Cognitive Distortion: Polarized Thinking/Black and White Thinking

These exercises are based on well-known cognitive distortions, which are inaccurate thoughts that reinforce negative thought patterns or emotions. Definitions used in this exercise come from www.positivepsychology.com with my thoughts added. 

This cognitive distortion is all-or-nothing thinking, with no room for complexity or nuance—everything is either black or white, never shades of gray.

If you do not perform perfectly in some area, then you may see yourself as a total failure instead of simply recognizing that you may be unskilled in one area. When a boss points out an area for growth, you are crushed and believe that all your work must be questionable. A healthier perspective is to focus on improving that one thing without believing that everything you do is bad.

Another common place we see this line of thinking is with cancel culture concerning celebrities and well-known people. Our culture is quick to label a person as good, or more commonly bad based on one or two things they did or said instead of understanding that pretty much no one is all bad or all good. It is possible to condemn someone’s actions without condemning them as a person. This line of thinking can be helpful in families as well when there is a difference of political beliefs between family members. Just because you disagree with a relative on a hot button political topic, does not mean that you cannot have loving and fulfilling relationship with that person. 

This can also be seen in prejudices about professions. Because there are unquestionably some bad police officers out there, all police officers must be bad. Or the opposite, that police officers are always right in these controversial situations we see in the news. In reality, there are good and bad police officers. 

Have you noticed this way of thinking in others? Is this a cognitive distortion you struggle with? In what area do you see yourself thinking in this way?