Cbt unhelpful thinking styles

Unhelpful Thinking Styles

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Description

Our minds are always interpreting the world around us, trying to make sense of events. Sometimes we see the world accurately – as it really is – but often our minds take ‘short cuts’ and our thinking can become biased. These biases or ‘cognitive distortions’ can have powerful effects upon how we feel. Aaron Beck first identified distorted thinking in people suffering from depression in the 1960’s. It formed a central part of his cognitive theory of depression, and later, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

“[The depressed patient] tends to perceive his present, future, and the outside world (the cognitive triad) in a negative way and consequently shows a biased interpretation of his experiences, negative expectancies as to the probable success of anything he undertakes, and a massive amount of self-criticism”. Beck (1963)

Distorted thinking has been found to be associated with all types of mental health problems: from depression and anxiety to OCD and eating disorders (Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979; Clark & Beck, 2010). Cognitive therapy proposes that thoughts, feelings, and behavior are inter-related and that changing unhelpful thinking can lead to changes in feelings and behavior. The cognitive therapy approach is first to identify distorted thinking and then to test or alter distortions using cognitive restructuring techniques. Techniques such as examining the evidence for and against a thought, or decentering and taking the perspective of a compassionate other are helpful approaches.

Beck originally identified five distortions in 1963 and added two additional distortions in his 1979 book Cognitive Therapy of Depression. David Burns was an early student of Beck and helped to both expand the original list of cognitive distortions and describe them using accessible language. The ten most commonly presented cognitive distortions are:

All-or-nothing thinking describes thinking or acting in extremes. Burns describes it as the tendency to evaluate one’s personal qualities in extreme black-or-white categories.
Overgeneralization describes seeing a pattern based on too little data.
Mental filter or selective abstraction describes only paying attention to certain types of evidence. Beck described selective abstraction as “the process of focusing on a detail taken out of context, ignoring other more salient features of the situation, and conceptualizing the whole experience on the basis of this element”.
Disqualifying the positive describes the process of dismissing positive information, for example ‘writing off ’ positive events as a ‘fluke’ or saying that they don’t count.
Jumping to conclusions is described by Burns as “arbitrarily jumping to a negative conclusion that is not justified by the facts”. With the ‘fortune telling’ variant we imagine and predict that bad things will happen to us. With the ‘mind reading’ variant we assume that other people are thinking negatively about us.
Magnification and minimization describe how we exaggerate imperfections and errors while minimising achievements and strengths.
Emotional reasoning describes the process of taking one’s emotions as evidence of truth. For example feeling hopeless and concluding that a problem is therefore impossible to solve.
“Should” statements reflect our (often unreasonable) standards (“I should do this”, “I must do that”) and frequently lead to feelings of frustration, shame, or guilt.
Labeling and mislabeling describe the process of ‘summing up’ ourselves or others by labeling ourselves with tags such as “I am hopeless” or “I am stupid”.
Personalization and blame describe occasions when you conclude – arbitrarily – that what happened was your fault even when you were not responsible.

This Unhelpful Thinking Styles information handout gives details of 10 common cognitive distortions. Clients often find the label of ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ less pejorative than ‘cognitive distortions’ or ‘thinking errors’.

Instructions

Sometimes the thoughts we have don’t paint a fair picture of what has happened to us. For example, you might make a mistake one time and overgeneralize by thinking to yourself “I never get things right!”. This isn’t fair because it’s an exaggeration – it is likely that there are lots of times when you do things successfully. Or your partner might be late home from work and you jump to the conclusion – without any evidence – “they’ve been hurt in a car crash”. We call these thinking habits ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ because they can cause us suffering. This page describes the most common unhelpful thinking styles that are experienced by everyone at some point. I wonder, do you recognize yourself in any of these biases?

References

Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9(4), 324-333.
Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. Oxford: International Universities Press.
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive Therapy of Depression. New York: Guilford press.
Burns, D. (1980). Feeling good: the new mood therapy. New York: Morrow.
Clark, D.A. and Beck, A.T. (2010). Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: Science and practice. Guilford Press

Unhelpful Thinking Styles | Psychological & Counseling Services

When a person experiences an unpleasant emotion (e.g., sadness, anxiety), that emotion is usually preceded by one or more unhelpful thoughts.

These thoughts can be irrational in nature and influence your emotions. Everyone experiences unhelpful thoughts to some degree, but when a person is doing this automatically and consistently, these thoughts can lead to emotional distress. Below are some examples of unhelpful thinking styles – as you read through them, you may begin to notice some unhelpful thoughts that you tend to have.

Magnification & Minimization

Exaggerating or minimizing the importance of events. You might believe your achievements are unimportant or that your mistakes are excessively important. Or, you magnify the positive attributes of other people and minimize your own positive attributes.

Catastrophizing

Seeing only the worst possible outcome of a situation. Labeling a situation as huge, overwhelming, “the worst ever.” Viewing a situation as horrible, even though in reality the problem is quite small.

Overgeneralization

Making broad interpretations from a single event (e.g., “I felt awkward during my job interview… I am always so awkward”). Seeing a single event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.

Jumping to Conclusions

Interpreting the meaning of a situation without sufficient evidence.

Personalization

Holding oneself personally responsible for an event that is not entirely under one’s control (e.g., “My mom is so upset; she would be fine if I did more to help her.”)

Mindreading

Interpreting the thoughts and beliefs of others without hearing directly from those individuals (e. g., “She would not go on a date with me. She probably thinks I’m ugly.)

Fortune Telling (Predicting the Future)

Expecting a certain outcome (i.e., a situation will turn out badly) without appropriate evidence.

Disqualifying the Positive ("Mental Filter")

Recognizing only the negative aspects of a situation or feedback, while ignoring the positive. You might receive many compliments on an evaluation but focus on the single piece of negative feedback.

Emotional Reasoning

Basing your view of situations or yourself on the way you are feeling. For example, the only evidence that something bad is going to happen is that you feel like something bad is going to happen.

"Should" Statements

Sometimes, by saying “I should” or “I shouldn’t” you can put unreasonable demands or pressure on yourself. These statements are not always helpful (e.g., “I should not be feeling anxious”) and create unrealistic expectations.

Labeling

Describing yourself and/or others by making global statements based on limited evidence. You might use this label even if there are many examples that aren’t consistent with it (e.g., “I’m stupid”).

Black & White/All-or-Nothing Thinking

Thinking in absolutes, seeing only one extreme or the other. You are either good or bad, wrong or right, etc. or you use words like “always,” “never,” or “every.” There are no in-betweens or shades of grey.

Printable pdf version

Thinking Styles Bonczek & Steele

We all strive to work together better. Technology is facilitating some of these efforts. But digital tools are only part of the answer. The second part of the answer is people. The problem is that collaboration technologies are improving faster than people can learn to use them. What can be done to fill this gap?

Most organizations have a standard set of tools that they use to form, lead, and manage teams. These include personality tests, skill profiles, and team roles. When you put together a team, you take into account the personality of the people:

are they introverts or extroverts,
risk takers or risk avoiders,
analysts or intuitives?

Do you evaluate their skills: what are their features: talent, experience or knowledge? And you consider their potential role in the team: what contribution will they make to the team's goal?

We usually think of a role as something people do. For example, a team leader, project manager, or analyst. When you need a solution, you go to the team leader. When you want to update the status of a project, you go to the project manager. When you need to analyze something, you go to an analyst.

But in today's market, the leading companies are not always the ones that outperform the competition. Often these are organizations that are considering successive development steps. And while there are many tools that help us quickly understand what our teammates are doing, it's harder to tell what they think. Research shows that in the end it is how team members think together that most determines their effectiveness.

As a result, managers must distribute not only the positions of the performers, but also the positions of those who will think about decisions. Knowing how other members of your team and organization think, and how others think you, can all become more energetic, more engaged, more creative, and more productive.

One aspect of collaboration is to bring people into line with what they are doing. But there's another dimension to getting people in line with the way they think.

After a lot of collaborative creativity and trial and error, Mark Bonczek and Eliza Steele developed a three-step method for evaluating how a leader thinks and how his team thinks.

Definition of thinking style according to Bonczek and Steele

1. Focus

The first step is to determine the focus of your thinking in a particular context or setting. Do you tend to pay more attention to ideas, processes, activities, or relationships? For example, in the morning when you think about the day ahead, do you tend to think about problems you need to solve, plans you need to make, actions you need to take, or people you need to see?

It's not about choosing one and excluding the other. It's about what's more important to you. Just like when you watch a movie or read a book, do you prefer action, melodrama, drama or detective?

2. Orientation

The next step is to determine if your orientation is changing towards the big picture or the details. A good way to identify this orientation is to think about what is bothering you in meetings. Are you more likely to complain that global issues are raised, or that the meeting does not pay attention to details?

These aspects complement personality, skills and traditional roles. Some project managers tend to focus more on the process, while others tend to focus more on the people. And some extroverts see the big picture, while others are more detailed oriented.

3. Combining

The third step is to combine these two dimensions and see the big picture in whatever context or setting you find yourself in.

For example, in the big picture:

The "explorer's" mindset is about generating creative ideas.
Thinking "planner" - the development of effective systems.
Energizer thinking - is about mobilizing people to action.
Thinking "uniting" - is building and strengthening relationships.

In detailed orientation:

The expert thinks about achieving objectivity and understanding.
Optimizer thinks about increasing productivity and efficiency.
Manufacturer thinks about achieving the ultimate goal.
Coach thinks about improving people and potential.

When you know your style of thinking, you know what naturally energizes you, why certain types of problems can become difficult or boring for you. You also understand what you can do to improve in areas that are important to achieving your goals.

Once you know your style, you can share it with others and ask others to share their style with you. In this way, your way of thinking becomes a useful tool - a kind of social currency for the team. Imagine that you have put together a team to work on a new initiative. Wouldn't you like to know who gets excited about strategy discussions in general and who gets upset by them? Who likes to work on the details? And who is inspired by managing team dynamics?

Use case

One company asked its entire management team to define their thinking style. Looking at the heatmap of the team's results, it was clear that they had a lot of ideas in the big picture and a lot of action (Energizer and Producer), but very few thought processes (Planner and Optimizer). The team was strong at coming up with big ideas and mobilizing everyone into action, but weak at working out the details and working effectively.

With this new information in hand, they began to give more voice to those whose detailed thinking was stronger. They also changed recruiting culture and strategies to create a more balanced and diverse mindset within the same team.

Conclusions

The business environment is rapidly changing and we must find new and better ways to communicate within the team. Understanding collaboration through the lens of thought rather than action is a practical and powerful step forward.

Bonchek and Steele's Team Thinking Style Definition - PowerPoint Presentation

If you are a business coach and plan to use this mini-lecture in your trainings, then: interesting.

Download a PowerPoint presentation to visually support your mini-lecture. (Slides in the presentation: 1)

135 books that influenced Russian project managers / Habr

Hello! My name is Dmitry Ireshev, I am the head of the SberMarket project office and the author of the Telegram channel "Project and Product Management in IT" . This year, I conducted the most comprehensive survey of project management in Russia, which was attended by 405 respondents from 46 cities and 198 organizations. I studied what practices, methodologies and tools Russian projects use not in theory, but in practice. One of the results was the TOP of books that influenced Russian managers.

The question I asked in the study was: What was the best book you read that helped you develop professionally? Based on the answers, I made this rating - the books are arranged in descending order of the number of mentions.

TOP 12 books and why you should read them

1. Deadline, a Project Management Novel, Tom DeMarco

This is the book you should read first if you want to start a career in project management. DeMarco went through all stages of the project life cycle: from the formation of a team, to the delivery of results. Particular attention is paid to the planning process. A favorite burndown chart in Agile practices is described in detail, although the book was written in 1997, 4 years before the appearance of the Agile manifesto.
The book is easy to read as it is written in the style of a business novel.

2. PMBOK Guide, Project Management Institute

PMBOK is a project management encyclopedia and project manager's handbook. It is worth using it as a reference book, rereading individual topics when necessary. With over 700 pages in PMBOK 6, it's definitely not a book to read lightly at night. The book can be considered a textbook for the international PMP (Project Management Professional) exam, you can read about preparing for it here .

Last year, the 7th edition came out, which, in my opinion, only confused everyone. I recommend reading the 6th edition.

3. Goal: Continuous Improvement Process, Eliyahu Goldratt

Eliyahu Goldratt wrote a whole series of books with author's methods in the field of management. His ideas are "Theory of Constraints of Systems" (better known as TOC), the critical chain method and others. Goal is Goldratt's first book, and is written in the style of a business novel that approximates real-life management problems. The book explores in depth the ideas of lean manufacturing and more.

4. Scrum. A Revolutionary Project Management Method, Jeff Sutherland

If you've read the 17 pages of the Scrum guide and still have questions, then this book is for you. Only the lazy did not throw a stone at the marketer who translated the title of the book. The original title is The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. Such a translation is more accurate and corresponds to the content of the book. And Scrum is a framework, not a method. In summary: the title is unfortunate, the book is excellent!

5. Jedi Techniques. How to educate your monkey, empty your inbox and save your mental fuel”, Maxim Dorofeev

Maxim Dorofeev writes about self-management, self-organization, planning one's affairs and fighting procrastination. As Maxim himself says, in this book he collected practices that he studied in other sources. Other books in this series already contain his personal work. What is especially valuable about Maxim's approach is that he backs up the descriptions of practices with scientific research and explains how and why it really works.

6. The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Personal Development Tools, Stephen Covey

The iconic self-improvement book on developing goal setting and prioritization skills. Despite the pop name, which in recent years has acquired negative associations, the book contains little water and gives really useful practical advice on self-development.

7. “Ask Mom: How to communicate with clients and confirm the correctness of your business idea if everyone around you is lying?”, Robert Fitzpatrick

This book is a guide to effective communications. She teaches how to ask questions to the client in order to effectively test hypotheses and collect feedback about the product. Lots of practical examples and written with a good sense of humor.

8. “45 manager tattoos. Rules of a Russian leader”, Maxim Batyrev

This book tells “what is good and what is bad” in the world of management. Batyrev calls tattoos "bumps", which he filled while working as a manager. Using personal examples, he shows how a leader should and should not act.

9. Critical Chain, Eliyahu Goldratt

Another top-ranked book by Goldratt deals with planning. I especially recommend reading this book to those whose projects regularly fall short of the stated deadline, even if you are laying with a margin. The book breaks down the phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy and other curious effects of planning errors.

10. Software Requirements Development, Carl I. Wiegers

Comprehensive guide containing many useful checklists. Not everything described works in the Russian context, but a very fundamental approach is described that will be useful for everyone in IT to master.

11. Done, Scott Berkun

Another book for those interested in project management in IT. The author of the book is an experienced Microsoft project manager. He shares not only managerial cases from his practice, but also exercises for developing important, but non-obvious skills. For example, how to manage ideas or resolve political conflicts in a company.

12. Project management. Complete MBA course”, A. Polkovnikov, M. Dubovik

University textbook with well-systematized and complete information about project management. Particularly noteworthy is the chapter on risk management.

The TOP-50 includes

13. Genius Corporation. How to manage a team of creative people” , Ed Catmull, Amy Wallace

14. “The human factor. Successful projects and teams” , Tom DeMarco

15. Principles. Life and Work" , Ray Dalio

16. "Tough Management" , Dan Kennedy

17. " The Ideal Leader. Why you can’t become one and what follows” , Yitzhak Adizes

18. “Think slowly… Decide fast” , Daniel Kahneman

19. “Managing an IT project from scratch in any organization” , Ivan Selikhovkin

20. “How to graze cats. Manual for Programmers Supervising Other Programmers" , Rainwater J. Hunk

21. Agile Management: Leadership and Team Management , Appelo Jürgen

22. Project Management for the Unofficial Project Manager , Kory Kogon

23. 900 correspondence" , Maxim Ilyakhov

24. "Write, shorten: How to create a strong text" , Maxim Ilyakhov

25. "Financier" , Theodore Dreiser

26. "Business from scratch. The Lean Startup method for quickly testing ideas and choosing a business model” , Eric Rees

27. "The Art of War" , Sun Tzu

28. "Agile: Project Evaluation and Planning" , Mike Cohn

29. "The Mythical Man-Month or How Software Systems Are Created" 903 , Frederick Brooks

30. “Everything can be negotiated! How to Make the Most of Any Negotiation Gavin Kennedy

31. Getting Things Done David Allen

32. "Project Management from A to Z" , Newton Richard

33. PMP Exam Prep , Rita Mulcahy

34. "Management Styles - Effective and Ineffective" , Yitzhak Adizes
39002 390 90 Design thinking. All tools in one book. Best Practices from 150 Case Studies” , Kempkens Oliver

36. “Systems Thinking – 2022” , Anatoly Levenchuk

37. Managing successful projects with PRINCE2 , AXELOS Limited

38. Practical Project Initiation , Karl Wiegers

39. Leader and tribe. Five Levels of Corporate Culture Dave Logan, John King, Haley Fisher-Wright

40. No rules. Netflix's Unique Culture , Reed Hastings, Erin Meyer

41. Scrum and XP Notes from the Front , Henrik Knieberg

42. The Five Faults of a Team , Patrick Lencioni

3 Psychology

3 influence" , Robert Cialdini

44. Kamikaze Way , Edward Yordon

45. 80/20 Manager. The Core Principle of Highly Effective People , Richard Koch

46. Organizational Consulting , Navis Edwin

47. Practical Wisdom. The right path to the right actions” , Kenneth Sharp, Barry Schwartz

48. “Regular Management Practices” , Pavel Bezruchko

49. “Mom, I'm a team leader. Practical Tips for Leading an IT Team” , Marina Perevkokova

50. “Flexible project management and products” , Boris Wolfson

Maximum program: from 50 to 135 place

51. “Sovereign” , Niccolo Machiavelli

9000 52. PMI-UCP Workbook , Mike Griffths

53. “The lotus grows from the mud. How to transform suffering into happiness” , Tit Nat Khan

54. “ General theory of management”, Kanat Nurov

55. “The hero and his team. How to collect, light and achieve great results” , Konstantin Borisov

56. “Professional real estate development. ULI Guide to Doing Business” , Peizer Richard

57. “Organizational Thinking. Ideology, methodology, technology” , George Shchedrovitsky

58. The official guide to the Kanban Method , Kanban University

59. “Don’t work with assholes” , Robert Sutton

60. “Soldier discipline” , Peter Senge

61. "Method of network planning and management in construction" , Elena Alenicheva

62. Сhoose Your WoW!: A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimizing Your Way of Working , Scott Ambler, Mark Lines

63. Team Topologies: Organizing Business and Technology Teams for Fast Flow , Matthew Skelton, Manuel Pais,

64. “Jump over your head! 20 habits you need to give up to conquer the pinnacle of success0030 , Marshall Goldsmith

65. The Monster of Change: The Reasons for Success and Failure of Organizational Change , Gini Danielle Duck

66. The Art of Thinking Clearly , Rolf Dobelli

62. LOG OK Complete Guide organization of warehouse logistics” , coordinating council for logistics

68. “From good to great. Why some companies make breakthroughs and others don't…” , Jim Collins

69. “Biohacking: A Guide to Unleashing the Body's Full Potential” , Ivan Selikhovkin

76. “First say no. Secrets of Professional Negotiators , Jim Camp

77. Business Against the Rules. How Andrey Trubnikov created Natura Siberica and captured the organic cosmetics market in Russia” , Alexey Belyakov

78. “How to successfully manage projects. Silver Bullet Fergus O'Connell

79. How to talk to assholes. What to do with inadequate and unbearable people in your life " , Mark Goulston

80. "The Kanban Method: Better Management" , Mike Burroughs

81. "The Career of a Manager" , Lee Iacocca

82. "How to Become an Effective Business Leader" 90 Review30

83. “On time and within budget. Critical project management” , Lawrence Leach

84. “Find time. How to Focus on the Essentials Jake Knapp, John Zeratsky

85. “Game Theory. The Art of Strategic Thinking in Business and Life” Dixit Avinash, Nailbuff Barry

86. “Facilitation in practice. How to mine gold by working with groups” , Thomas Kaiser

87. “Monkey Habits” , Yuri Shevchenko

88. “Emotional Courage. How to take responsibility, not be afraid of difficult conversations and inspire others” , Peter Bergman

89. “Critical thinking. Analyze, doubt, form your own opinion” , Tom Chatfield

90. Emotional intelligence. Why it can mean more than IQ” , Daniel Goleman

91. “The ABC of mental work” , I. V. Rebelsky

92. How to cheat at IT project management , Susan Snedaker
93.002 “Agreeing is not a problem. How to get your way without conflicts and unnecessary concessions” , Chris Voss

94. “Commandos. How to achieve big goals” , Konstantin Borisov

95. “Textbook of Logic” , George Chelpanov

96. “Boss: Useless or useless” , Rey Immelman

97. “Valsing with bears” , Tomoti Lister

98. Black Swan , Nassim Taleb

99. Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die , Den Hees

100. A Leader Without a Title. A modern parable about real success in life and business” , Robin Sharma

101. Product Management. How to create and develop digital products” , Leonid Lapidus

102. “Mastering ITIL” , Rob England

103. “Emotional intelligence in business. Solving Tough Leadership Challenges , David Caruso

104. "When Coffee and Cabbage Compete" , Alan Clement

105. "It's OK to be a Boss" , Bruce Tulgan

106. "The Manager's Black Book" , Slava Pankratov

107. Brain. Instructions for use. How to Maximize Your Opportunities Without Overloading , David Rock

108. Breaking Stereotypes The Gap: Advertising That Breaks the Convention , Jean-Marie Drew

109. Empowered: Ordinary People, Extraordinary Products , Marty Cagan

110. "Agile: Estimating and Planning Projects" , Mike Cohn

111. "One Minute Manager and Monkeys" , Kenneth Blanchard

112. How I Learn Languages  , Kato Lomb

113. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience , Mihaly Csikszentmihaly

114. Project Phoenix A novel about how DevOps changes business for the better” , Jean Kim, George Spafford, Kevin Behr

115. “The art of managerial struggle. Technologies of interception and retention of control” , Vladimir Tarasov

116. “First, break all the rules! What do the best managers in the world do differently?” , Coffman Kurt, Buckingham Marcus

117. Cafe at the end of the earth. How to stop drifting and remember why you live” , John P. Strelecki

118. “Focus on the main things: Living, loving, learning and leaving a legacy” , Stephen Covey

119. “Point focus” , Brian Tracy

120. A Guide to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK Guide) , International Institute of Business Analysis

121. “Team approach. Building a High-Performance Organization , John Katzentbach

122. Purple Cow. Make Your Business Stand Out , Seth Godin

123. Humanocracy. How to make a company as flexible, bold and creative as the people inside it” , Gary Hamel, Michele Zanini

124. “Kama Sutra for the speaker. Ten chapters on how to get and deliver maximum pleasure when speaking in public” , radislav Gandopas

125. “Business models. 55 Best Patterns , Michaela Schick , Carolyn Frankenberger

126. Rich Dad Poor Dad , Robert Kiyosaki

127. TRIZ. Theory of Inventive Problem Solving” , Vladimir Petrov

128. “Logic. Textbook for secondary school” , S. Vinogradov, A. Kuzmin

129. “Managing your character. Life strategies for a manager” , Alexander Fridman

130. "Never Eat Alone and Other Networking Rules" , Keith Ferrazi

131.

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