Trauma group therapy worksheets
Are you a therapist looking for a worksheet to explain the overgeneralization cognitive distortion to clients? You’re in the right place.
This article describes this common thought error and provides examples of overgeneralization to explain to clients.
We’ve also included a free “What is overgeneralization?” worksheet to save to your electronic health record (EHR) and use in your practice.
What is overgeneralization?
You may have clients ask, “What is overgeneralization?”
Overgeneralization is a type of thought error called a cognitive distortion.
These thoughts skew your perception of reality, impacting your thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
When these thoughts are repeated, they become maladaptive, which can exacerbate symptoms of anxiety, depression, and dysphoria, and cause difficulties with self-confidence and emotional regulation.
When you have an overgeneralization cognitive distortion, you take one event or negative experience and draw sweeping conclusions or apply a statement, assuming the worst.
In this kind of negative self-talk, you might use words like “always,” “never,” “nobody,” or “everyone.”
Examples of overgeneralization cognitive distortions
If you have clients wondering what is overgeneralization, these examples show how this thinking pattern works in everyday life:
“I failed this test, so I’ll never succeed in school.”
“He didn’t return my call. Men always ignore me.”
“I’ve been dumped once, no one will ever love me again.”
“I always mess up.”
“I flunked that job interview. I’ll never find a job.”
“I needed to use my savings. I’m never going to be able to buy a house.”
“We had a fight about something stupid. I’m a terrible friend.”
“My boss didn’t approve my project proposal. He’s never going to approve me for a promotion.”
“I was ghosted again. I’m doomed to be alone for the rest of my life.”
“My kid got in trouble at school. Everyone is going to think I’m a terrible parent.”
“I missed two workouts this week. I’m always going to be fat.”
“I don’t understand what they were saying. I’m never going to pass this class.”
Other types of cognitive distortions
While understanding what is overgeneralization is important, there are many other types of thought errors, including:
Minimizing or magnification
This distortion involves minimizing or exaggerating the importance of a person, event, or action, such as refusing to take credit for something or thinking that your supervisor is the most important person in an organization.
Catastrophizing
This thought error involves dreading the worst possible outcome or predicting a disaster despite facts to the contrary or assurances from others.
Catastrophizing may involve dreading the worst or predicting a disaster. It is considered an exaggerated response, with accompanying escalating anxiety and worry, and may include questions like “what if?”
All-or-nothing thinking
Also called “polarized thinking” or “black-and-white thinking,” this type of distortion is extreme thinking, like believing you are doomed to fail or that everybody hates you.
Mind-reading
This thought error is common among children and teens. In this distortion, the person assumes they know what others are thinking.
“Should” statements
“Should” statements are often rooted in familial expectations and play out with statements like things “should” or “ought” to be done a certain way. When they’re not, anxiety can increase.
How to reframe cognitive distortions
The good news is that cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) makes it possible to understand the relationship between our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and reframe cognitive distortions like overgeneralization psychology into more helpful thoughts and behaviors.
The steps of cognitive restructuring include:
Identify the upsetting situation: How you interpret yourself, others, or the world. For example, being ghosted on a dating app.
Note the associated feelings and emotions: These feelings may be symptoms of anxiety and depression. For example, ghosting may result in feelings of rejection, isolation, or depression.
Identify the thoughts underlying the feelings: Review the list of cognitive distortions and identify the thought error. In this instance, thinking you'll always be rejected is what is overgeneralization—a thought error where you draw sweeping conclusions from a single negative experience.
Evaluate the unhelpful thought: Consider if the thought is accurate, if there is evidence to support it, or if there is an alternative way to think about the situation, person, or event. For example, you might consider that while the experience hurt, and the person could have acted differently, you don’t have any evidence to support your belief that this will always happen. Recognizing this overgeneralization cognitive distortion is the first step toward challenging it.
Reframe the thought: After evaluating its accuracy and considering alternative perspectives, find a more helpful or optimistic way to think about the situation. For example, you might say, “While this hurts, it doesn’t mean future connections will be the same.”
How to use the overgeneralization cognitive distortion worksheet
You can download and use the “What is overgeneralization?” worksheet in several ways.
For example, print or screen share the “What is overgeneralization?” worksheet as a psychoeducational session prompt.
Give the overgeneralization cognitive distortion worksheet to the client to remind them of what you discussed during therapy.
Ask the client to reflect on the activity worksheet between sessions, identify maladaptive beliefs and thought patterns like the overgeneralization cognitive distortion, and report their findings at their next therapy appointment.
You can also use it with other worksheets, such as an automatic thoughts worksheet, a challenging negative thoughts worksheet, or a CBT thought record worksheet.
Sources
American Psychological Association. (n.d). Handout 27.5: Steps of cognitive restructuring instructions.
American Psychological Association. (2017). What is cognitive behavioral therapy?
Crum, J. (2021). Understanding Mental Health and Cognitive Restructuring With Ecological Neuroscience.
Sokol, L., & Fox, M. G. (2020). The Comprehensive Clinician’s Guide to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. PESI.
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