Page 65 - My FlipBook
P. 65
but ignoring other important infor- absolutely right or absolutely wrong. thinking.
mation. For example, always quick to For example, when one wife says “I Apostle Paul, in his teaching iden-
notice the mistakes done by spouse wish you would have selected a yel-
or child, but never appreciate accom- low color saree, not the red,” and the tifies certain steps that would help for
plishments. husband thinks,” Nothing ever I do is cognitive restructuring. They are:
good enough.”
3. Over generalization: Generaliz- 1. Filtering: Using a filter for the
ing from one or two incidents to as- 7. Labeling and Mislabeling: At- thoughts is a major factor in Paul’s
signing someone a consistent, ongo- taching trait labels to self or others for view of cognitive restructuring. Paul
ing attribute. For example, the spouse what is essentially a single or small set states in Philippians 4: 8, “finally,
or child is declared completely unreli- of incidents. For example, declaring brethren, whatever things are true,
able because s/he became late once or oneself stupid when making a mis- whatever things are noble, whatever
twice to pick up the individual from take, or declaring their child as lazy things are just, whatever things are
the work place or school. when s/he declare desire to watch TV pure, whatever things are lovely, what-
rather than practice violin. ever things are of good report, if there
4. Magnification or Minimization: is any virtue and if anything praise-
making more or less out of a situation 8. Mind Reading: Belief that he or worthy – meditate on these things.”
or event that is warranted by the facts. she know what others are thinking.
For example, if an adolescent child This happens when couples, parent, Bible everywhere states that we can
gets B for her Biology on the report or children say they know what oth- restructure our thought pattern by fil-
card, the parents declare that their er people are going to say. It is a guess tering the thought life. It is a defeatist
child will never get into a medical that is framed in the negative more of- attitude to say that we simply cannot
school. Later, when the child’s grade ten than not. help it when our minds are filled with
improved, the parents lament that this unwelcome thoughts. A Successful
one time improvement didn’t really Most of the family conflicts are family relationship is possible if the
help the child much. caused by these eight cognitive dis- individual members of the family get
tortions. These distortions lead to rid of the evil thoughts restructuring
5. Personalization: A form of ar- automatic or irrational thoughts them to positive by meditating on
bitrary inference that occurs when (schemas) that turn into pre-set, per- more noble and positive thoughts.
external events are attributed to one- sonal positions. These schemas gener- The present day psychologist and psy-
self without sufficient evidence. For ally lead individuals to look at self and chotherapist have come to agree with
instance, when the husband makes a others in a narrow and self-prescribed Apostle Paul in stressing the dangers
comment about a neighbor’s weight, ways. These cognitive distortions nar- of the negative thinking.
the wife takes it to mean, “he thinks I row automatic thoughts in individuals
am fat.” in the family which in turn produces Thought filtering helps to chal-
negative feelings that leads to distort- lenge the automatic /irrational
6. Dichotomous Thinking: clas- ed behavior. To facilitate change dys- thoughts (2 Corinthians 10:5). Cog-
sifying experiences as all or nothing, functional families to functional, it nitive Behavioral family therapists
always or never, complete success or is important to help the members to suggest that cognitive restructuring
failure, totally good or totally bad, identify and correct faulty or disorder and development of new thought pat-
“ Filtering our thoughts
helps the couples or
parents, and children
to skillfully judge and
carefully regulate the
automatic thoughts.
63 10CELEBRA TING
years
of god’s faithfulness
