FIGURE 1-The Cognitive Model
Core belief
I’m incompetent
Intermediate belief
If I don’t understand something
perfectly, then I’m dumb
Situation
Automatic thoughts
Reactions
Reading this book
This is too hard. I’ll never
understand this.
Emotional
Sadness
Behavioral
Closes book
Physiological
Heaviness in abdomen
FIGURE 2-Although some automatic thoughts are true, many are either untrue or have just a grain
of truth. Typical mistakes in thinking include:
1. All-or-none thinking (also called black-and-white, polarized, or dichotomous thinking):
You view a situation in only two categories instead of on a continuum.
Example: “If I’m not a total success, I’m a failure.”
2. Catastrophizing (also called fortune telling): You predict the future negatively without
considering other, more likely outcomes.
Example: “I’ll be so upset, I won’t be able to function at all.”
3. Disqualifying or discounting the positive: You unreasonably tell yourself that positive
experiences, deeds, or qualities do not count.
Example: “I did that project well, but that doesn’t mean I’m competent; I just got
lucky.”
4. Emotional reasoning: You think something must be true because you “feel” (actually
believe) it so strongly, ignoring or discounting evidence to the contrary.
Example: “I know I do a lot of things okay at work, but I still feel like I’m a failure.”
5. Labeling: You put a fixed, global label on yourself or others without considering that the
evidence might more reasonably lead to a less disastrous conclusion.
Example: “I’m a loser. He’s no good.”
6. Magnification/minimization: When you evaluate yourself, another person, or a situation,
you unreasonably magnify the negative and/or minimize the positive.
Example: “Getting a mediocre evaluation proves how inadequate I am. Getting high
marks doesn’t mean I’m smart.”
7. Mental filter (also called selective abstraction): You pay undue attention to one negative
detail instead of seeing the whole picture.
Example: “Because I got one low rating on my evaluation (which also contained
several high ratings) it means I’m doing a lousy job.”
8. Mind reading: You believe you know what others are thinking, failing to consider other,
more likely possibilities.
Example: “He’s thinking that I don’t know the first thing about this project.”
9. Overgeneralization: You make a sweeping negative conclusion that goes far beyond the
current situation.
Example: “(Because I felt uncomfortable at the meeting) I don’t have what it takes to
make friends.”
10. Personalization: You believe others are behaving negatively because of you, without
considering more plausible explanations for their behavior.
Example: “The repairman was curt to me because I did something wrong.”
11. “Should” and “must” statements (also called imperatives): You have a precise, fixed idea
of how you or others should behave and you overestimate how bad it is that these
expectations are not met.
Example: “It’s terrible that I made a mistake. I should always do my best.”
12. Tunnel vision: You only see the negative aspects of a situation.
Example: “My son’s teacher can’t do anything right. He’s critical and insensitive
and lousy at teaching.”
Thinking errors. Adapted from Aaron T. Beck, M.D.
FIGURE 3-HIERARCHY OF BELIEFS AND AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS
Core belief
Intermediate
beliefs
I’m inadequate.
1. Attitude:
2. Assumptions:
(positive)
(negative)
3. Rules:
Automatic thoughts
when depressed
It’s terrible to be inadequate.
If I work extra hard, I can do
okay.
If I don’t work hard, I’ll fail.
I should always do my best.
I should be great at everything
I try
I can’t do this.
This is too hard.
I’ll never learn all this.
FIGURE 4-COGNITIVE CONCEPTUALIZATION DIAGRAM
Patient’s name:_____________________________________________ Date:__________________
Diagnosis: Axis I ___________________________________________ Axis II ________________
Relevant Childhood Data
Which experiences contributed to the development and maintenance of the core belief
Core Belief(s)
What is the most central belief about herself?
Conditional Assumptions/Beliefs/Rules
Which positive assumption helped her cope with the core belief?
What is the negative counterpart to this assumption?
Compensatory Strategy(ies)
Which behaviors help her cope with the belief?
Situation 1
What was the
problematic situation?
Situation 2
Situation 3
Automatic Thought
What went through her
mind?
Automatic Thought
Automatic Thought
Meaning of the A. T.
What did the automatic
thought mean to her?
Meaning of the A. T.
Meaning of the A. T.
Emotion
What emotion was
associated with the
automatic thought?
Emotion
Emotion
Behavior
What did the patient do
then?
Behavior
Behavior
Cognitive Conceptualization Diagram. Copyright 1993 by Judith S. Beck, Ph.D.
FIGURE 5-TECHNIQUES TO ELICIT AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS
Basic question:
What was going through your mind just then?
To identify automatic thoughts:
1. Ask this question when you notice a shift in (or intensification of) affect during a session
2. Have the patient describe a problematic situation or a time during which she experienced
an affect shift and ask the above question.
3. If needed, have the patient use imagery to describe the specific situation or time in detail
(as if it is happening now) and then ask the above question.
4. If needed or desired, have the patient role-play a specific interaction with you and then ask
the above question.
Other questions to elicit automatic thoughts:
1. What do you guess you were thinking about?
2. Do you think you could have been thinking about _________or _________? (Therapist
provides a couple of plausible possibilities.)
3. Were you imagining something that might happen or remembering something that did?
4. What did this situation mean to you? (Or say about you?)
5. Were you thinking _________? (Therapist provides a thought opposite to the expected
response.
Summary of techniques to identify automatic thoughts. Copyright 1993 by Judith S. Beck, Ph.D.
FIGURE 6-QUESTIONING AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS
1. What is the evidence?
What is the evidence that supports this idea?
What is the evidence against this idea?
2. Is there an alternative explanation?
3. What is the worst that could happen? Could I live through it?
What is the best that could happen?
What is the most realistic outcome?
4. What is the effect of my believing the automatic thought?
What could be the effect of changing my thinking?
5. What should I do about it?
6. What would I tell _________ (a friend) if he or she were in the same situation?
Questioning automatic thoughts. Copyright 1993 by Judith S. Beck, Ph.D.
FIGURE 7-Automatic Thought Record
Date/Time Situation
What thought or actual
situation led to unpleasant
emotion?
What distressing physical
sensations?
Alternative Response
What cognitive
distortion? All-or
nothing, mind reading,
catastrophizing
What is the evidence that
the automatic thought is
true?
Answer
Automatic Thought
What thought went through
your mind?
Emotion
What emotions (sad,
anxious, angry,
loneliness) did you feel
at the time?
How much do you believe
it?
How intense? (0-100%)
Alternative Response
What’s the effect of
believing the automatic
thought?
What could be the
effect of changing my
automatic thought?
What evidence that it is
not true?
What could I do about
it?
Is there an alternative
explanation or outcome?
What would I tell a
friend to do about it?
What would he/she tell
me to do?
Outcome
What is the worst that
could happen?
Could I live through it?
What is the best that
could happen?
What is the most realistic
outcome?
How much do I believe
the automatic thought?
What emotions do I
feel? How intense? (0100%)
What will I do?
Answer