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    Can you name these types of cognitive distortions?

    In each mini-scenario, can you identify the type of cognitive distortion being displayed? All of us are subject to cognitive errors, biases, and distortions throughout our daily lives.

    1

    M. has started to suspect that people at work dislike him and are talking about him behind his back. One day he walks into the break room and overhears a conversation about an unpleasant coworker. The others stop talking when he enters, so he is sure they were talking about him. He also starts to notice that it seems like people are laughing when he is around. He assumes that these incidents are proof that his coworkers dislike him. He does not consider the fact that many people stop by his desk to talk to him during the day and that he is often complimented on his teamwork. This is an example of:

    2

    J. takes an online personality test and is stunned by how accurate the following description of her special personality type is. She shows the report to four of her friends, and all four of them are surprised to discover that the description also applies to all four of them, but when they take the same personality test, they all get different results.

    3

    L. has invested a lot of his money in an online program in which he sells vitamin products, but the real money is supposed to come from recruiting others to sell the products and earning a profit for each new recruit. He has not made any money yet, since no one is buying the vitamins and he has not been able to recruit anyone, but the company keeps offering him expensive DVD's and books on how to improve his recruiting and sales. He keeps buying them, even though he doesn't really think they will help, because he doesn't want to just give up everything he's already invested in the project.

    4

    W. is working with a group of other students on a project about social programs for low-income families. She makes several suggestions about the direction the project should take, but they are not received well. She continues to make contributions that she thinks will be helpful, but doesn't understand why the group seems increasingly unwelcoming to her ideas. She quits the group and asks to be moved to another one, telling the professor her group was hostile. The professor explains that her group found her opinions and statements about low-income social groups offensive. She is quite shocked at this, because she thought her opinions were shared by the others.

    5

    O. is an athlete, and one day during a strenuous workout she pulls a muscle in her back. A friend suggests she try a magnetic belt, a product that is advertised as containing powerful magnets that increase blood flow and speed up the healing process. O. decides to wear the belt, and within a few days her back starts to feel much better. She decides the magnets definitely helped.