METACOGNITION

THINKING ERRORS 19

2009-07-25T14:56:00.001-06:00

15 Common Cognitive Distortions
By JOHN M. GROHOL, PSY.D.
July 2, 2009

What’s a cognitive distortion and why do so many people have them? Cognitive distortions are simply ways that our mind convinces us of something that isn’t really true. These inaccurate thoughts are usually used to reinforce negative thinking or emotions — telling ourselves things that sound rational and accurate, but really only serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves.

For instance, a person might tell themselves, “I always fail when I try to do something new; I therefore fail at everything I try.” This is an example of “black or white” (or polarized) thinking. The person is only seeing things in absolutes — that if they fail at one thing, they must fail at all things. If they added, “I must be a complete loser and failure” to their thinking, that would also be an example of overgeneralization — taking a failure at one specific task and generalizing it their very self and identity.

Cognitive distortions are at the core of what many cognitive-behavioral and other kinds of therapists try and help a person learn to change in psychotherapy. By learning to correctly identify this kind of “stinkin’ thinkin’,” a person can then answer the negative thinking back, and refute it. By refuting the negative thinking over and over again, it will slowly diminish overtime and be automatically replaced by more rational, balanced thinking.

Cognitive Distortions
Aaron Beck first proposed the theory behind cognitive distortions and David Burns was responsible for popularizing it with common names and examples for the distortions.

1. Filtering.

We take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. For instance, a person may pick out a single, unpleasant detail and dwell on it exclusively so that their vision of reality becomes darkened or distorted.

2. Polarized Thinking.

Things are either “black-or-white.” We have to be perfect or we’re a failure–there is no middle ground. You place people or situations in “either/or” categories, with no shades of gray or allowing for the complexity of most people and situations. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.

3. Overgeneralization.

We come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If something bad happens once, we expect it to happen over and over again. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.

4. Jumping to Conclusions.

Without individuals saying so, we know what they are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, we are able to determine how people are feeling toward us. For example, a person may conclude that someone is reacting negatively toward them and don’t actually bother to find out if they are correct. Another example is a person may anticipate that things will turn out badly, and will feel convinced that their prediction is already an established fact.

5. Catastrophizing.

We expect disaster to strike, no matter what. This is also referred to as “magnifying or minimizing.” We hear about a problem and use what if questions (e.g., “What if tragedy strikes?” “What if it happens to me?”).

For example, a person might exaggerate the importance of insignificant events (such as their mistake, or someone else’s achievement). Or they may inappropriately shrink the magnitude of significant events until they appear tiny (for example, a person’s own desirable qualities or someone else’s imperfections).

6. Personalization.

Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to us. We also compare ourselves to others trying to determine who is smarter, better looking, etc. A person sees themselves as the cause of some unhealthy external event that the were not responsible for. For example, “We were late to the dinner party and caused the hostess to overcook the meal. If I had only pushed my husband to leave on time, this wouldn’t have happened.”

7. Control Fallacies.

If we feel externally controlled, we see ourselves as helpless a victim of fate. For example, “I can’t help it if the quality of the work is poor, my boss demanded I work overtime on it.” The fallacy of internal control has us assuming responsibility for the pain and happiness of everyone around us. For example, “Why aren’t you happy? Is it because of something I did?”

8. Fallacy of Fairness.

We feel resentful because we think we know what is fair, but other people won’t agree with us. As our parents tell us, “Life is always fair,” and people who go through life applying a measuring ruler against every situation judging its “fairness” will often feel badly and negative because of it.

9. Blaming.

We hold other people responsible for our pain, or take the other track and blame ourselves for every problem. For example, “Stop making me feel bad about myself!” Nobody can “make” us feel any particular way — only we have control over our own emotions and emotional reactions.

10. Shoulds.

We have a list of ironclad rules about how others and we should behave. People who break the rules make us angry, and we feel guilty when we violate these rules. A person may often believe they are trying to motivate themselves with shoulds and shouldn’ts, as if they have to be punished before they can do anything.

For example, “I really should exercise. I shouldn’t be so lazy.” Musts and oughts are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When a person directs should statements toward others, they often feel anger, frustration and resentment.

11. Emotional Reasoning.

We believe that what we feel must be true automatically. If we feel stupid and boring, then we must be stupid and boring. You assume that your unhealthy emotions reflect he way things really are — “I feel it, therefore it must be true.”

12. Fallacy of Change.

We expect that other people will change to suit us if we just pressure or cajole them enough. We need to change people because our hopes for happiness seem to depend entirely on them.

13. Global Labeling.

We generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgment. These are extreme forms of generalizing, and are also referred to as “labeling” and “mislabeling.” Instead of describing an error in context of a specific situation, a person will attach an unhealthy label to themselves.

For example, they may say, “I’m a loser” in a situation where they failed at a specific task. When someone else’s behavior rubs a person the wrong way, they may attach an unhealthy label to him, such as “He’s a real jerk.” Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded. For example, instead of saying someone drops her children off at daycare every day, a person who is mislabeling might say that “she abandons her children to strangers.”

14. Always Being Right.

We are continually on trial to prove that our opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and we will go to any length to demonstrate our rightness. For example, “I don’t care how badly arguing with me makes you feel, I’m going to win this argument no matter what because I’m right.” Being right often is more important than the feelings of others around a person who engages in this cognitive distortion, even loved ones.

15. Heaven’s Reward Fallacy.

We expect our sacrifice and self-denial to pay off, as if someone is keeping score. We feel bitter when the reward doesn’t come.

So now that you know what cognitive distortions are, how do you go about undoing them? Read how in Fixing Cognitive Distortions.

References:

Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapies and emotional disorders. New York: New American Library.

Burns, D. D. (1980). Feeling good: The new mood therapy. New York: New American Library.

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THINKING ERRORS 18

2009-07-25T14:49:00.001-06:00

The question is, are there any signs that this group can see that fits? Or is this a bunch of hog-wash?

These thinking errors are in the Public Domain, free for everyone’s use. Their purpose, so prison personnel believe, are to educate inmates on the ways we believe, manipulating us into thinking that we have these thoughts. Perhaps inmates think differently, more creatively at times, but the interesting thing is, just about everyone has what the system calls “thinking errors”. So relax, enjoy the reading, and don’t take anything too seriously.

1. Energy – The criminal is extremely energetic. His or her high level of mental activity is directed to a flow of ideas as to what would make life more interesting and exciting.

2. Fear – Fears in the criminal are widespread, persistent, and intense; especially fears of being caught for something, fear of injury or death, and fear of a putdown.

3. Zero State – This is the periodic experience of oneself as being nothing, “a zero”; a feeling of absolute worthlessness, hopelessness, and futility.

4. Anger – Anger is a basic part of the criminal’s way of life. He or she responds angrily to anything interpreted as opposing what he or she wants. Anger is, for the criminal, a major way of controlling people and situations.

5. Pride – Criminal pride is an extreme high evaluation of oneself. It is the idea that one is better than others, even when this is clearly not the case. Criminal pride preserves his or her rigid self-image as a powerful, totally self-determining person.

6. The Power Thrust – Criminals need control and power over others. The greatest power excitement is doing the forbidden and getting away with it. The need for power, control, and dominance shows in all areas of their lives. The occasions when criminals appear to show an interest in a responsible activity are generally opportunities for criminals to exercise power and control.

7. Sentimentality – Criminals are often excessively sentimental about their mothers, old people,
invalids, animals, babies, their love attachments, and plans for the future

8. Religion – Criminals use religion to support their way of thinking and their criminality. Their religious ideas are usually very literal and concrete. Religion (like sentimentality) does not consistently deter criminal thinking or actions, but does support the criminal’s self-image as a good and decent person.

9. Concrete Thinking – Criminals tend to think in terms of particular objects and events, rather than general and abstract concepts.

10.. Fragmentation – This is a very basic feature of the criminal personality. It refers to radical fluctuations in the criminal’s mental state that occur within relatively short periods of time. There is a pattern of starting something, and then changing one’s mind. Criminals will make commitments with sincerity and great feeling, and then break these commitments within the hour. They may feel sentimental love for their children, and then take their money to buy drugs. Their personality is a collection of distinct, isolated, and contradictory fragments.

11. Uniqueness – Criminals emphasize their total difference from other people. They feel themselves to be special, “one of a kind.

12. Perfectionism – Criminal’s have extreme standards of perfection, although he or she applies theses standards sporadically and inconsistently.

13. Suggestibility – Criminals are (1) very suggestible with respect to any behavior that leads to what they want; (2) very resistant to suggestion toward responsible thinking and behavior.
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14. The Loner – Criminals lead a private, secretive life; one against the world (including fellow criminals). They feel themselves to be apart from others, even if outwardly they are active and gregarious.

15. Sexuality – Criminals have plenty of sexual experience, but little in the way of sensual gratification or competence in performance. Conquest is essential, and a partner is regarded as a possession.

16. Lying – Criminal’s lying is a way of life. Lying is incorporated into his or her basic make up and feeds other criminal patterns. More common than premeditated lying, is habitual lying, which becomes automatic. The criminal defines reality with his or her lies, and so maintains control.

17. The Closed Channel – In treatment, an open channel of communication requires disclosure, receptivity, and self-criticism. Instead, the unchanged criminal is secretive, has a closed mind, and is self-righteous. If therapy for the criminal is to be effective, an open channel between the criminal and his or her therapist must be established.

18. “I can’t” – Criminals say, “I can’t” to express a refusal to act responsibly. At the same time they believe that there is nothing they can’t do if he or she wants to. Criminal’s say, “I can’t” to escape accountability for what he or she does.

19. The Victim Stance – When criminals are held accountable for their irresponsible actions, they blame others and portray themselves as a victim. The world does not give them what they think is essential, so they view themselves as poorly treated and thus a victim.

20. Lack of Time Perspective – Even more than wanting what they want when they want it, criminals demand immediate possession and success. They must be the best, have the best, right now.

21. Failure to Put Oneself in Another’s Position – Criminals demand every consideration and every break for themselves, but rarely stop to think about what other people think, feel, and expect.

22. Failure to Consider Injury to Others – Criminals lives involve extensive injury to those around them. However, they do not view themselves as injuring others. When held accountable, they regard themselves as the injured party.

23. Failure to Assume Obligation – The concept of obligation is foreign to criminal thinking. Obligations interfere with what they want to do. Obligation is viewed as a position of weakness and vulnerability to other’s control. Obligations are irritating to the criminal, and if pressed, he or she will respond with resentment and anger.

24. Failure to Assume Responsible Initiatives – The criminal declines to take responsible initiatives because (1) responsible initiatives fail to provide the excitement and power thrust of forbidden activities, (2) they do not provide a guarantee of success and triumph, and (3) they are often afraid that accepting responsible tasks will expose their lack of knowledge and ineptness.

25. Ownership – When criminals want something that belongs to someone else, it is as good as theirs. “Belonging” is established in their minds, in the sense that they feel perfectly justified in getting their way.

Criminals consider themselves decent people with the right to do whatever suits their purpose. They view the world as their oyster and view people as pawns or checkers, waiting to be dealt with as they wish. This thinking is habitual and without malice.

26. Fear of Fear – Criminals are fearful of fear and contemptuous of fear. When they discern fear in others, they point it out scorn it, and exploit it. When fear occurs in them, it is a put-down, destroying their self-esteem. This applies also to the many states that denote degrees of fear- doubt, concern, apprehension, and anxiety. They deny these in themselves but when they occur in others, the criminal is ready to pounce.

27. Lack of Trust – Although criminals do not trust others, they demand that others trust them. There are times when their trust of others is sincere, but this is only one of the many fragments of their personalities. It does not last.

28. Refusal to Be Dependant – Like anyone else, criminals depend on other people for some things in life. However, they do not see themselves this way. They fail to believe that a degree of independence is a necessary part of existence. To themselves, dependence is a weakness; lt would render them vulnerable.

29. Lack of Interest in Responsible Performance – Criminals are not interested in responsible tasks that don’t offer immediate excitement. They find responsibility boring. When they do become interested in a responsible project their interest is short-lived, unless they feel the excitement of being a conspicuous success.

30. Pretentiousness – Criminals do little to achieve, but carry tremendously inflated ideas about their capacities. They are, or will be the best, never that they will do their best. They are right and others are wrong, “I usually get mad… if I hear somebody say anything wrong. I usually try to set them straight.” When confined they regard themselves as more knowledgeable than prison staff and seize every opportunity to teach others.

31. Failure to Make an Effort to Endure Adversity – “Effort” refers to doing things that are contrary to what one prefers to do. In this sense, criminals expend little effort, though they may expend tremendous energy doing what they want to do. They refuse to endure the adversity of responsible living. The main adversity to criminals is failure to be a big shot. Adversity is anything that is not going their way. Criminals escape from “adversity” into criminal thought action, which is exciting.

32. Poor Decision Making for Responsible Living – In important personal decisions there is no sound reasoning, fact-finding, consideration of costs, or options. Criminals are reluctant to ask a question about non-criminal activities, because they view it as a put–down to reveal their ignorance. If their pretensions and expectations are controverted by the facts, they do not want to hear them.

33. Corrosion and Cutoff - Criminals may be deterred from criminal activity by a sense of

conscience, a sincere wish to change and by sentimental, religious, or humanitarian feeling, as well as, by fear of getting caught. Criminals overcome these deterrents to their criminality by the processes of corrosion and cutoff.

Corrosion – A mental process in which deterrents are slowly eliminated until the desire to commit a criminal act outweighs the deterrent factors. This is criminal scheming. In this process a criminal’s sentiments, ideals and fears gradually give way to the desire for a criminal activity.

Cutoff – A mental process that eliminates deterrents from consideration completely and instantaneously. The gradual process of corrosion is completed by the final cutoff of fear and other deterrents to crime. Cutoff is a mental process that produces fragmentation (Number 10). Criminals radically move instantaneously from one mental state to another.

34. Building Up the Opinion of Oneself as a Good Person – Criminals believe that they are good and decent people. They reject the thought that oneself is a criminal. Performing sentimental acts towards others enhances the criminal’s view of oneself as good. The image of themselves as good people gives them, in turn, a license for more crime, and postpones the recurrence of the zero state.

35. Deferment – Criminals defer or “put things off” in three distinct areas. (1) They carry with them the idea of an ultimate crime, the “big score,” but defers enacting it. (2) They have the idea that one day they will quit crime, go straight and settle down, but that day is constantly deferred. (3) They have a habit of deferring the minor routine responsibilities of life – paying a bill, writing a letter, filing a tax return.

36. Super optimism – A criminal’s mind works in such a way that a possibility or an assumption is an accomplished fact--an idea is a reality. If someone tells the criminal “maybe” he regards it as a promise. Anything that he or she decides to do is as good as done. The criminal uses cutoff to eliminate fear and doubt. The result is that as he or she approaches a criminal activity; the state of absolute confidence is reached. Superoptimistic, there is not a doubt in his mind. Similarity, if he does decide to become a responsible person, he is Superoptimistic of his or her success. Once this decision is made, the criminal will believe that change has already accrued.

THINKING ERRORS 17

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Stress Management for Health Course

Stress Self Test - Stress Resistant Thinking

Stress Self-Test © Professor Cary Cooper PhD

Circle the appropriate number to show how often you have been troubled by the following:

0 = Never/rarely; 1 = Occasionally; 2 = Frequently; 3 = Always/nearly always

1. Constantly getting annoyed with people.	1	2	3
2. Difficulty in making decisions.	1	2	3
3. Loss of sense of humour.	1	2	3
4. Suppressed anger.	1	2	3
5. Difficulty concentrating.	1	2	3
6. Inability to finish one task before rushing into another.	1	2	3
7. Feeling you're the target of other people's animosity.	1	2	3
8. Feeling unable to cope.	1	2	3
9. Wanting to cry at the smallest problem.	1	2	3
10. Not interested in doing things after coming home from work.	1	2	3
11. Waking up and feeling tired after an early night.	1	2	3
12. Constant tiredness.	1	2	3
13. Lack of appetite.	1	2	3
14. Craving for food when under pressure.	1	2	3
15. Frequent indigestion or heartburn.	1	2	3
16. Constipation or diarrhoea.	1	2	3
17. Insomnia.	1	2	3
18. Tendency to sweat for no good reason.	1	2	3
19. Nervous twitches, nail biting, etc.	1	2	3
20. Headaches.	1	2	3
21. Cramps and muscle spasms.	1	2	3
22. Nausea.	1	2	3
23. Breathlessness without exertion.	1	2	3
24. Fainting spells.	1	2	3
25. Impotence or frigidity.	1	2	3
26. Eczema.	1	2	3

Remember this is only a rough guide.

Total score between 0-25 (Not many symptoms of Stress)

Total score between 26-52 (Moderate Stress)

Total score between 53-78 (Very High Stress)

THINKING ERRORS 16

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Stress Management for Health Course

Rational Beliefs Inventory

Directions: For each of the following 20 statements select either 1 (most like me), 2 (somewhat like me), 0 (not sure), or 3 (not like me) to describe your feelings.

	1. I need approval from family, friends, and acquaintances.
	2. Things that happen to me in the past control who I am.
	3. I must be good at everything I try.
	4. I have little control over my emotions.
	5. Other people and things tend to make me feel bad.
	6. I deal with tough problems by avoiding them.
	7. Things should really turn out better than they do.
	8. My motto is, "Never volunteer."
	9. I can't seem to get fearful things off my mind.
	10.Unfair people are rotten and should be blamed for their misdeeds.
	11.It is terrible when things dont go my way.
	12.I really need love and approval from everyone.
	13.Worrying about fearful things helps me cope with them.
	14.Because the past strongly influences who we are, it determines our present emotions and behaviour.
	15.It's really easier to avoid problems and responsibilities than to face them.
	16.I am happiest when I don't commit myself to things.
	17.There are some people who are just plain rotten and deserve all the misery they get.
	18.People really should do their best at everything.
	19.There really is a perfect solution to every problem thats why its so terrible when it isn't found.
	20.It's horrible when things in my life are not the way I want them to be.

Scoring: Add all of the numbers you placed in the left-hand column.

The lower the score, the more stress inducing your thinking is.

0 - 20:

If you scored in this range, you tend to believe in many of the 10 illogical beliefs of Rational Emotive Therapy.

20 - 40:

You have a moderately illogical belief system.

40 - 60:

You tend to be logical and rational.

Remember this is an estimate of how your beliefs about life match up to the 10 illogical beliefs of Rational Emotive Therapy.

All of us share some of these beliefs at times.

(Blonna R. Coping with Stress in a Changing World)

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Stress Management for Health Course
Stressful Thinking Self Test




Read each of the ten short scenarios below. Choose one of the four statements which follows each scenario that most aptly describes what your thinking would be if you found yourself in this situation. Simply circle the number that precedes the statement you choose. 1. Your significant other is meeting you for lunch at 12 noon. Its now 12:30, your first thoughts are: 1. He/she probably got stuck in traffic and will be here any minute. 2. It's annoying when people are late. 3. I'm worried, maybe he/she got in an accident. 4. Perhaps something terrible has happened. 2. You are waiting at an unusually long traffic light. There is no other traffic in sight. Your thoughts are: 1. Completely unrelated to the wait (i.e., this song on the radio is my favourite.) 2. This wait is a bit annoying. 3. This is the longest light I've ever seen. 4. Who's the idiot who programmed this light to be so long? There are no cops around; maybe I'll just go through it. 3. Your boss asks you to work late on Friday. As you nod your head yes, your thoughts are: 1. This is a nuisance but it doesn't happen too often so I can deal with it this time. 2. This seems unfair; why doesn't he do it himself? 3. This is awful; I shouldn't have to stay late on a Friday. 4. That jerk, who does he think he is? This kind of request is intolerable. 4. Your mother calls and simply inquires why you haven't visited her lately. Your thoughts are: 1. She's right, it has been a while. 2. It's a bit annoying to feel as though I have to visit her. 3. She does this to me on purpose, I know it, she knows it makes me feel guilty. 4. I can't stand it when she asks me that question. It makes me crazy! 5. You get turned down for a promotion. It's been a year since your last one. Your thoughts are: 1. It's OK, I can't expect a promotion every year. 2. I can't help it. This bothers me. 3. They don't appreciate me in this place and this is proof of it. 4. I think my boss has it out for me. I hate this job. 6. Your neighbour has his stereo turned up all the way. You can hear it through the walls of your apartment. Your thoughts are: 1. I guess he's having a good time. If it goes on much later I'll call him and ask him to turn it down. 2. It bothers me when he plays it that loud. I'll just call him and let him know. 3. This isn't right, he should have more respect for his neighbours. 4. The jerk. Anybody who is that inconsiderate probably wont even bother to turn it down if I do call him. 7. Your significant other finds you've left a wet towel on the bed and asks that you never do it again. Your thoughts are: 1. He/she's right. I'll make an effort to change. 2. He or she is over reacting, but I can deal with it. 3. Why is he/she always criticizing me? 4. He/she should talk, he/she's just as bad as I am. Maybe worse! 8. It rains on the day you planned to have an outdoor picnic. Your thoughts are: 1. Well postpone it to another day. No big deal. 2. I was counting on good weather. This is annoying, but I guess I can deal with it. 3. I can't believe it rains on the one day I plan to have a picnic! 4. This stinks. It always rains when I plan something like this. Now we'llnever be able to have this picnic! 9. You're leaving your house for work and discover your car has a flat tyre. Your thoughts are: 1. I can change this myself or call AA or get someone to help me. I'll be on my way in no time. 2. What a nuisance. Flat tyres are a pain, but I can get this fixed and I won't be too late. 3. This is the worst. I just can't deal with this. 4. Why does this stuff alwayshappen to me? My boss is never going to understand why I am late again. 10. You discover that a letter has been sent which you signed, but has several mistakes in it. It was typed by your assistant and signed by you personally. Your thoughts about this are: 1. I should have proofed the letter more carefully when I signed it. Next time I'll be more careful. 2. These kind of mistakes are annoying, but it happens. I can deal with it. 3. He should have proofed the letter before he gave it to me. It's his fault. 4. This is awful. I can't stand it when letters go out with typos. It makes us look like idiots. Total Score ___________ Find out what your score means: To compute your score simply add up all the numbers you circled. If your score is: 10-14 You are the most rational thinker on the planet. You should be considered for sainthood. 15-19 You are very rational. Life is full of annoying surprises, but for the most part you handle them well. 20-24 You are rational most of the time. Sometimes you let disturbances get under your skin which causes you to be irrational. 25-29 You are on the border. Your thinking is sometimes irrational. Try to look at things more objectively. Think things through. 30-34 You are easily upset. Reading a book on cognitive therapy may be helpful. 35-40 Your thinking is often irrational. You get upset and angry at the drop of a hat. You feel the world is treating you unfairly. You may need professional help working through your distorted thinking. (Ref: Audio Vision/Stress Stop.com, The Cognitive Restructuring Workbook for Managing Stress 1999)

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Stress Management for Health Course

Conclusion - Stress Resistant Thinking

"The bombing of the Sir Galahad was the most pivotal point in my life. It dictated that my life would change, but to what degree it changed, was up to me, without even realising it I was the master of my destiny. How I made sense of it, how I made use of it, how I moved forward was up to me . . . ." (Simon Weston, Guardsman in Welsh Guards, badly burnt in Falklands War, Daily Express, 31^stMarch 1999)

Congratulations you have now completed the final session of The Stress Management for Health Course and you now have some tools to help you deal with the challenges of life. Learning to manage stress is a journey not a destination. Stress Management techniques are not a panacea for all ills so don't expect any stress to miraculously disappear over night or to never, ever recur again. In order for them to work you need to use them regularly and like any other skill in order to be good at stress management you need to regularly practice the techniques.

Fortunately many of us will not have to deal on a daily basis with the major life event stressors like the death of a loved one, a life event stressor like loosing a loved one is painful to all and our perception about the loss is not distorted, however most of the stressors in our lives come from the daily hassle stressors which we encounter on a daily basis and these daily hassles are thought to make up the majority of stressors in most peoples lives. Having said all of this there are people who deal with large stressors like living with chronic health problems like Simon Weston and others have had to do. Yet despite all the physical and psychological stress problems related to his severe burns, his approach to dealing with these difficulties is an example and an inspiration to us all. His explanatory style and attitude will help to reduce the potential negative impact on his life. Some people seem to naturally have this skill but it can also be learned if you dont naturally possess that skill. The stress management techniques outlined in this course are not all theory they have been scientifically proven and successfully used in clinical practice to help people cope with severe life threatening stressors such as breast cancer, chronic pain, aids etc. As Merle Miller sums it up very eloquently, "Everyone has their burden. But what counts is how you carry it."

To suffer stress is not a sign of weakness, nobody is immune to developing stress but to fail to deal with it could be the real weakness. Stress has been described as a chic, modern problem but there is nothing chic about chronic stress. Chronic, unmanaged stress is a potent solvent, unchecked it can have the potential to dissolve a person's life, their families lives and harm their psychological, physiological and social well being. It's a complicating factor in many, many health problems but perhaps one of the worst things it can potentially do is ruin a person's quality of life.

The central tenant of this course is that we are not impotent in the face of stress. In situations where the cause of stress cannot be removed eg such as living with a chronic illnes then stress management techniques can help us to cope much more effectively.

If however, you find that your stress problem is not resolved it would be a good idea to consult a stress management practitioner for one to one stress advice. The International Stress Management Association is the leading stress management organisation in the United Kingdom and it holds a register of stress management practitioners throughout the UK. If you wish to locate your nearest stress management practitioner in private practice then send an email giving your address to:

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Stress Management for Health Course

Example Stressful Thinking Identification Log

Example ABCDE, Cognitive Restructuring, Stressful Thinking/Feelings Identification Log

(A)

Activating event

(B)

Beliefs/self talk, Automatic Negative Thoughts

(C)

Consequences/ emotions

(D)

Dispute, Automatic Negative thoughts

(E)

Effectivenew approach

· Making mistake at work

· “I’ll get the sack”

· “I’m stupid”

· Worry

· Anxious

· We all make mistakes nobody is perfect. My boss won’t judge my competence on one single event

· When I make a mistake in the future I know I won’t get the sack

· Giving a presen-tation

· “They won’t like it

· I’ll make a fool of myself

· Embarrassed

· Frightened/ scarred

· Most people do presentations and know how challenging it can be. I have done previous presentations OK

· I’ll learn relaxation techniques to reduce my stress before and during the presentation

· Car breaks down

· “Why does this always happen to me”

· “It will cost me a fortune to repair”

· Frustrated

· These hassles happen to everyone not just me, it’s part of owning a car. It’s a pain but it’s not the end of the world

· I’ll service my car more regularly

· I can learn care maintenance at night school

· Your son/ daughter fails an exam

· “I’m a failure as a parent”

· “They won’t get a good job”

· Depressed

· Not passing an exam doesn’t mean we are failures as parents. They can always retake the exam

· I can help them to revise

· I can get them extra tuition

· Partner has not returned home at usual time

· “They have been in an accident and are in hospital”

· Frightened

· Anxious

· They may have had to stay late at work. They have been late before and have not been involved in an accident

· I can ask my partner to phone if they are late

THINKING ERRORS 12

2009-07-25T14:15:00.001-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course
Questions to Ask to Restructure Stressful Thinking




Questions to Ask Yourself to Help Identify and Restructure Stressful Thinking Q1. What are my thoughts about the event? Q2. What Stressful Thinking Errors could I be making? (See Stressful Thinking Errors Sheet) Q3. What Core Beliefs do I have that may be influencing my perception of the event? (see Core Beliefs Sheet) Q4. Are my thoughts on the event accurate? Q5. What objective evidence/objective facts are there to support my view? Q6. What alternative views are there of the event? Q7. Am I underestimating my ability to cope with the event? Q8. What is the worst that can happen if my view of the event is correct? Q9. What actions can I take to influence the event? Q10. What is the worst thing that could happen to me or my family and how does this event compare to that?

THINKING ERRORS 11

2009-07-25T14:14:00.001-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course

Stressful Core Beliefs Sheet

Stressful Core Beliefs

· Demand for Approval

We believe that others must always treat us well. We must have love or approval most of the time to be worthy.

· High Self Expectations

We believe that we must achieve success in everything we do to be worthwhile; if we make mistakes we are a failure as a person.

· Dependency

We believe we need to depend on someone or something stronger than ourselves because we cannot cope with life by ourselves.

· Helplessness

We believe our present problems, feelings and behaviours are caused by our past, this is how we are and we are helpless to change it.

· Emotional Control

We believe our feelings are caused by external pressures such as other people so we cannot control or change our emotions.

· Blame Proneness

We believe ourselves and others, must not do anything wrong, that certain behaviours are awful or wicked and deserve punishment.

· Personal Idealism

We believe that the world and other people must be fair and just at all times.

· Frustration Reactivity

We find it difficult and frustrating when things or people are not the way we would like them to be.

· Problem Avoidance

We believe that it is easier to avoid rather than face life’s difficulties and responsibilities.

· Discomfort Anxiety

We want to be comfortable, without pain, and free from anxiety at all times; we believe we would find it difficult to cope otherwise.

· Perfectionism

We want to be in control of all situations and believe things must go well; people and thingsshould turn out better than they do.

· Anxious Over Concern

We feel anxious when faced with uncertain or risky situations. We constantly worry and are on our guard in case they might happen.

· Over Caring

We feel we should become upset over our own and other people’s problems, those who don’t are uncaring, and uncompassionate people.

· Fear of Losing Control

When stressed or anxious we worry we are not in control, “going mad”, having a “nervous breakdown” and/or be admitted to hospital.

THINKING ERRORS 10

2009-07-25T14:13:00.000-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course

Stressful Thinking Errors Sheet

Stressful Thinking Errors

· Black and White Thinking (All or Nothing Thinking)

We see ourselves, others, and events as all right or all wrong, all good or all bad, we are either totally successful or a total failure, no halfway measure.

· Overgeneralisation

We make conclusions based on single events, we use one negative experience to predict all other outcomes.

· Catastrophising

We presume the worst will always happen, we won’t be able to cope and it will be awful.

· Mental Filter

We see the negatives and not the positives of a situation, we discount compliments and focus only on bad remarks or reviews.

· Magnifying or Minimising (Binocular Vision)

We blow things out of proportion making mountains out of molehills, we minimise our strengths and maximise our weaknesses.

· Personalisation and Blame

When something goes wrong we totally blame ourselves or we may totally blame other people for an event.

· Labelling and Mislabelling

We call ourselves or others by names, not based on facts, but on one or two negative incidents.

· Jumping to Conclusions (a. Mind Reading)

We make negative interpretations about what others are thinking without knowing all the facts and without checking things out.

· Jumping to Conclusions (b. Fortune Telling)

We think we know how events will turn out without evidence to support our views.

· Emotional Reasoning

We let feelings guide our interpretations, reasoning from our emotions instead of looking for facts.

· Discounting the Positive

We discount positive things about ourselves and others.

· Hindsight Thinking

We look back and wish we had done things differently – “If I knew then what I know now.”

· What ifs

We often ask “what if” something happens, fearing the worst outcome which may stop us from looking at practical solutions.

· Egocentric Thinking

We want to persuade others to think and believe the same way we do. (This is about us influencing other’s thoughts)

· Being Right

We think we are correct in our thinking, we discount other evidence and the ideas of others. (This is about our thoughts)

· Control Error (a and b)

a. We see ourselves as helpless and externally controlled OR

b. We feel responsible for everything, carrying the world on our shoulders.

· Change Error

We think we have to change others to achieve our happiness. We may blame, demand, withhold and trade to achieve this.

· Fairness Error

We judge peoples actions by what we think is fair or not fair, feeling resentful when they don’t act in a way we think is fair.

· Heaven’s Reward Thinking

Our decisions and actions are based around others needs, often ignoring our own needs, imagining that by doing the right thing we will gain our reward someday.

· Unrealistic Comparisons

We compare ourselves to other people, work colleagues etc, and view them as being more successful, better at coping, happier, better at handling life than we are.

THINKING ERRORS 9

2009-07-25T14:12:00.000-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course

How to Reduce Thinking Induced Stress

Cognitive Restructuring "A technique in which people can learn how to break their habits of automatically thinking negative thoughts and instead introduce affirming, remembered, wellness inducing thoughts." (Professor Herbert Benson MD)

Cognitive Restructuring, also known as reframing, is a cognitive behavioural technique that can be used as a tool for identifying, challenging and altering the stressful thinking that fuels the fight/flight response, replacing these stress-inducing thoughts with a more flexible, more accurate, less rigid, less stress-inducing thinking style.

As we have previously discussed how chronic stress causes us to think more negatively and pessimistically, the more stress we are under the more negatively we think, which in turn increases our stress; it is a vicious cycle. Cognitive restructuring is a technique that helps to break this cycle. Cognitive restructuring is not about putting a positive spin on a negative situation but it is about seeing the entire situation accurately, good and bad. Cognitive restructuring can be a bit difficult to get our head around because it can be difficult to see how the way we think influences the way we feel, yet experience and numerous research studies have shown that it does.

Cognitive Behavioural Stress Management is a powerful tool. It is useful to help us deal with the most common forms of stress, the daily hassles. For example in one research study cognitive restructuring led to a fall in levels of the stress hormone cortisol in research subjects blood streams. It has not only been used to treat stress, anxiety and depression but has also been successfully used to help people cope with major life stressors and serious life threatening conditions such as aids and breast cancer. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy isn't a panacea for all ills but for the more serious forms of stress it can still be useful in helping us to cope with the stress more effectively.

There are cases where we cannot remove the stressor, for example looking after an elderly relative with chronic health problems, but the techniques outlined in this course will help us to cope better.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy cannot be covered here in a few web pages. As a treatment it is given on a 1 to 1 basis, over 10 - 15 sessions. We only cover the basic bones here. If you are interested and want to learn more there is an excellent book written by two cognitive therapists called Mind over mood.

The ABCDE Model of Restructuring

Earlier in session 5 we discussed the A+B=C equation concerning A, the Activating event, B, the beliefs we hold about that event which lead to C, the consequences of those beliefs. Now we are going to go a stage further in the ABC model which is the same as the A+B=C equation. Now we are adding two more steps called D, which stands for dispute and E which stands for effective new thinking.

Cognitive Restructuring (ABCDE Model)

As we have already discussed, chronic stress can affect our thinking, distorting it and make any stressors more of a threat than they are. We have discussed how our thoughts, beliefs and perceptions can heighten our stress. We have also discussed how important it is to begin to become aware of our negative self-talk. Now all this information is brought together into Cognitive Restructuring which teaches us to not just accept our thoughts as being accurate (as we usually do), but to test them for their accuracy. We do this by adding (D) for dispute or debate to the original A+B=C stress equation and we also add (E) for effective, less stress inducing thinking which is created when we learn to see events more clearly.

How to Use the Cognitive Restructuring Sheets included in this Session

In this section we bring together what you have already read about automatic negative thoughts, stress inducing thinking, core beliefs, ABC log,etc. and look at one form to help you restructure your stressful thoughts. We have included a Log in this section which is a continuation of the ABC Log that you started to use in the first section of this session. To complete this new "Stressful Thinking Identification Log" it is useful to copy out the following sheets - "Stressful Thinking Errors Sheet" (which is a summary of Stress Inducing Thinking Errors), "Stressful Core Beliefs Sheet" (which summarises the Stressful Core Beliefs) and "Questions to ask to Restructure Stressful Thinking." These forms are all on the next three pages of this session. Have these in front of you for reference as you complete the log. Our "Example of How to Complete Stressful Thinking Identification Log" is also useful giving you examples of how the form could be completed. The Stressful Thinking Identification Log is a continuation of the ABC Log used in the first section of this session, but it adds D and E to help you Dispute your stressful thoughts/beliefs and think of Effective new approaches to deal with the stressors. It may be useful to use the same problems you used on the initial ABC Log and continue these through to D and E. Then start to use the log for further problems that you encounter, using it as a tool to help you restructure your thinking.

THINKING ERRORS 8

2009-07-25T14:11:00.000-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course

Example of ABC, Stressful Thinking/Feelings Identification Log

Example ABC, Stressful Thinking/Feelings Identification Log

(A)

Activating event, write down details of the event

(B)

Beliefs/self talk, thoughts, attitudes, images, assumptions, opinions about event at (A), write down automatic negative thoughts

(C)

Consequences/Emotions, write down your resulting unpleasant emotions eg stress, anxious, tense, angry, frustration

· Making a mistake at work

· “I’ll get the sack”

· “I’m stupid”

· Worry

· Anxious

· Giving a presentation

· “They won’t like it

· I’ll make a fool of myself

· Embarrassed

· Frightened/scared

· Car breaks down

· “Why does this always happen to me”

· “It will cost me a fortune to repair”

· Frustrated

· Your son/daughter fails an exam

· “I’m a failure as a parent”

· “They won’t get a good job”

· Depressed

· Partner has not returned home at usual time

· “They have been in an accident and are in hospital”

· Frightened

· Anxious

THINKING ERRORS 7

2009-07-25T14:10:00.001-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course

The ABC Model of Stress

"Many of us do not realise that our perceptions about events or our thinking style and our attitudes can also contribute to our levels of stress."

(Professor C. Cooper)

Thoughts Influence Feelings

Many of us are unaware that our thoughts play a large role in influencing how we feel. This is an important concept because we may not always be able to influence what happens to us but we do have a powerful influence in how we interpret what happens to us and how we deal with it. No matter what happens to us nobody can take this away from us.

Some really difficult and painful things may happen to us. The late Dr Viktor Frankl was a Psychiatrist imprisoned by the Nazis in the death camp at Auschwitz. He saw and experienced, with so many others, the barbarism of the Nazi's treatment of the Jewish people, and he saw how other camp inmates reacted to these difficult circumstances of death and torture.

He said:

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." (Viktor Frankl)

Our thoughts have a very powerful effect on our feelings and therefore on the level of stress we encounter. Not everybody exposed to a challenging event will find it stressful. Yes, life is unfair but it is not so much the challenging event that leads to the development of stress, it is how we deal with the potential, challenging stressors.

People often believe it is external events that cause us stress but this is not totally correct. As Psychologist Doctor Richard Lazarus says "stress resides neither in the situation nor in the person it depends on a transaction between the two." An individual's views, perception, beliefs and expectations play a large role in whether he/she thinks an event is stressful or not. What do our thoughts have to do with our feelings? In reality our thoughts about a challenging event will play a large role in whether we think the event is stressful and also play a role in whether we think we can cope with the event.

We tend not to pay much attention to our thoughts however our thoughts and the way we think can and do have a potential influence over our health. Research has shown, for example that watching a horror film on television triggers the release of higher levels of stress hormones. In realisty we are not at threat from a vampire, but our fearful thoughts trigger the fight/flight response. On the other hand other studies have shown that watching a relaxing comedy film, where our thoughts are less negative than in the horror film, reduces the levels of stress hormones in our blood stream. So from this we can see how our thoughts play a role in stress.

To show how this works the ABC model has been developed and we will now show you how it works.

A + B = C Model

Most of us tend to think that challenging events occur and they automatically trigger the fight/flight response, however this is not correct. There is another stage that happens after the event and influences whether the event will trigger the fight/flight response. Dr Albert Ellis, founder of a form of talking therapy called Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (very similar to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), identified the role that our thoughts, beliefs and self-talk play in triggering the fight/flight response. He called this the A+B=C equation.

A = Activating Event

Activating events are the triggers that cause us potential stress. As previously mentioned in Session 1 of this course there are different types of stressors. There are the Life Event stressors, such as the death of a loved one, which are fortunately fairly rare; the majority of us would find these life events difficult and stressful. Then there are the more common stressors called Daily Hassles. Not everybody exposed to these daily hassles finds them stressful and this is partly because our individual beliefs, thoughts and perceptions about the daily hassles will determine if the event is stressful to us or not.

B = Beliefs

When we are born we come into this world with no beliefs, opinions, views or perceptions. From the moment we can talk and listen we start to learn the opinions of our parents, our peers, school etc. We automatically start to use these beliefs as a template to interpret ourselves, other people and the world in general. The problem is that other people may not necessarily have the same template, views and beliefs as us. We use our beliefs to interpret what is happening to us. These beliefs may be accurate, possible, flexible and optimistic, these types of beliefs and thinking skills can help to reduce stress, however a lot of beliefs can be in the form of automatic negative thoughts and if they are rigid, negative, inflexible and pessimistic then this can exacerbate any stress we are under. Fortunately it is possible to change our beliefs and so reduce our stress, the skills to do this are in Session 5.

C = Consequences

The final part of the A+B=C equation is Consequences. Consequences refer to the feelings that occur as a consequence of our beliefs and self-talk in response to the activating event. The consequences can be in the form of stress, anxiety, depression, anger, irritability, aggression, fear, worry, and frustration etc.

"We can't always influence what others may say or do to us - but we CAN influence how we react TO it!"

One example of the A + B = C equation:

There are two people on a train that stops and is held up for 30 minutes. One of the people opens his brief case and gets on with some work and calmly waits until the train starts moving again. While the other person sits, fumes, thinks that it is disgusting and incompetent of the railway company, and that this state of affairs should not happen. The same stressor, yet two entirely different responses, one will trigger the release of stress hormones, the other response won't. Getting upset and angry didn't make the train move any faster, and it's the individual's beliefs, thoughts and perceptions that are the key.

It can be useful to break down an event such as the example above using the A+B=C equation:

A= Activating Event

In this case the delayed train is the activating event.

B= Beliefs

In the example the first person seems to have no fixed beliefs about whether trains should run on time or not he thinks "Yes, it's a pain, but getting upset won't make the train move any faster and luckily this doesn't happen every day, we shall be moving soon.

The second person however, believes "trains should always run on time and it's disgusting and incompetent of the railway company if they do not".

C= Consequences

The outcome for the two people in our example is that the first person does not get stressed, he gets out his work and in fact sees the delay as an opportunity to get some work done which otherwise he may not have had the time to do in the office or may have had to take home to do, so he has positive consequences to his beliefs about the activating event.

The second person however has become very stressed, feeling very upset, very angry, his response has triggered his fight/flight response but it has not made the train move any faster and he will probably continue to feel angry and upset long after the train has resumed and got him to his destination; he has not been able to use the time effectively and will probably have difficulty being efficient in his work later in the day because of this stress response during the train journey.

Many stressful events that happen to us can be looked at in this way using the A+B=C equation to help us see how what we thought and believed about a situation led to the way we felt and the level of stress we experienced.

Changing our self-talk to a less rigid, less pessimistic, more positive, thinking style will help us cope more effectively and make us more able to deal with the challenges we encounter. Later on in Session 5 we will be discussing a Cognitive Behavioural Stress Management Technique called Cognitive Restructuring, which is a method we can use to help challenge our thinking for its accuracy and help us substitute more realistic beliefs and thoughts.

THINKING ERRORS 6

2009-07-25T14:08:00.001-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course

Stressful Core Beliefs

"Our beliefs create the world that we live in, and our beliefs and thoughts therefore also create the stress we experience. If we think something is safe and possible to conquer, then it is. But if we think the opposite then that will be our experiences"

(Janice Calnan, Psychotherapist)

Stress and the Role of Beliefs (Rules for Living)

Introduction

We come into this world with no beliefs and as soon as we start to learn we begin to develop from our parents, peers, school, media, a set of beliefs and views that we use to interpret ourselves, other people, events, experiences and the world in general. All of us have a belief system with different Rules for Living that we use on a daily basis to interpret, measure and deal with ourselves, other people and the world in general. We have beliefs about how things are, how people should behave, about ourselves and events that happen to us. We develop these rules for living based on what we learn as we are growing up, on our own life experiences, as well as from other people and the culture we live in. A lot of these beliefs are held unconsciously and so most of the time we don't give them much thought, although they do influence our thinking. They can be realistic or unrealistic, helpful or unhelpful and we can keep these under control. However when we are stressed these stress exacerbating thinking errors and beliefs can become less controllable.

We have literally thousands of these beliefs, a few examples can include:

· People can't change

· Nobody likes me

· I'm stupid

· I'm a bad parent

· I'm not pretty

· I'm ugly

· I'm not clever

· I'm no good

· I'm lazy

· I'm a failure

· I'm useless

· I'm not good enough to get that job

· I'll never get a boy/girlfriend

· I must be perfect at all times

· People don't like me

· People are always unkind

· I'll never be happy

· If anything can go wrong it will

· Life's a bitch and then you die

· I'm not good at mixing

· I'm worthless

These beliefs are not 100% factual they are personal opinions. The problem is that because we think them, we believe they are correct and they create for us a psychological straight jacket, and if they are rigid and inflexible they can cause resentment, anger and frustration and can exacerbate any stress we are under. These beliefs are held by many of us, they are not a sign of illness, but when we are having difficulties with stress, they can compound the stress we are under.

The philosophy of western culture can play a large role in forming unrealistic beliefs and expectations. A lot of our thinking arises from growing up and living in a world where performance standards are set high, praise for a job well done is seen as encouraging an undesirable swollen head, and criticism of mistakes is never far away. Clinical psychologist Dr Oliver James, author of the book Britain on the Couch, partly blames the increased incidence in Stress, Anxiety and Depression on unreasonable performance standards.

Many common stress-induced beliefs include the words ought, should or must, for example:

· I ought to have done better

· Life should be fair

· I must get all this done today

Some common Shoulds and Musts are:

Shoulds (Shouldisms)

· I should drive an expensive car.

· He should be more polite.

· I should be a better tennis player.

· She should look where she is going when she drives.

· I should always look perfect when I go out.

· He should never interrupt.

· I should have done better.

· I should be living in a better house by now.

· I should be earning more money.

Musts (Mustisms)

· I must not make a mistake.

· I must cope with everything.

· Things must go well.

Awfulising

Other beliefs and thoughts often use the words "awful", "terrible", or "can't stand it", which usually exaggerate the reality of the situation.

Challenging our Beliefs

Our beliefs can be a potent source of internal stress so we can help lower our stress by looking at our thoughts and beliefs and assessing them for their accuracy. However many of our beliefs can actually prevent us from taking action and often we have never been taught how to assess our thinking. We should remember our thinking is not fixed for life; our beliefs are not irreversibly etched for evermore in stone, we can change them. We will be talking about how to challenge our beliefs later in the course.

Some Examples of Common Stress Inducing Beliefs

We have many types of beliefs, some of the most common ones include:

Demand for Approval

In the Demand for Approval Belief we tend to think that others must always treat us well. We must have love or approval most of the time, from everybody who is important to us, otherwise we are not worthy. The problem with this belief is that we don't like everybody and therefore it's unrealistic to want everybody to like us. Just because somebody doesn't like us doesn't mean we are failing.

High Self Expectations

In the High Self Expectations Belief we tend to believe that we must achieve success and be thoroughly competent in everything we do to be worthwhile. We should never make mistakes; if we do make mistakes or perform poorly we are a failure as a person. Instead of realising everybody makes mistakes and what we should be concerned with is learning from our mistakes. The fact that we are concerned about our behaviour shows that we are not such a bad person.

Dependency

In the Dependency Belief we tend to think we need to depend on someone or something stronger than ourselves because we cannot cope with life by ourselves. Instead of the realising that it is better to take the risks of thinking and acting independently.

Helplessness

In The Helplessness for Change Belief we tend to think that our past is all-important and that because something once strongly influenced our life, it is the cause of our present problems today. The past will keep determining our feelings and behaviour, we cant change, this is how we are and were helpless to do anything about it. Instead of realising that everyone has the capacity to change.

Emotional Control

In the Emotional Control Belief we tend to think that our feelings are caused by external pressures such as other people and therefore we cannot change the way we feel or have any control over our emotions. Instead of realising that by altering our perception and thinking we can have a positive effect on our emotions.

Blame Proneness

In the Blame Proneness Belief we tend to think that people, including ourselves, must not do anything wrong and that certain acts or behaviours are awful or wicked; those who behave badly (including ourselves) should be severely punished. Instead of realising that certain acts are inappropriate or antisocial, and that people who perform such acts are behaving stupidly, ignorantly, or neurotically and would be better helped to change rather than punished.

Personal Idealism

In the Personal Idealism Belief we tend to think that the world and other people must be fair and just.

Frustration Reactivity

In the Frustration Reactivity Belief we tend to find it difficult when things or people are not the way we would like them to be. Instead of realising that it would be more helpful if we were able to change or control conditions so that they become more satisfactory, or if that is not possible, to temporarily accept their existence.

Problem Avoidance

In the Problem Avoidance Belief we tend to think that it is easier to avoid rather than face life's difficulties and responsibilities. Instead of realising that very often this leads to more complex problems than if we had been proactive and dealt with the issues in the first place.

We Must Be Free From Anxiety At All Times (Discomfort Anxiety)

In the Discomfort Anxiety Belief we would rather be without pain, comfortable and free from anxiety at all times; we think that we would find it difficult to cope if this was not the case. Instead of realising that this belief often stops us doing things that would be beneficial to ourselves or others and that in fact situations are very often not as bad as we had perceived they would be.

Perfectionism

In the Perfectionism Belief we tend to seek a right and perfect solution to every problem and wish to be certain, and in control, of all situations. We believe people and things should turn out better than they do and that things must go well. Instead of realising that the world is full of probability and chance and that one can still enjoy life despite this.

Hypersensitive to Potential Dangers (Anxious Over Concern)

In the Anxious Over Concern Belief we tend to feel anxious or hypersensitive when faced with risky, uncertain or potentially dangerous situations. We worry about them constantly and are on our guard in case they might happen. Instead of realising that the worry about a situation is often much worse than the situation itself, and things often don't turn out as badly as we had thought they would.

Over Caring

In the Over Caring Belief we tend to think that we should become upset over our own and other peoples problems and that those who don't are uncaring, and uncompassionate people.

Fear of Losing Control

In the Fear of Loss of Control Belief we tend to worry that when we are stressed or anxious, we may be going mad and wont be in full control of ourselves; we fear we will have a nervous breakdown and/or be admitted to hospital.

THINKING ERRORS 5

2009-07-25T14:04:00.000-06:00

Stress Management for Health Course

Stress Inducing Thinking Errors (Cognitive Distortions)

"We don't see the world as it is, we see it as we are."

(Unknown)

As we have learnt, our thoughts play an influential role in our perception of the stress that we are under. Some of these stress inducing thoughts are what Clinical Psychologists call Cognitive Distortions. These stress inducing thinking errors can exacerbate any stress we are under and it is important to identify and challenge them.

You will find below some of the most common of these thinking errors. Write down any which you think might apply to you.

1. Black and White Thinking (All or Nothing Thinking)

In black and white thinking we tend to see things, ourselves and other people as being all wrong or all right, all good or all bad. We are a total success or we are a total failure. We are either completely 100% right or we are 100% wrong. The reality is we all make mistakes. Life is a learning process and nobody is perfect. For example, if we make one mistake we see ourselves as having failed.

2. Overgeneralization

In overgeneralization when we experience a single, negative event such as not getting a job that we applied for, we tend to think we will never get a job ever again. We make a mistake and we think we can never do things right. We make conclusions based on single events. For example "Everything I do turns out wrong."

3. Catastrophising

When we catastrophise we automatically think the worst is going to happen, it will be awful and we will not be able to cope. For example, "My relationship broke up, so nobody will want a relationship with me again in the future."

4. Mental Filter

In mental filter we see all the negatives and seldom see the positives. We filter out all the good things that life has and overly focus on negative parts of life. We pick on a single negative detail and dwell on it. We overly dwell on the negative and totally ignore the positives. We make predictions about what will happen to us in the future based on little information. For example, someone says we have done well, but we discount this because we say it was only said to be nice, it wasn't really meant; or 100 good reviews and one bad review and we focus on the single bad review.

5. Magnifying or Minimising (Binocular Vision)

In magnifying/minimising we blow things out of proportion. We make mountains out of molehills. We tend to minimise the strengths and qualities of ourselves and others and magnify and exaggerate the supposed weaknesses, mistakes and errors.

6. Personalisation and Blame

In personalisation and blame if something bad happens we assume it is our fault. We tend to blame ourselves solely for situations and events that we were not entirely responsible for. The opposite example is we take no personal responsibility; we blame other people and situations. Example "My relationship broke up so it must be all my fault", or "My relationship broke up so it must be all his/her fault."

7. Labelling and Mislabelling

In labelling/mislabelling we call ourselves and other people by negative names for our/their supposed shortcomings. These are not based on the facts, but on only one or two negative incidents. Example "I'm an idiot", "She's a moron", "I'm stupid".

8. Jumping to Conclusions

In jumping to conclusions we tend to make a negative interpretation even though we don't have all the facts to support our view.

a. Mind Reading We think we know what other people are thinking about us, for example, that they think we are stupid, incompetent, and may disapprove of us; we do not bother to check this out. For example, if a friend walks by on the other side of the street we mind read and think I've offended her, so she is ignoring me.

b. Fortune Telling We think that events will turn out bad without having any evidence to support this view. For example, I'll fail my exams, or I won't go for the job I want because I know I won't get it.

9. Emotional Reasoning

In emotional reasoning we let our feelings guide our interpretation of reality. We think that what we are feeling must be accurate, so if we feel we are a failure then we must be; if we feel we are ugly then we must be. We do not look for facts to support what we feel; we have a feeling and just accept it. If we feel we are weak, useless, stupid we just accept it. We may be so stressed that we have difficulty with our emotions and therefore conclude that our marriage is not working, when in fact it is our blunted emotions that are causing the problem. We reason from how we feel, I feel an idiot, so I must really be one.

10. Discounting the Positive

In discounting the positive we trivialise the positive things about ourselves and others saying that these positives do not count for much. For example your partner says you are good at something, but you say they are only saying it because they are your partner.

11. Hindsight Thinking

In hindsight thinking we look back at decisions we made in the past and make judgements about the decision we made. We often think we should have handled things better, but hindsight thinking is always 20/20. Looking back with the benefit of hindsight we may now make a different decision with our current knowledge, however we made the decision at that time with the evidence, knowledge and experience we had at that time. For example, "When I left University I should have gone for a different type of job, all the work problems I've got now I wouldn't have if I had taken that job."

12. What ifs

In what if thinking, we keep asking what if something happens, and we are not satisfied by any of the answers we get. ". . .but what if I don't do the three point turn properly?" or "what if I mess up the emergency stop?", "what if the examiner is a tyrant?", "what if . . .

13. Egocentric Thinking

In egocentric thinking we think that it is important that we persuade others to think the same way we do. (This is about other peoples thinking) For example, "I must persuade him to want to vote the same as me if he is going to be my friend." Or "People must think the way I do."

14. Being Right

In being right error we think we are correct in our thinking, we discount other evidence and the ideas of others. (This is about our thinking). For example, "I know I am right, so I won't read the leaflet about the other political party."

15. Control Error

In control errors there could be two distortions:

a. We see ourselves as helpless and externally controlled, we remain stuck, unable to affect our own life, or anything else in the world. We see evidence of human helplessness all around us. Something else is responsible for our pain, loss or failure. We find it difficult to find or work on solutions. For example, "I won't get financial stability or have a nice house until I find a rich man to marry."

b. We feel the opposite of the above, we feel responsible for everything, carrying the world on our shoulders, we are totally responsible for ours and others happiness. For example, "It's my fault that she hates her job, I'm not a very good boss."

16. Change Error

In change error we strive to change the views of others; we blame, demand, withhold and trade to achieve the change in others we require. Usually the other person feels attacked and pushed around and probably does not change at all. We think we have to change others to achieve our happiness. For example, "You must get better results in your exams than I did when I was at school; I'll buy you a car if you do."

17. Fairness Error

In fairness error we tend to judge peoples actions by what we think is fair or not fair. We feel resentful when someone does not act towards us in a way that we think is fair. Their version of what is fair is probably different from our version of what is fair. For example, "If my husband really cared about how I felt, he would take on more responsibility for the house and the children."

18. Heaven's Reward Thinking

In heaven's reward thinking we do the right thing to gain our reward, we sacrifice and slave imagining that we are collecting brownie points that we can cash in some day, making our decisions and actions around what others need, often ignoring our own needs. For example, "If I look after my own needs I am being selfish."

19. Unrealistic Comparisons

In unfair comparisons we compare ourselves to other people, work colleagues etc, and view them as being more successful, better at coping than we are, are happier than we are, and better at handling life than we are.

Identifying thinking errors is one step towards improving our stress resistant thinking; the next step is to learn the techniques to challenge and restructure our thinking.

THINKING ERRORS 4

2009-07-25T14:02:00.000-06:00

The brain isn’t a flawless piece of machinery. Although it is powerful and comes in an easy to carry container, it has it’s weaknesses. A field in psychology which studies these errors, known as biases. Although you can’t upgrade your mental hardware, noticing these biases can clue you into possible mistakes.

How Bias Hurts You

If you were in a canoe, you’d probably want to know about any holes in the boat before you start paddling. Biases can be holes in your reasoning abilities and they can impair your decision making.

Simply noticing these holes isn’t enough; a canoe will fill with water whether you are aware of a hole or not. But by being aware of the holes you can devise methods to patch them up. The entire domain of the scientific method has largely been an effort to overcome the natural inclination towards bias in reasoning.

Biases hurt you in a number of areas:

Decision making. A number of biases can distort decision making. The confirmation bias can lead you to discount information that opposes existing theories. Anchoring can throw off negotiations by forcing you to sit around an arbitrary value.
Problem solving. Biases can impede your creativity when solving problems. A framing bias can cause you to look at a problem too narrowly. And the illusion of control can cause you to overestimate the amount your actions influence results.
Learning. Thinking errors also impact how you learn. The Von Restorff effect can cause you to overemphasize some information compared to the whole. Clustering illusions can also trick you into thinking you’ve learned more than you actually have.

Here are some common thinking errors:

1) Confirmation Bias

The confirmation bias is a tendency to seek information to prove, rather than disprove our theories. The problem arises because often, one piece of false evidence can completely invalidate the otherwise supporting factors.

Consider a study conducted by Peter Cathcart Wason. In the study, Wason showed participants a triplet of numbers (2, 4, 6) and asked them to guess the rule for which the pattern followed. From that, participants could offer test triplets to see if their rule held.

From this starting point, most participants picked specific rules such as “goes up by 2“ or “1x, 2x, 3x.” By only guessing triplets that fit their rule, they didn’t realize the actual rule was “any three ascending numbers.” A simple test triplet of “3, 15, 317“ would have invalidated their theories.

2) Hindsight Bias

Known more commonly under “hindsight is 20/20“ this bias causes people to see past results as appearing more probable than they did initially. This was demonstrated in a study by Paul Lazarsfeld in which he gave participants statements that seemed like common sense. In reality, the opposite of the statements was true.

3) Clustering Illusion

This is the tendency to see patterns where none actually exist. A study conducted by Thomas Gilovich, showed people were easily misled to think patterns existed in random sequences. Although this may be a necessary by product of our ability to detect patterns, it can create problems.

The clustering illusion can result in superstitions and falling for pseudoscience when patterns seem to emerge from entirely random events.

4) Recency Effect

The recency effect is the tendency to give more weight to recent data. Studies have shown participants can more easily remember information at the end of a list than from the middle. The existence of this bias makes it important to gather enough long-term data, so daily up’s and down’s don’t lead to bad decisions.

5) Anchoring Bias

Anchoring is a well-known problem with negotiations. The first person to state a number will usually force the other person to give a new number based on the first. Anchoring happens even when the number is completely random. In one study, participants spun a wheel that either pointed to 15 or 65. They were then asked the number of countries in Africa that belonged to the UN. Even though the number was arbitrary, answers tended to cluster around either 15 or 65.

6) Overconfidence Effect

And you were worried about having too little confidence? Studies have shown that people tend to grossly overestimate their abilities and characteristics from where they should. More than 80% of drivers place themselves in the top 30%.

One study asked participants to answer a difficult question with a range of values to which they were 95% certain the actual answer lay. Despite the fact there was no penalty for extreme uncertainty, less than half of the answers lay within the original margin.

7) Fundamental Attribution Error

Mistaking personality and character traits for differences caused by situations. A classic study demonstrating this had participants rate speakers who were speaking for or against Fidel Castro. Even if the participants were told the position of the speaker was determined by a coin toss, they rated the attitudes of the speaker as being closer to the side they were forced to speak on.

Studies have shown that it is difficult to out-think these cognitive biases. Even when participants in different studies were warned about bias beforehand, this had little impact on their ability to see past them.

What an understanding of biases can do is allow you to design decision making methods and procedures so that biases can be circumvented. Researchers use double-blind studies to prevent bias from contaminating results. Making adjustments to your decision making, problem solving and learning patterns you can try to reduce their effects.

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2009-07-25T14:00:00.000-06:00

Thinking Errors

How do those who hurt others think? In order to violate society’s legal and moral rules a person needs to change their way of thinking. They change their way of thinking so they do not have to think about how they are hurting others. When they change their thinking, they are using thinking errors. Thinking errors are “mistakes” in the way someone thinks. They use thinking errors so they are really not bad, or not hurting someone. Thinking errors are used in both criminal and non-criminal situations. Thinking errors allows a person to blame other people, not take responsibility for their behaviors and stops people from making positive changes.

In order to reduce the chance that you will hurt others again, youmust learn how to recognize thinking errors in yourself and in others. Everyday you will need to recognize your own thinking errors. The following is a list of thinking errors so that you can learn about your self.

Although everyone uses thinking errors, people that do not hurt others use intervention thoughts to stop their behaviors. If someone uses thinking errors without using intervention thoughts, it is likely that they will violate rules and boundaries. When we violate rules and boundaries someone is getting hurt. Below is a list of thinking errors that people may use in order to avoid taking responsibility for their behaviors. Remember if you think wrong, you will do wrong.

See if you can identify the ones you use most often.

1. Justifying
In avoiding responsibility for their behavior a person finds a reason for what they have done.
“He yelled at me so I had to hit him.”
“They all did it so why can’t I?”

2. Blaming
In order to avoid accepting one’s own faults, a person will find fault in another person and attempt to put responsibility for their own behavior on others. They find someone else or something else to be responsible. They blame others for what has happened to them.
“The principal had it out for me that’s why I got kicked out of school.”
“If my sister didn't leave her toys out, then I wouldn't take them.”

3. Excuse Making
A person will avoid being accountable for one’s actions by blaming situations or things for their own behavior.
“I was drunk when I lit that house on fire.”
“I couldn’t do my chores, because I had so much homework to do.”

4. Hopovers
In order to avoid taking responsibility a person will avoid the issue. They will shift the focus from oneself to someone or changing the topic of conversation to something else.
“Did you complete your homework?” “Did you know that in Arizona, they don’t have to do homework?”
“Why weren’t you home on time?” “What’s for dinner?”

5. Lying
This tends to be one of the most common thinking errors. A person will be deceptive and dishonest by falsification or altering the facts. There are three forms of lying:

Omission: Telling part of the truth, but omitting important information in order to have a better outcome.

“Did you go to school?” “Yes”. What he's leaving out is that he did not stay or he spent all day on the roof.

Commission: Saying something is true when it is not, or denying that something is true when it is.

“I completed my chores.”
“I did not smoke”

Assent: Faking agreement with someone in order to get them to leave you alone.

“Yeah, I will get my chores done today.” And he has no intention of doing so.

6. Victimstance
When a person is held accountable for their behavior they will portray them self as the victim. They act as though the world is against them. When playing the victim the person does not take responsibility for changing any behaviors, as they believe they are helpless to do so.
“These assignments are too hard for me.”
“I can’t play football because therapy sessions are during practice.”

7. Anger
When a person is held accountable for their behavior they will become angry in order to get the focus off of their inappropriate behavior and on to the anger. This allows people to focus on calming them down, or leaving them alone so they will not explode. Everyone has anger, however when someone uses anger to avoid taking responsibility for his or her behaviors this is a thinking error. It is similar to a hop-over in that the person is attempting to remove the focus from their behaviors.
“You told me I had to be here, I didn’t have to be happy about it.”
“I don’t want to talk about what happened last night.”

8. Puzzlement
If a person, acts puzzled or confused then others will help them, or not hold them responsible. People become confused, however when a person understands what is expected and acts confused in order to avoid their responsibility then this is a thinking error. For example, when you ask your adolescent to take out the trash and they only take out the kitchen trash. When asked the reason they took only the kitchen trash out their response is: “I did not know you meant to take all the trash out.” They are acting confused but they are aware of what you meant.

9. Uniqueness
The rules don’t apply to me. The person believes that they are different, or above others and do not have to follow the same rules as everyone else. People who use this thinking error has behaviors such as cutting in front of the line, not following simple rules. They believe the rules do not apply to them.

10. Catastrophizing
The person makes a situation bigger then it is. Thus it is too big for them to handle or resolve. This thinking error is similar to victim stance in that the person cannot resolve the problem. For example, if the boss is coming over for dinner and the person burns dinner. They immediately believe that their boss will think that they are incompetent, fire them and tell other potential employers of their incompetence and they will end up homeless. With this thinking they are unable to problem solve and do not take responsibility for their behaviors.

11. Minimizing
The person will make the problem seem smaller so they can avoid being accountable for their behaviors. By reducing or limiting the true significance of a hurtful behavior by comparing it with “worse behaviors”, the person is filtering out the effects on others and does not recognize the effects of their behaviors. When you hear the words only and just this indicates that this thinking error is being used.
“I was only ten minutes late.”
“It was just a little bit beer.”

12. Closed Channel
By secret keeping, closed mindedness, and self-righteousness, the person filters out incoming information. This thinking error is used to avoid facing information and opinions, which would require a change in attitudes or beliefs. When you are talking to someone and it feels like they are covering their ears, this thinking error is being used.

13. Vagueness
The person answers questions without giving information. Their answers are not specific and require additional questions to gain information.
“Did you complete the assignment?”
“Most of it.”
“Where have you been?”
“Out”

14. Super-Optimism
A person is unrealistic about what could happen in the future, and does not see any problems. By using this thinking error the person will not plan for problems, will not develop coping skills or will not develop interventions.
“I don’t need to study as I am going to the NBA.”

METACOGNITION

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Stress Self-Test © Professor Cary Cooper PhD

Total score between 0-25 (Not many symptoms of Stress)

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Total Score ___________

To compute your score simply add up all the numbers you circled.

If your score is:

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Q1. What are my thoughts about the event?

Q2. What Stressful Thinking Errors could I be making?

(See Stressful Thinking Errors Sheet)

Q4. Are my thoughts on the event accurate?

Q5. What objective evidence/objective facts are there to support my view?

Q6. What alternative views are there of the event?

Q8. What is the worst that can happen if my view of the event is correct?

Q9. What actions can I take to influence the event?

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The ABCDE Model of Restructuring

Cognitive Restructuring (ABCDE Model)

How to Use the Cognitive Restructuring Sheets included in this Session

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A + B = C Model

A = Activating Event

B = Beliefs

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Stress and the Role of Beliefs (Rules for Living)

Introduction

Challenging our Beliefs

Some Examples of Common Stress Inducing Beliefs

Demand for Approval

High Self Expectations

Dependency

THINKING ERRORS 5

In what if thinking, we keep asking what if something happens, and we are not satisfied by any of the answers we get. ". . .but what if I don't do the three point turn properly?" or "what if I mess up the emergency stop?", "what if the examiner is a tyrant?", "what if . . .

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THINKING ERRORS 3