Minimisation of the positive is when you dismiss or downplay good things that happen or your own strengths. Learning to acknowledge positives properly can help you build a more balanced and realistic view.
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Dr Harriet Mellotte
Clinical Psychologist & CBT Therapist, BABCP
“Offload is a fantastic resource for both clients and therapists. The world of CBT has been lacking an app which enables the sharing of CBT worksheets and homework tasks between clients and therapists, but Offload completely does this, making the service we offer more professional and the benefits to clients greater.”
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Wang, B. et al. (2023). Cognitive distortion based explainable depression detection and analysis. — Includes minimization (downplaying positives) as a key cognitive distortion linked with depression-related thinking patterns. Arpacıoğlu, S. et al. (2024). Cognitive distortions as barriers to seeking smoking cessation treatment. Journal of Clinical Medicine — Finds that “minimizing the positive” beliefs are elevated in people avoiding treatment, showing real-world effects of this distortion. Deperrois, R. (2019). Links between cognitive distortions and cognitive emotion regulation. Psychology Conference paper — Discusses minimization in the broader context of cognitive distortions and emotion regulation, supporting its conceptual relevance.
