Cognitive biases and unhelpful thinking Tankeboksen
Cognitive Biases are a major part of mental disorders like Depression and Anxiety. In this mental health explainer video Tankeboksen describes some of the most important biases as part of their online cognitive behavioural therapy courses. You can checkout Tankeboksen's YouTube channel for more free videos here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZEUBZcAod1AjmXPUy2jEgQ
For their full course on Depression, Sports Psychology and more, checkout Tankeboksen.com
Script & Storyboard
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Catastrophizing is our brains’ tendencies to imagine tragedies, accidents or disasters looming in the future. Newspapers and media are experts at using the catastrophizing tendency to attract readers. Although catastrophizing can help us take appropriate precautions, too much makes us anxious and overly risk averse.
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All-or-nothing bias is about polarised, black or white thinking. ‘No-one said it was good, so it must have been horrible’, ‘everything, but perfect, is a failure’. The bias can lead to self-doubt and approval seeking behaviours as it makes us dependent on positive feedback to feel ok about ourselves.
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Fortune-telling is our brains’ making assumptions about the future. When our fortune-telling is motivated by fear of rejection or embarrassment such as, “No point going, I won’t enjoy it anyway” or “I am not smart enough to apply”, these biases prevent us from achieving our goals and becomes self-fulfilling prophesies.
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Mind-reading biases are tendencies to draw conclusions about what others think of us based on their behaviours and the misconception that others can read you like an open book. 'He yawned, he definitely thinks I am boring ', ‘this is so embarrassing, everyone can see I am nervous'.
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Emotional reasoning is about drawing conclusions in situations, and about people, without recognising how our own feelings affect our reasoning. If we feel nervous or anxious when entering a room full of people, our feelings will prompt us to look for negative signals and danger signs.
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Overgeneralising is the mistake of drawing general conclusions from single events. ‘I will never get work’ , ‘I always lose’ , ‘the world is too dangerous, better stay at home’ and ‘all men are dirtbags’
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