Psychologist Aaron T. Beck pioneered research in the field of Cognitive Distortions in the 1960s. He made them a central subject in his cognitive-behavioral approach to psychotherapy. Later, in 1980, David D. Burns popularized the concepts and made them more accessible to larger groups of people in his book “Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy.
As presented by Beck and Burns, the ten cognitive distortions are:
- Dichotomous Thinking
- Overgeneralization
- The Mental Filter
- Disqualifying the Positive
- Jumping to Conclusions
- Magnification/Minimization
- Emotional Reasoning
- Should Statements
- Labeling
- Personalization/Blaming
Click on the separate labels to read more about each cognitive distortion.