As we all know, emotions often get in our way of thinking clearly. They push us toward thinking in ways that may trap us in a bad situation or make a bad situation worse. We often learn ways of thinking that don't work from the important people in our lives, our family, our friends. We may adopt these ways of thinking because we are told by people that we look to for direction that this is the right way to think about things. Understanding where these thinking patterns come from may help us to recognize and dispute them.

K.L. Hill (2001, pp 65-66) and his colleagues have described in some detail these thinking traps.

1. All or nothing thinking.  This involves viewing events as either black or white.  For example, if a situation is less than perfect, you consider it a total failure.

2. Over-generalization. This is a tendency to view a single temporary event as a general or permanent state of affairs. We often use the words "never or always" when that simply is not an accurate description of what has occurred.