CDI
Cognitive Distortions Inventory
The Cognitive Distortions Inventory explores the main thinking patterns addressed in CBT. Each distortion is assessed by five items spread across varied contexts in order to distinguish a stable cognitive tendency from a reaction tied to a particular situation. Designed as an aid to clinical observation, it supports hypothesis formulation, guides the interview, and helps target cognitive restructuring work.
- Number of questions
- 50 questions
- Estimated duration
- 12 minutes
- Language
- English
- Original name
- Cognitive Distortions Inventory
- Target audience
- Adults
- Category
- Depression, Anxiety, General
- Exploratory questionnaire
- Exploratory questionnaire
Preview of the 50 questions
Scoring & interpretation
Scoring
| Rigid demands ("should" / "must") | 13 / 20 |
Imposing absolute rules on oneself or on others, a source of guilt or disappointment.
Often involved in: perfectionism, performance anxiety, guilt, and exhaustion.
| Personalization / blame | 12 / 20 |
Taking responsibility for negative events that are not entirely within one's control.
Often involved in: excessive guilt, social anxiety, trauma, and abandonment/rejection schemas.
| Catastrophizing / negative anticipation | 11 / 20 |
Anticipating the worst and magnifying the seriousness or consequences of an upcoming event.
Often involved in: anxiety disorders, anticipatory anxiety, chronic pain, and hypochondria.
| Labeling | 11 / 20 |
Defining oneself or others by a global, fixed label rather than by a specific behavior.
Often involved in: low self-esteem, shame, depression, and personality patterns.
| Mind reading | 10 / 20 |
Inferring what others think without any evidence (most often to one's own disadvantage).
Often involved in: social anxiety, relationship difficulties, mistrust, and avoidance.
| Overgeneralization | 8 / 20 |
Drawing a general, definitive rule from a single negative event ("always," "never").
Often involved in: depression and anxiety disorders.
| Mental filter (selective abstraction) | 8 / 20 |
Retaining only the negative elements of a situation while overlooking its positive aspects.
Often involved in: depression and anxiety (negative attentional bias).
| Disqualifying the positive | 7 / 20 |
Actively rejecting or devaluing positive experiences, which are deemed unimportant or put down to chance.
Often involved in: depression, low self-esteem, and impostor syndrome.
| Dichotomous thinking (all-or-nothing) | 6 / 20 |
Perceiving situations in extreme categories, with no nuance or middle ground (total success or total failure).
Often involved in: depression, personality disorders, eating disorders, and perfectionism (cognitive rigidity).
| Emotional reasoning | 5 / 20 |
Treating one's emotions as proof of reality ("I feel it, so it must be true").
Often involved in: anxiety and depression (transdiagnostic mechanism).
No validated clinical or psychometric cutoffs have been established for this test yet. The results should therefore be considered exploratory indicators, meant to support the clinical interview, not diagnostic findings.
Summary
The responses highlight a high frequency of self-deprecating thoughts, a marked focus on negative aspects at the expense of successes, and a tendency to attribute difficulties to global personal causes. There is also a propensity to anticipate pessimistic scenarios, to doubt the sincerity of others, and to perceive social judgments unfavorably. Some items suggest a dichotomous view of oneself and of experiences, as well as a vulnerability to feelings of excessive responsibility and pronounced self-criticism. These elements could indicate fragile self-esteem and unfavorable cognitive patterns, potentially contributing to a persistently negative perception of oneself and of situations.
Each item is rated on a frequency scale from 0 (never) to 4 (very often). The score for each distortion identifies how frequent the thinking patterns are and helps guide the clinical interview. The higher the score, the more frequent the cognitive distortion.
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