute standards, complexity, variability, diversity, bell curve, normal curve.
6) OVERGENERALIZING: Also called global, broad, nonspecific, diffused, vague, and all-inclusive thinking. This is the error of taking a little evidence to be the proof of a lot of things: all-izing. It is the making of a general rule based only on isolated incidents, only on limited personal experience. For example, you may judge your or another's behavior as always being inadequate if it was only a few times or even just once in the past. The classic examples are racism and sexism, for example, "All men are unfeeling brutes." Overgeneralizations are general conclusions about all situations based on a limited and unrepresentative sampling or polling. Instead, recognize the individuality and uniqueness of people, places, and things. Your experience alone is too little and too narrow to use to make rules, laws, standards, and definitions for most things. Walk a mile is someone else's shoes.
7) PERSONALIZING: Also known as being overly subjective, self-centered, the egocentric error, "taking things too personally," "can't see past your nose," and having false ideas of reference. This is the self-centered activity of taking events to have personal meaning when they do not. It is the self-referencing of events, the connecting of events to yourself when there are no real connections. For example, you may overhear a conversation and assume it is about you. Or you may think the weather is plotting against you. Instead, learn to take ego out of the picture. People are reacting to a lot more in life than just you! Get out of yourself and into action.
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