Labelling and Mislabelling
Labelling is an extreme form of overgeneralisation in which, instead of simply describing a specific error, the person attaches a sweeping negative label to themselves as a whole. Mislabelling applies the same pattern to other people, describing their behaviour in highly coloured, emotionally loaded language rather than in more measured terms.
Illustration
After breaking his diet with a single slice of cake, a man calls himself 'a total weak-willed failure' rather than simply noting that he had a slip, and later that same day dismisses a driver who cuts him off in traffic as 'a selfish pig' based on a few seconds of behaviour.
References
- Casey, P. & Kelly, B. (2019). Fish's Clinical Psychopathology, 4th ed. Appendix II, 'Defences and Distortions'.