Chapter 8: Thinking Flashcards
Study reasoning, judgements, decision making, and problem-solving
Cognitive psychologists
Focus on maladaptive thought patterns and their implication for emotional well-being
Cognitive psychotherapy
- Dwelling on the negative and discounting the positive
- Guy gets a bad review but gets a promotion = he dwells on the smaller problem, making it seem bigger than it is
- Having one bad grade, the rest of positive feedback doesn’t get considered
Magnification and minimization
(cognitive distortion)
- Viewing negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat
- I failed on this test, so my life will be a failure
- Implies you have a crystal ball and you know your future, when you actually don’t know
Overgeneralization
(cognitive distortion)
- “I feel like an idiot … therefore, I must be one
- Lap of logic
Reasoning from how you feel
(cognitive distortion)
Taking blame for events that are unintended for beyond one’s control
- ex: It’s all my fault this happened
Personalization
(cognitive distortion)
- Imagining (without direct evidence) what someone is thinking
- projecting your fears onto other people
Mind reading
(cognitive distortion)
Drawing an inference from a general premise to a specific conclusion
Deductive reasoning
We tend to judge as true those conclusions with which we agree, assuming it is true because we agree with it
→ attitudes about certain groups, types of people, attitudes about yourself
Confirmation bias
Problem-solver will goes from the particular to the general
Inductive reasoning
The tendency to perceive an item only in terms of its most common use
Functional fixedness
A tendency to approach a problem in a way that has worked in the past, even when it’s not working in the present.
Mental sets
A problem-solving technique that involves breaking down a goal into smaller, more manageable steps:
Means-end analysis
- Incubation / taking a break
- Sleep on it for a bit and you’ll feel better
Facilitation
