How to Coach Yourself and Others Influencing, Inter Personal and Leadership Skills | Page 121

But first a description of the Cognitive Distortions:
1.

All or nothing thinking – the tendency to think in absolute terms, like ‘always’,
‘never’ and every.

2.

Overgeneralisation – taking isolated situations and applying them in a wide
generalised way.

3.

Mental filter – focussing exclusively on one, usually negative aspect and ignoring the
larger, more positive picture.

4.

Discounting the positive – continually ignoring positive aspects for arbitrary reasons.

5.

Jumping to conclusions - assuming something negative where there is actually no
evidence to support it. Two specific subtypes are also identified:
a.

Mind reading - assuming the intentions of others

b.

Fortune telling - guessing that things will turn out badly

6.

Magnification – usually magnifying the negatives and minimising the positives – my
psychiatrist nicknames it ‘Awfulisation’.

7.

Emotional reasoning – making decisions on how you feel not based on objective
reality.

8.

Should statements – when you concentrate on what you feel you should do or ought
to be rather than the reality of the situation. (Often called ‘wishful thinking’).

9.

Labeling – related to overgeneralisation, where you assign labels to someone rather
than specific behaviour. One example could be rather than saying – I made a
mistake, you say I am a loser because of the mistake.

10. Personalization and blame – assuming yourself or others are the cause of things
when that may not have been the case.

4. Techniques for Disputing Irrational Beliefs (DIBS)
Albert Ellis, Ph.D
If you want to increase your rationality and reduce your self-defeating irrational beliefs,
you can ask yourself the following questions and carefully thinking through (not merely
parroting!) the healthy answers.
1. WHAT SELF-DEFEATING IRRATIONAL BELIEF DO I WANT TO DISPUTE AND
SURRENDER?
Illustrative answer: I must receive love from someone for whom I really care.
2. CAN I RATIONALLY SUPPORT THIS BELIEF?
Illustrative answer: No.
3. WHAT EVIDENCE EXISTS OF THE FALSENESS OF THIS BELIEF?
Illustrative answer: Many indications exist that the belief that I must receive love from
someone for whom I really care is false:
a) No law of the universe exists that says that someone I care for must love me
(although I would find it nice if that person did!).
b) If I do not receive love from one person, I can still get it from others and find
happiness that way.
c) If no one I care for ever cares for me, which is very unlikely, I can still find enjoyment
in friendships, in work, in books, and in other things.