Self-serving Cognitive Distortions among Adolescents with Externalizing and Internalizing Syndromes: A Comparative Study

Pages: 272-277
Ushasi Banerjee, Sanjukta Das, and Atanu Kumar Dogra (Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Self-serving cognitive distortions are inaccurate or rationalizing attitudes, thoughts or beliefs concerning one’s own or other’s social behavior and inaccurate ways of attending or conferring meaning on experience. Such distortions often have associations with psychosocial factors like stressful life evens, personality, and psychopathology. The aim of our study was to find whether any significant association exists between such psychosocial factors and self-serving cognitive distortions for three groups (n for each group=30) of adolescents. Three groups of adolescents were included in the study. Group A: externalizing; Group B: internalizing; Group C- non-clinical group. Findings revealed high loading of cognitive distortions in adolescents with externalizing syndromes. Significant association between cognitive distortions and certain personality factors and psychopathology measures were found separately for each group. The study holds important implications for cognitive behavior therapy for treating adolescents who develop problem behaviors during their growing up age.