Emotional Reasoning

The Emotional Reasoning resource helps clients and therapists understand, identify, and address this common cognitive distortion or "unhelpful thinking style".

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Professional version

Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Client version

Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Overview

Emotional reasoning is a cognitive bias where individuals reach conclusions based on their feelings rather than objective evidence. This resource is part of a cognitive distortion series designed for mental health professionals to identify and address such cognitive distortions in therapy. It provides psychoeducation and practical strategies for clinicians to help clients address these thinking styles effectively.

Why Use This Resource?

The Emotional Reasoning resource equips clinicians with the knowledge and tools to help clients:

  • Understand the nature and impact of emotional reasoning.
  • Recognize when they're engaging in emotion-driven thinking.
  • Use effective strategies to address these thoughts.

Key Benefits

Understanding

Clarifies the concept of cognitive distortions and emotional reasoning.

Recognition

Helps clients recognize how this cognitive distortion might apply to them.

Strategies

Offers actionable techniques for tackling emotional reasoning.

Who is this for?

Anxiety Disorders

Believing that anxiety signals imminent danger.

Depression

Concluding life is meaninglessness based on feelings of hopelessness.

Other Difficulties

Emotional reasoning has been associated with specific phobias, bipolar disorder, and other issues.

Integrating it into your practice

01

Educate

Provide psychoeducation about automatic thoughts and cognitive distortions.

02

Identify

Help clients recognize when they are using emotional reasoning.

03

Monitor

Encourage clients to become more aware of when they think in this way.

04

Address

Use techniques to address emotional reasoning such as reality-testing and opposite action.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

Cognitive distortions, cognitive biases, or ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ are the characteristic ways our thoughts become biased (Beck, 1963). According to Beck's cognitive model, different cognitive biases are associated with different clinical presentations. For example, catastrophizing is associated with anxiety disorders (e.g. Nöel et al, 2012), while dichotomous thinking has been linked to emotional instability (Veen & Arntz, 2000).

Emotional reasoning (also referred to as ‘ex-consequentia reasoning’ and ‘feeling-driven thinking’) is a cognitive distortion associated with selective abstraction (Drapeau et al., 2008): “forming an interpretation… when there is no factual evidence to support the conclusion, or when the conclusion is contrary to the evidence” (Beck, 1963). Specifically, it is an arbitrary interpretation in which individuals make predictions or draw conclusions based on their feelings, intuitions, and hunches (Tolin, 2016). 

Emotional reasoning can be misleading because our emotional responses are influenced by cognitions which may differ from reality (Burns, 2020). Accordingly, individuals who engage in emotional reasoning are often inclined to interpretations which are “emotionally appealing rather than logically derived” (Williams et al., 2022, p.276).

What's inside

  • A detailed explanation of emotional reasoning.
  • Guidance for identifying and discussing this cognitive distortion with clients.
  • Multiple effective strategies for reducing emotional reasoning.
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FAQs

Emotional reasoning is the cognitive distortion where one assumes feelings reflect facts, such as assuming danger is present because one feels anxious.
It can lead to flawed conclusions and decisions driven by emotions rather than reality. This can exacerbate anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
By practicing reality testing, shifting emotional states, and engaging in opposite actions, clients can learn to challenge and overcome their emotion-focused conclusions.
In situations requiring quick decisions, emotions can guide actions effectively. However, in day-to-day life, emotional reasoning often causes problems.

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

Using this resource:

  • Enhances client understanding of cognitive distortions.
  • Supports recognition of emotional reasoning.
  • Empowers clients to address their feeling-driven thinking.

Therapists benefit from:

  • An overview of cognitive distortions.
  • Insights into the nature of emotional reasoning.
  • Detailed descriptions of how to address this thinking style.
  • A resource that can be used with many clinical groups.

References And Further Reading

  • Arntz, A., Rauner, M., & Van den Hout, M. (1995). "If I feel anxious, there must be danger": Ex-consequentia reasoning in inferring danger in anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 917-925. DOI: 10.1016/0005-7967(95)00032-S.
  • Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9, 324-333. DOI: 10.1001/archpsyc.1963.01720160014002.
  • Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive Therapy of Depression. Guilford Press.
  • Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond. Guilford Press.
  • Burns, D. D. (2020). Feeling great: The revolutionary new treatment for depression and anxiety. PESI Publishing.
  • Gilbert, P. (1998). The evolved basis and adaptive functions of cognitive distortions. British Journal of Medical Psychology, 71, 447-463. DOI: 10.1111/j.2044-8341.1998.tb01002.x.
  • Linehan, M. M. (1993). Skills training manual for treating borderline personality disorder. Guilford Press.
  • Williams, C., et al. (2022). Thinking style and paranormal belief: the role of cognitive biases. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 41, 274-298. DOI: 10.1177/02762366211036435.