Quotes About Overgeneralization

All generalizations are bad.

As Beck and other cognitive therapists have emphasized, much of what constitutes a depression is centered around responding to one awful thing and overgeneralizing from it—cognitively distorting how the world works.

The cause of the onset of overgeneralization [of regular past tense forms to irregular verbs] is not a change in vocabulary statistics, but some endogenous change in the child's language mechanisms.

Avoid context and specifics; generalize and keep repeating the generalization.

Burns lists ten "cognitive distortions," such as all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, disqualifying the positive, jumping to conclusions, and giving ourselves labels. By understanding these distortions, we are led to the awareness that "feelings aren't facts," they are only mirrors of our thoughts.

Overgeneralization. You generalize from some specific flaw, failure, or mistake to your entire self. Or you may generalize the way you feel right now, or some negative experience you've just had, to the future.

Definitions of Cognitive Distortions

ANT Species of ANT Kill the ANT You never listen to me. "Always/Never" Thinking I get frustrated when you don't listen to me, but I know you have listened to me and will again. The boss doesn't like me. Mind Reading I don't know that. Maybe she's just having a bad day. Bosses are people, too. The whole class will laugh at me. Fortune-telling I don't know that. Maybe they'll really like my speech.