Global Labeling

Global labeling, also termed as mislabeling, is an irrational way of thinking characterized by merely using one or two encounters as a general assumption of someone’s personality or behavior. People with this unhealthy cognition do not try to understand the context of an action. For example, during the first day of classes, a teacher was a bit late and one of the students already branded him as a “sloppy teacher”. Global labeling is one of the most common types of cognitive distortions based on Aaron Beck’s cognitive theory. These different types were developed by David Burns, a student of Beck.