Author Topic: Thinking Errors/Cognitive Distortions  (Read 6512 times)

jdoolin

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Thinking Errors/Cognitive Distortions
« on: May 17, 2013, 01:50:24 PM »
Something that I've taken interest in ever since moving to the Mustachian lifestyle, is the psychology of happiness.  That led me to a particularly interesting bit of psychology new to me called "Thinking Errors".  They are a major source of complaining, negative thoughts and unhappiness.  It is the foundation of being a Complainypants.

There are many types of thinking errors, but this page lists and describes 14 of them, along with examples.  Here are most of the ones I thought applied well to personal finance errors (as well as some related examples).

1. Justifying
In avoiding responsibility for their behavior a person finds a reason for what they have done.
-"I need that Hummer to be safe on the road."
-"I work hard, so I deserve Friday nights out on the town."

2. Blaming
In order to avoid accepting one’s own faults, a person will find fault in another person and attempt to put responsibility for their own behavior on others.  They find someone else or something else to be responsible.  They blame others for what has happened to them.
-"It's Obama's fault that I'm living paycheck to paycheck."
-"No, it's the Republican's fault."
-"No, it started with Jimmy Carter."
-"No, it's Wall Street."
-"No, it's greedy, corporate CEOs."
-"The Healthcare and insurance industry take all my money."
(like shooting fish in a barrel here)

3. Excuse Making (The Failure Disease!)
A person will avoid being accountable for one’s actions by blaming situations or things for their own behavior.
-“I can't ride a bike because I'm overweight.”
-“I need central AC because I'm fat.”
-"I don't have time to cook."

4. Hopovers
In order to avoid taking responsibility a person will avoid the issue. They will shift the focus from oneself to someone or changing the topic of conversation to something else.
-“Have you ever thought about investing?"  "The stock market is a ponzi scheme and the government is going to destroy America by putting so much money in it.  Why just this morning I saw...."

5. Lying
This tends to be one of the most common thinking errors.  A person will be deceptive and dishonest by falsification or altering the facts.
-I guess in this case people lie to themselves more than lying outright to others about personal finance

6. Victimstance
When a person is held accountable for their behavior they will portray them self as the victim.  They act as though the world is against them.  When playing the victim the person does not take responsibility for changing any behaviors, as they believe they are helpless to do so.
-“The bank screwed us over on our mortgage.”
-"Credit card companies are evil and made me poor."

7. Anger
When a person is held accountable for their behavior they will become angry in order to get the focus off of their inappropriate behavior and on to the anger.  This allows people to focus on calming them down, or leaving them alone so they will not explode.  Everyone has anger, however when someone uses anger to avoid taking responsibility for his or her behaviors this is a thinking error.  It is similar to a hop-over in that the person is attempting to remove the focus from their behaviors.
-“I lost my job, how am I supposed to save any money?  You don't know what it's like.”
-“I don’t want to talk about money right now.”

9. Uniqueness
The rules don’t apply to me.  The person believes that they are different, or above others and do not have to follow the same rules as everyone else.  People who use this thinking error have behaviors such as cutting in front of the line, not following simple rules.  They believe the rules do not apply to them.                 

10. Catastrophizing
The person makes a situation bigger then it is.  Thus it is too big for them to handle or resolve.  This thinking error is similar to victim stance in that the person cannot resolve the problem.  For example, if the boss is coming over for dinner and the person burns dinner.  They immediately believe that their boss will think that they are incompetent, fire them and tell other potential employers of their incompetence and they will end up homeless.  With this thinking they are unable to problem solve and do not take responsibility for their behaviors.
-"Tuition is so expensive, you'll never get ahead."
-"Healthcare and insurance will prevent you from ever retiring."
 
11. Minimizing
The person will make the problem seem smaller so they can avoid being accountable for their behaviors.  By reducing or limiting the true significance of a hurtful behavior by comparing it with “worse behaviors”, the person is filtering out the effects on others and does not recognize the effects of their behaviors.  When you hear the words only and just this indicates that this thinking error is being used.
-“It's just a latte from Starbucks.  That won't make me poor.”
-"Hey, at least I don't spend all my money on drugs and cigarettes, like those welfare scum I pay for."

12. Closed Channel
By secret keeping, closed mindedness, and self-righteousness, the person filters out incoming information.  This thinking error is used to avoid facing information and opinions, which would require a change in attitudes or beliefs.  When you are talking to someone and it feels like they are covering their ears, this thinking error is being used.

14. Super-Optimism
A person is unrealistic about what could happen in the future, and does not see any problems.  By using this thinking error the person will not plan for problems, will not develop coping skills or will not develop interventions.
-“I don’t need to be frugal.  I'm going to med school.”

aclarridge

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Re: Thinking Errors/Cognitive Distortions
« Reply #1 on: May 17, 2013, 02:06:20 PM »
Thanks for posting this. Probably all complainypants statements could be categorized into one or more of these.

I think I'm guilty of a couple (minimizing, victimstance), although I hope to a smaller degree than in the examples you're giving. Something to think about and work on.

Bettis

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Re: Thinking Errors/Cognitive Distortions
« Reply #2 on: May 17, 2013, 02:15:21 PM »
I think I do mostly all of these in one form or another.  I noticed there was no #13 so I nominate superstition as #13

totoro

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Re: Thinking Errors/Cognitive Distortions
« Reply #3 on: May 17, 2013, 02:22:22 PM »
I think I do mostly all of these in one form or another.  I noticed there was no #13 so I nominate superstition as #13

Funny :)

These things are my pet peeves.  They can form a brick wall.

Jamesqf

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Re: Thinking Errors/Cognitive Distortions
« Reply #4 on: May 17, 2013, 04:35:39 PM »
Except that quite often, it IS the (Republicans, Democrats, Wall Street's) fault, so "blaming" is just a realistic appraisal of cause & effect.  The problem is when you stop there, instead of figuring out ways to deal with the situation.

Likewise #9: You are unique, and oftentimes "the rules" are just there to keep you from opening the door of your cage.  Of course you have to apply a degree of intelligent selection to whether a particular rule applies to you.  You're not likely to get out of gravity, for instance.  On the other hand, aren't we all interested in breaking "the rule" that says we should spend all our income on consumer goods, and live life in constant debt 'til we retire on social security?

BPA

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Re: Thinking Errors/Cognitive Distortions
« Reply #5 on: May 17, 2013, 04:46:22 PM »
Except that quite often, it IS the (Republicans, Democrats, Wall Street's) fault, so "blaming" is just a realistic appraisal of cause & effect.  The problem is when you stop there, instead of figuring out ways to deal with the situation.

Likewise #9: You are unique, and oftentimes "the rules" are just there to keep you from opening the door of your cage.  Of course you have to apply a degree of intelligent selection to whether a particular rule applies to you.  You're not likely to get out of gravity, for instance.  On the other hand, aren't we all interested in breaking "the rule" that says we should spend all our income on consumer goods, and live life in constant debt 'til we retire on social security?

I agree with this.  For example, thanks to the government my pay is being cut, so I complain about that.  But I'm not complaining and giving up.  I'm doing something about it.  Re-examining where I can save.  Being involved in the protests against austerity budgets. And the like.

However, I do agree that lots of people just make excuses for why they are in the situations they are in without doing anything to help themselves.  And many of those people are the ones who post complainypants stuff about early retirement on mainstream media sites.

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!