Cognitive distortions cbt worksheet
By
Dr Vlad Burtăverde
Author bio
I am Vlad Burtăverde, PhD, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest. I am a licensed psychotherapist familiar with DBT and CBT. I am an experienced researcher with international visibility, being a PhD in psychometrics and personality psychology. I used many multivariate statistics in the research I did.
Recent work
Burtăverde, V., Jonason, P. K., Giosan, C., & Ene, C. (2021). Why do people watch porn? An evolutionary perspective on the reasons for pornography consumption. Evolutionary Psychology, 19(2), 14747049211028798.https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049211028798
“SOME IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN MY CAREER
2013: I started working as a psychologist and became a member of the Romanian College of Psychologists
2013: I founded the consulting agency in psychology and human resources NEO Assessment & Research
2014: I became a teaching assistant and researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.
2015: I started working as a scientific reviewer for international scientific journals such as the Journal of Risk Research, Personality and Individual Differences, Psychological Reports, Accident Analysis & Prevention.
2015: I became a member of international psychology associations such as: Association for research in Personality, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, European Association of Personality Psychology, World Association for Personality Psychology.
2016: I published the Handbook of Personality Psychology at Trei Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania.
2016: I started collaborating with the research laboratory in Personality Psychology at the University of Groningen under the coordination of Prof. Boele De Raad.
2017: I completed my doctoral studies at the University of Bucharest.
2017: I started working as an associate lecturer at SNSPA, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Psychology.
2018: I became an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.
2018: I completed my professional training in integrative psychotherapy at the Romanian Institute of Integrative Psychotherapy.
2019: I started working as an associate lecturer at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Academy of Information.
2019: I started the collaboration with the laboratory of Personality, Relationships and Evolutionary Psychology coordinated by Prof. Peter K. Jonason at the University of Padua.
2020: I won through a public competition the postdoctoral research project entitled: Life-history strategies and aggressive driving. An integrative framework for assessing and managing aggressive driving, funded by UEFISCI.
2020: I started working as an associate editor for the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology – Evolutionary Psychology.
2021: I became an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.
2021: I started to collaborate with the research laboratory in Evolutionary Psychology at Oakland University, Michigan, coordinated by Prof. Todd. K. Shackelford.
2021: I founded the Association of Personality and Evolutionary Psychology.
2022: I founded Evolutionary-consulting, a consulting agency in the field of human capital
2022: I founded HelloMe, a psychology services hub
2023: I founded the Laboratory of Personality and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Bucharest
2023: I published the first book chapter about the mating strategies of dark personalities in the Oxford of Human Mating, edited by D.M. Buss.
2023: I sustained the Habilitation thesis entitled Individual differences in personality. Predictors of adaptive and maladaptive behavior, which offers the possibility to be an advisor for doctoral students. “
Check my professional profiles at
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vlad-Burtaverde
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sJo62fUAAAAJ&hl=en
https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1026658/overview
https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1026658/network
https://www.iea.nl/about/org/people/dr-vlad-burtaverde
https://twitter.com/vladjuve?lang=en
https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.vlad.burtaverde
https://www.facebook.com/psihologvladburtaverde/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-burtaverde-35119351/
https://cipp.ug.edu.pl/Author-Vlad-Burtaverde/168949
https://www.psih.uaic.ro/a/_fis/sc_doc/_cv_refer/cv_burtaverde_v.pdf
What is the theory behind this worksheet?
This worksheet is based on a CBT approach, which is designated to help us understand how our thoughts, emotions and behaviour are connected and how what we think affects the way we feel (Beck et al., 1979).
How will the worksheet help
This worksheet will help clients understand how stressful situations can lead to cognitive distortions and help them recognize what cognitive distortions they might experience in order to combat them.
How to use the worksheet
According to the Cognitive Behavioural Therapy view, when we experience emotional distress, our minds tend to distort the way we process information, affecting the way we see the world, how we feel and how we behave. We no longer think in a balanced, flexible and expansive style, but rather in a rigid way, similar to children’s thinking patterns, leading to numerous psychological problems. These processes are commonly called “cognitive distortions” (Rnic et al., 2016).
To combat them, it’s first important to recognize them. Go through the following list and see if you can think of personal examples of such cognitive distortions.
Cognitive distortions cbt worksheet
All or nothing thinking – Viewing things as either being right or wrong, with no in between. They are either perfect or fundamentally flawed, either black or white, without grey, e.g., “always/never”, “good/bad”.
Example:
Personalising – Focusing on things in the immediate environment and connecting it to the self, e.g. “They did this on purpose because they knew it would make me mad!”. Notice that the world revolves around the self?
Example:
Mental filtering – Selecting specific negative ideas to dwell on, while ignoring the positive ones.
Example:
Disqualifying the positive – Insisting that the events and achievements don’t count, e.g. “There is nothing special about what I did, it only happened because of luck”.
Example:
Distorted images – Using images as evidence. A picture or image in the mind that reflects extreme themes of fear, sadness, disgust, pain etc.
Example:
Fortune telling – Predicting a bad future without any real evidence, e.g. “I just know it, it’s going to be a disaster”.
Example:
Should, oughts & musts – Having the idea that things can only be done in one way, e.g. “People should…”, “I have to…” etc.
Example:
Over-generalising – Taking single events or circumstances and viewing them as happening more often than they actually do.
Example:
Emotional reasoning – Using emotions as evidence, e.g. “I feel it so it must be true”.
Example:
Mind reading – Drawing conclusions about what others are thinking without having evidence, e.g. “They must hate me”, “She thinks I’m a fool”.
Example:
You can download this worksheet here.
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References
1.-
Beck, A. T., Rush, A., Shaw, B., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York, NY, USA: Guilford
2.-
Rnic, K., Dozois, D. J. A., & Martin, R. A. (2016). Cognitive distortions, humor styles, and depression. Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 12(3), 348–362. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v12i3.1118
