Personalizing is a common cognitive distortion whereby individuals assume that situations are related to themselves, especially negative ones.
Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Includes client-friendly guidance. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.
Cognitive distortions, cognitive biases, or ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ are characteristic ways in which our thoughts can become biased (Beck, 1963). Personalizing (also referred to as “self-reference”) is a style of thinking in which individuals interpret events in a self-referential manner (Beck, 1979; Branch & Willson, 2020). Typically, these judgments are negatively self-orientated and evoke distress. At its most extreme, personalized thinking can contribute to persecutory delusions and ideas of reference.
This Personalizing information handout forms part of the cognitive distortions series, designed to help clients and therapists to work more effectively with common thinking biases. Personalizing is a common cognitive bias. This resource helps clients:
Personalizing contributes to self-blame and low mood.
Personalizing is related to traumatic experiences.
Provide psychoeducation on cognitive distortions and automatic thoughts.
Explore whether the client experiences overgeneralizing thoughts.
Help the client notice when they are overgeneralizing.
Address mind reading thoughts using techniques such as searching for exceptions.
Catching automatic thoughts and (re)appraising cognitions is a core component of traditional cognitive therapy (Beck et al, 1979; Beck, 1995; Kennerley, Kirk, Westbrook, 2007). Identifying the presence and nature of cognitive biases is frequently a helpful way of introducing this concept – clients are often quick to appreciate and identify with the concept of ‘unhelpful thinking styles’, and can easily be trained to notice the presence of biases in their own automatic thoughts. Once biases have been identified, clients can be taught to appraise the accuracy of these automatic thoughts and draw new conclusions.
Personalizing (also referred to as “self-reference”) is a style of thinking in which individuals interpret events in a self-referential manner. It is often linked to inappropriate self-blame, making comparisons, and attributing negative events to oneself (Beck, 1979; Tolin, 2016). Furthermore, research suggests that personalized attributions are common in delusional beliefs; however, these attributions tend to be external rather than internal, meaning negative events are more often blamed on other people rather than circumstances (Kinderman & Bentall, 1997). Additionally, personalizing may be evident in individuals with narcissistic traits and fantasies, such as thinking, "The success of our department is due to me,” although this remains to be tested.
