Cognitive Distortions

"If we can change the way we think, we can change the way we feel."

— Theme of cognitive therapy (Beck)

Unhelpful Thinking Patterns

Click cards to expand. Distinct from the Cognitive Bias Explorer — these are CBT thought patterns, not judgment heuristics.

Origins: Beck & Burns

Aaron T. Beck identified characteristic thinking errors in depression research in the 1960s–1970s (e.g., arbitrary inference, overgeneralization, selective abstraction, dichotomous thinking, personalization, magnification/minimization). These ideas became central to cognitive therapy and later CBT. Closely related are negative automatic thoughts (NATs)—quick, often unnoticed appraisals that pop into awareness and shape emotion; cognitive distortions describe the biased styles those thoughts can take.

David D. Burns popularized an accessible teaching list of about ten “unhelpful thinking styles” in Feeling Good (1980), including all-or-nothing thinking, mental filter, discounting the positive, jumping to conclusions, should statements, emotional reasoning, labeling, and personalization.

Research inventories often expand or factor-analyze these patterns into roughly 11–15 types; there is no single official count. This page presents a clear educational set grounded in Beck and Burns, with common clinical refinements (e.g., splitting mind reading and fortune-telling; naming catastrophizing).

Educational only — not a diagnostic checklist or substitute for therapy.

Selected citations

  1. Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9(4), 324–333. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720160014002
  2. Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. International Universities Press. (book; no DOI)
  3. Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. Guilford Press. ISBN 978-0-89862-000-9 (book; no DOI)
  4. Burns, D. D. (1980). Feeling good: The new mood therapy. William Morrow. (book; no DOI)
  5. Burns, D. D. (1999). The feeling good handbook (Rev. ed.). Plume. (book; no DOI; widely cited ten-style teaching taxonomy)
  6. Helmond, P., Overbeek, G., Brugman, D., & Gibbs, J. C. (2015). A meta-analysis on cognitive distortions and externalizing problem behavior. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 42(3), 245–271. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093854814552842
  7. Nieto, I., Robles, E., & Vazquez, C. (2020). Self-reported cognitive biases in depression: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 82, 101934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2020.101934

Related explorers: Cognitive Bias Explorer · Therapy Approaches · Fields of Psychology