All-Or-Nothing Thinking
All-or-nothing thinking (often also referred to as ‘black and white thinking’, ‘dichotomous thinking’, ‘absolutist thinking’, or ‘binary thinking’) is a common form of cognitive distortion or ‘unhelpful thinking style’. People who think in all-or-nothing terms may also act in equivalently extreme ways. They may veer, for example, between complete abstinence and ‘binges’, or between extreme effort and none. The All-Or-Nothing Thinking information handout forms part of the cognitive distortions series, designed to help clients and therapists to work more effectively with common thinking biases.
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Introduction & Theoretical Background
A brief introduction to cognitive distortions
Cognitive distortions, cognitive biases, or ‘unhelpful thinking styles’ are characteristic ways in which our thoughts can become biased (Beck, 1963). As conscious beings we are always interpreting the world around us, trying to make sense of what is happening. Sometimes our brains take ‘short cuts’ and we think things that are not completely accurate, and different cognitive short cuts result in different kinds of bias or distortions in our thinking. Sometimes we might jump to the worst possible conclusion (“this rough patch of skin is cancer!”), at other times we might blame ourselves for things that are not our fault (“If I hadn’t made him angry he wouldn’t have hit me”), and at other times we might rely on intuition and jump to conclusions (“I know that they all hate me even though they’re being nice”).
Different cognitive biases are associated with different clinical
Therapist Guidance
“Many people struggle with all-or-nothing thinking, and it sounds as though you suffer from it too. Would you be willing to explore it with me?”
Clinicians may consider giving clients helpful psychoeducation about automatic thoughts more generally and dichotomous thinking in particular:
- Automatic thoughts are those which spring up spontaneously in your mind, in the form of words or images.
- They are often on the ‘sidelines’ of our awareness. With practice, we can become more aware of them. It is a bit like a theatre – we can bring our automatic thoughts ‘centre stage’.
- In life-or-death situations it can be good to make quick decisions. One example is making a quick judgment “is this good or is this bad?”. We are all capable of all-or-nothing thinking because it can be useful for simplifying situations so that we can make quick decisions.
- Automatic thoughts are not always accurate: just because you
References And Further Reading
- Beck, A. T. (1963). Thinking and depression: I. Idiosyncratic content and cognitive distortions. Archives of General Psychiatry, 9(4), 324-333.
- Beck, A. T. (1964). Thinking and depression: II. Theory and therapy. Archives of General Psychiatry, 10(6), 561-571.
- Beck, J. S. (1995). Cognitive therapy: Basics and beyond. New York: Guilford press.
- Beck, A. T., Freeman, A., Davis, D. D., & Associates. (2004). Cognitive therapy of personality disorders. 2nd ed. New York: The Guilford Press.
- Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive–behavioral therapy of depression. New York: Guilford Press.
- Bonfá‐Araujo, B., Oshio, A., & Hauck‐Filho, N. (2021). Seeing Things in Black‐and‐White: A Scoping Review on Dichotomous Thinking Style. Japanese Psychological Research.
- Egan, S. J., Piek, J. P., Dyck, M. J., & Rees, C. S. (2007). The role of dichotomous thinking and rigidity in perfectionism. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45(8), 1813-1822.
- Flavell, J. H. (1979). Metacognition and cognitive monitoring: A new area of cognitive–developmental