The CBT Cognitive Distortions are a set of ten recurrent errors in thinking described within cognitive behavioural therapy. Each names a characteristic way that automatic thoughts systematically bias the appraisal of the self, others, and the future.
This scale is a span-annotation instrument: tag the span where the subject expresses a distorted appraisal and label it with the distortion. The operational definitions and examples here are authored in-house and are not reproduced from any proprietary self-help text. Several distortions overlap — see each domain's Contrastive Learning section for how to choose between neighbours (e.g. Mental Filter vs Disqualifying the Positive, Labeling vs Overgeneralization).