Cognitive distortions — Systematic thinking errors that affect perception of reality. Examples: catastrophizing, black-and-white thinking, personalization.
Rationalization — Unconscious justification of actions, thoughts, or feelings with logical or socially acceptable explanations that conceal the true motivations.
Catastrophizing — Tendency to imagine the worst possible outcome of a situation and treat it as inevitable. One of the most common cognitive distortions in anxiety and depression.
Black-and-white thinking — Tendency to evaluate experiences in extreme categories without intermediate nuances. Everything is perfect or disastrous, all or nothing. Also called dichotomous or polarized thinking.
Personalization — Tendency to attribute responsibility for external negative events to oneself without sufficient basis. Believing that everything happening around is related to oneself.
Overgeneralization — Drawing a general conclusion from a single incident or scanty evidence. Using words like 'always,' 'never,' 'everyone,' 'nobody' to describe patterns based on isolated cases.
Emotional reasoning — Taking emotions as evidence of reality: 'I feel worthless, therefore I must be worthless.' Confusion between feeling and being.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy — Therapeutic model focused on the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors, with extensive evidence of efficacy for multiple disorders.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy — Therapeutic approach developed by Marsha Linehan combining cognitive-behavioral techniques with acceptance and mindfulness principles, originally designed for borderline personality disorder.
Rationality — The capacity to think and act according to reason, distinguishing epistemic rationality (believing true things) from instrumental rationality (achieving goals).
Cognitive Biases — Systematic tendencies in human thinking that deviate judgment from rational norms. Tversky and Kahneman's heuristics and biases program.
Bayesian Reasoning — Application of Bayes' theorem as a normative model for updating beliefs in light of new evidence.
Effective Altruism — A philosophical and social movement that applies evidence-based reasoning to determine the most effective ways to benefit others.
Learned Helplessness — A psychological state in which an organism ceases attempts to escape aversive stimuli after repeated experiences of uncontrollability.
Anxiety — An emotional state characterized by feelings of tension, worry, and physiological changes that can range from a normal adaptive response to a debilitating disorder.
Depression — A mood disorder characterized by persistent sadness, loss of interest, and cognitive, emotional, and physiological changes that significantly affect daily functioning.
Mindfulness — The practice of deliberately paying attention to the present moment with an attitude of openness, curiosity, and acceptance.
Cognitive Dissonance — Psychological discomfort caused by simultaneously holding two or more contradictory cognitions, motivating the person to reduce the inconsistency by modifying beliefs or behaviors.
Placebo Effect — A therapeutic improvement produced by an inert treatment, attributable to patient expectations, the care context, and endogenous neurobiological mechanisms.
Mental Filtering — Tendency to focus exclusively on negative details of a situation, filtering out all positive information. The entire experience becomes colored by a single negative element.
Should Statements — Rigid thinking pattern based on inflexible rules about how things should be. Generates guilt when applied to oneself and anger when applied to others.
Labeling — Extreme form of overgeneralization consisting of assigning a fixed, global label to oneself or others instead of describing specific behavior. 'I'm a loser' instead of 'I made a mistake.'
Intelligence — General capacity for adaptation, learning, and problem-solving. One of the most debated concepts in psychology, with multiple theories about its structure and measurement.