Depression is one of the leading causes of failure among students nowadays. Oftentimes, this starts from misconceptions, erroneous beliefs, and expectations in life—negativism. Psychologist Aaron Beck sorted out these thoughts into following:
All-or-nothing thinking. There are no grays; everything is either black or white, as, for instance, a student who thinks that 3.00 in a list of 1.00 makes him a failure.
Overgeneralization. Because of one bad experience, you expect nothing good to happen. Because you failed in one quiz, you thought you’d flunk the whole course.
Automatic discounting. Everything good is treated as due to chance, as in Filipino way of saying tsamba lang when congratulated.
Magnification and minimization. You magnify your weakness and minimize your strengths, as teenagers dwelling on one small pimple and letting it ruin their whole day.
Should statement. Rather than doing something spontaneously, you focus on the should’s, as in “I should study because I do not want to fail,” rather than focusing on the joys of learning itself.
Personalization. When something bad happens, you feel it is your entire fault, as in the student who wails, “It’s all my fault!” when it rains during outdoor programs.
Mind-reading. You assume that others look down on you even without checking it thoroughly, as in “I will not try out for singing contest, since the judges will never like my voice anyway.”
The most effective way to prevent these paradigms is to engage in cognitive thinking—to change these beliefs in order to prevent irrational thoughts that can cause depression.
Adapted
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