Labeling
Identifying negative automatic thoughts and reappraising unhelpful thinking is a core element of cognitive therapy. Teaching clients to recognize the presence and nature of distortions is a useful way of introducing this skill – clients are often quick to identify with the concept of ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ and to recognize their habitual biases. Labeling (sometimes referred to as ‘negative global evaluations’) is an extreme form of overgeneralization. It is characterized by assigning fixed, global traits to the self or others, usually in the form of pejorative, single-word labels (e.g. "Stupid", "Useless", "Disgusting"). The Labeling information handout forms part of the cognitive distortions series, designed to help clients and therapists to work more effectively with common thinking biases.
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
A brief introduction to cognitive distortions
Cognitive distortions, cognitive biases, or ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ are characteristic ways in which our thoughts can become biased (Beck, 1963). As conscious beings we are always interpreting the world around us, trying to make sense of what is happening. Sometimes our brains take ‘short cuts’ and we think things that are not completely accurate, and different cognitive short cuts result in different kinds of bias or distortions in our thinking. Sometimes we might jump to the worst possible conclusion (“this rough patch of skin is cancer!”), at other times we might blame ourselves for things that are not our fault (“If I hadn’t made him angry he wouldn’t have hit me”), and at other times we might rely on intuition and jump to conclusions (“I know that they all hate me even though they’re being nice”).
Different cognitive biases are associated with different clinical
Therapist Guidance
Many people struggle with labeling themselves, others, or their experiences. It sounds as though this might be relevant to you. Would you be willing to explore it with me?
Clinicians may consider giving clients helpful psychoeducation about automatic thoughts more generally and labeling in particular. Consider sharing some of these important details:
- Automatic thoughts spring up spontaneously in your mind in the form of words or images.
- They are often on the ‘sidelines’ of our awareness. With practice, we can become more aware of them. It is a bit like a theater – we can bring our automatic thoughts ‘center stage’.
- Automatic thoughts are not always accurate: just because you think something, it doesn’t make it true, and they are often inaccurate in characteristic ways.
- Labeling is a common type of bias that can show up in our automatic thoughts. In other words, we sometimes give things a
References And Further Reading
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 behavior therapy: Basics and beyond. Guilford Press.
Blake, E., Dobson, K. S., Sheptycki, A. R., & Drapeau, M. (2016). The relationship between depression severity and cognitive errors. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 70, 203-221. DOI: 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.2016.70.2.203.
Burns, D. D. (2020). Feeling great: The revolutionary new treatment for depression and anxiety. PESI Publishing.
Covin et al., 2011. Covin, R., Dozois, D. J., Ogniewicz, A., & Seeds, P. M. (2011). Measuring cognitive errors: Initial development of the Cognitive Distortions Scale (CDS). International Journal of Cognitive Therapy, 4, 297-322. DOI: 10.1521/ijct.2011.4.3.297.
Dijkstra, P., Barelds, D., & van Brummen-Girigori, O. (2017). General cognitive distortions and body satisfaction: Findings from the