TM4T CBT - Flawed Thinking

When you review your automatic thoughts, you are using two powerful weapon above all others: logic and objectivity.  You should review the facts, the evidence, the proven reality, giving these precedence and priority over emotion and opinion.  This is easy to do if you are reviewing and evaluating someone else's thoughts - other people are so silly, it's not difficult to spot flaws in how they think about things.  Doing it to yourself, though, is trickier. The prejudices and misconceptions here are your very own, and they may be deeply entrenched and hard to spot.  Nevertheless, if you use this list, you should be able to spot some examples of unhelpful and flawed thinking.

Binary Thinking

Binary thinking, or 'black-and-white' thinking, means that we consider only two extreme perspectives in our thoughts. Someone is either a good driver or a bad driver, a colleague likes us or hates us, a policy is either entirely right or completely wrong.. There are no shades of grey, no neutrality, no half-rights.  This, of course, simply does not reflect the way the world works.

Challenge: The world doesn't work in black and white. There are positives and negatives in everything. List them. Considering all the alternative outcomes, how bad is this one really? Have you really thought through all the options and alternatives, or just the most extreme? What about combinations of options and alternatives?

Bad Judge

Sometimes, of course. we do  look at the evidence, and we do make what seems to be a logical decision. However, our automatic thoughts are frequently bad judges. They are, well, too... well, too judgemental.  Instead of describing what actually happened, we base our understanding on an evaluation or judgement of what we experienced. We see someone driving in a way we don't like and judge that it is a 'bad driver' and a 'selfish pig'.

Challenge: Am I thinking objectively, or am I making an evaluation?  Is this fact or opinion? I am allowed to make evaluations, but they aren't necessarily correct or helpful. How would an objective outsider assess the situation?  How many different perspectives can you think of?  Do they offer advantages or insight?

The Filter

Sometimes we look at the evidence - the everyday experience of teaching - but as if by magic, we filter out some of what we see.  Jason in 8C? Horrible boy. He may be doing some charity work, but he's probably got an ulterior motive. We simply filter out anything that our mental filter doesn't allow. Sometimes the same effect is compared to wearing blinkers or tinted spectacles: it's as if we decide in  advance what aspects in life - usually just the negative aspects - we are going to see.

Challenge:  Am I looking at the whole situation, or am I only seeing the bad stuff? Is what I am seeing fact or opinion? Am I filtering out any positives? There are always some positive aspects - what are they? How would an objective outsider evaluate the situation?  Is my perspective realistic? Helpful?

The Harsh Critic

As well as being bad judges, our automatic thoughts can also represent harsh critics. This does not involve constructive criticism; it usually includes comparison with some ludicrously challenging and unachievable criteria, or blame for events and consequences which were outside of our responsibility or control.

Challenge: Other people have expressed positive opinions of me - are they all wrong?  How much is fact and how much self-opinion? What would a reasonable person expect me to achieve? Am I really to blame for what is happening?

Emotional Thinking

Sometimes our filter is very simple, and is based on our mood. We have one over-riding emotion (anger, anxiety, gloom) and our automatic thoughts interpret the world accordingly.  I feel angry, so everything irritates me. I feel gloomy so everything must signify something bad. I am anxious and perceive threats to my well-being everywhere.

Challenge: My emotions are just a response to my automatic thinking - they don't reflect the reality. What are the facts? What is the evidence? How would a rational person be feeling in this situation?

The Fortune Teller

Sometimes, our automatic thoughts seem to develop magic powers: subconsciously believing that we can predict the future with certainty, or telepathically sense what others are going to do.

Challenge: How much of what I am thinking is based on factual evidence?  How much is opinion? How much of it is simply guesswork about what is going to happen? What other alternatives are there? What odds would an honest bookie give on the different scenarios?

The Telepath

Of course, our automatic thoughts may also involve simple telepathy: knowing exactly what others are thinking. Knowing their opinions of us, knowing what they think about our teaching, their hostile feelings towards us, etc...

Challenge: How much of what I am thinking is based on factual evidence? How much is opinion? How much of it is simply guesswork about what others are thinking or intending?  Different people think in different ways - certainly different to me. What are the possible alternatives and how likely are they?

Mountains and Molehills

Our automatic thoughts rarely have a good sense of scale or perspective, and it is common for those already under stress to make mountains out of molehills.  This may be a tendency to exaggerate the likelihood of negative outcomes, or to exaggerate the scale of issues, or to overestimate others' strength of feelings.

Challenge: What is the bigger picture here?  How many issues are there to deal with, and how big is this issue really, in comparison with others? How much is fact and how much opinion? How would a rational outside observer assess the situation?  How many other teachers, other classrooms, other schools, face identical or similar issues?

The Impossible Role Model

Nothing wrong with having a role model, of course, but our automatic thoughts tend to over-estimate the virtue and capabilities of others, and to compare ourselves unfavourably with them. This is not uncommon in young teachers who despair at ever being as capable as their more experienced colleagues.

Challenge: Am I doing unfair comparisons here?  How good was 'X' when he was in the same situation as me?  Is this comparison helpful or self-destructive?  Are there more rational and helpful comparisons I could make?

The Past

Our automatic thoughts tend not to discriminate regarding time. Frequently, an event in the present can trigger automatic thoughts about a similar event in the past - a past event which caused us distress or upset. We then re-experience the distressing past emotion, as if it were here-and-now instead of done-and-gone.

Challenge: That was then and this is now. Focus on the present, the past is gone and I can't change it. These emotions are just memories of who I used to be.  I am a different person now.

Simple Pessimism

Automatic thoughts often express simple, though extreme, pessimism: consistently believing, anticipating, and imagining the worst possible outcome from any situation, decision, or event.

Challenge: Disastrous outcome are possible in every situation... but: how likely is it?  Give it a number: 100 to 1? 1000 to 1?  How much of this is fact and how much opinion? What would an objective outsider say about this likelihood?  (If a disastrous outcome is likely, you need to take practical risk-management steps).

Shuddas

Automatic thoughts often hold strong moral positions about what you 'should' or shouldn't do, what 'must' or mustn't happen, and so on. This belief that things 'ought to' or 'have to' happen in a particular way creates pressure on us to change the world, and sets up unrealistic expectations about how life actually works.

Challenge: I am not a shudda (a person who says 'should' all the time). I have preferences, not expectations.  If I set unrealistic expectations, I will be disappointed and downcast. What is more realistic? How would an objective outsider see the situation?