Counseling Theories Practice Test

Selective abstraction is a cognitive distortion where you fixate on a single detail of an event and draw a broad, negative conclusion from it, ignoring other information that would provide a fuller view. Because only that isolated piece is considered, the interpretation becomes distorted. For example, if one coworker frowns, you might conclude you’re disliked by everyone, overlooking the possibility that they’re stressed, had a rough morning, or that their mood isn’t about you. That single detail drives the overall judgment. This description matches the idea of forming a distorted conclusion from an isolated detail. The other options describe different patterns: overgeneralization expands one detail into many situations; focusing on the overall context rather than details is the opposite of selective abstraction; and predicting future outcomes from past events is about forecasting rather than distorting a present interpretation.