This cognitive distortion consists of seeing the positive results of your actions as
smaller than they really are and the negative results of your actions as bigger than they
really are. It is sometimes called "catastrophizing" or, more informally,
"making a mountain out of a molehill." Like all-or-nothing thinking, it is a
favorite cognitive distortion of perfectionists. It seldom fails that early on in the
semester a student who has produced an excellent essay will come up to me and sheepishly
apologize for handing in such unadulterated trash. Often such students will give lengthy
and sorrowful explanations for why their elementary education was a failure or why they
were horrible students in high school or why work or childbearing had driven everything
they once knew about English right out of their heads. Surprisingly, these declarations
often come after I've told the student that he or she produced a good essay. I've had
several students actually drop the course after doing nothing but good work. People who
apologize for good work are almost always magnifying and minimizing. They see six comma
splices as more important than five pages of clear argument and sound evidence. They look
at their errors through binoculars, but when they look at their virtues, they turn the
binoculars around and look through the big end.
