Do you mean to say that you're not interested in ego-syntonic disorders or disorders that affect personality but are caused by other factors (e.g., genetic diseases, brain damage)? Many of these relate to cognitive rigidity as well. +1 BTW! (And boo @ whoever downvoted without commenting!)

@NickStauner: I'm not very skilled, I'm very interested in understanding if cognitive rigidity can lead to OCD, anxious problems and so on.. ps: thanks! I share your idea for who downvotes without comments!

Interesting question- have you tried doing any library searches of academic material on the subject? What, if anything, did you see there?

@rmayer06: No.. I don't know where to search..

If you are in school, I would start with the library (for example, lib.iastate.edu has a search right on the front page that will at a minimum return abstracts). Otherwise I've found google scholar to be helpful (but not as good as a library search)

What exactly is a dysfunctional belief? And what's a functional one? Is there a definition?

@TomášZato: I think disfunctional usually is referred to a behavior or a personality trait. But is your observation polemic? Do you personally think it's impossible to state that something is disfunctional? If yes, maybe, you are losing your time to confirm your beliefs (then look to rationalization and confirmation bias on wikipedia and wonder why you have this push).

@Revious I'm sure that anything can be considered dysfunctional as soon as you define for what purpose it was created. If patient's fear of spiders leaves him lying on the ground with a shock his fear his dysfunctional as it no longer protects him from harm. I hoped you'd make an analogous explanation for your case instead of trying to make me look like I was compensating for something or whatever did you mean by talking about my beliefs. I think there is no reason to be personal. Please clarify your question.

@TomášZato: sorry, but I didn't understand you completely. But I'm strongly motivated to not go further in speaking with you since it seems me a futile philosophical speculation on what's the scope of life. Of course you could argue even that is not functional to exist. So what's the pro of a similar discussion? Thanksfor your contribution.

@Revious I'm so kind that I won't give up on you. I'm asking what's a dysfunctional belief. That's a key point in your question. I know what's a false belief - person believes in something is not proven to be true. But if someone believes that the good always wins is he or his belief dysfunctional because that doesn't seem to be true? I think that's highly individual and therefore not a general fact. However please stop trying to address meaningfulness of my posts if you're not able to directly specify what's incorrect.

On another point I have to remind you I wasn't asking whether a life is/can be functional. I was asking you to define this about belief. And because you impose there might be people with dysfunctional beliefs I suppose we must agree that this term is discutable, as it can be decided in a (yes/no) way.7

@TomášZato: I've asked for a moderator's help. Thanks for your efforts. ps: you can read some interesting stuff here, but I'm really not interested to have a conversation with you. google.at/…

@Revious Moderators help in what point? I think you're kind of missing the principle of SE network. If you post a question/answer that has missing information you should define it. You should be also able to justify your reasoning instead of "asking moderators help" - except for the case somebody was bullying you, which is not the case really. Or do you think I didn't respect you or your reasoning? Actually you're doing what you complain in your very own question - you hold some belief that your question is correct and you totally refuse discuss it.

You started by trying to insult me (you said that I'm trying to start a debate in effort to prove by own belief, further unspecified). After this failed (because I'm used to people who get aggressive when someone asks uncomfortable questions), you withdrew, posted a link instead of explaining and asked a moderator for help. Then you refuse to discuss it. (as in "I would suspect that people that have very strong beliefs and never question them")

@TomášZato: you wrote a lot :D, I guess you have a lot of free time (I read almost nothing of what you wrote). Read this article: waitbutwhy.com/2013/10/…, all what you are doing is trying to avoid to change your ideas focusing on other stuff and using you MUST related to a ideological point.

I don't see why didn't you still point out what's, in a scientific and exact form, dysfunctional belief. If you're so sure you've all the arguments why do you keep this thread grow instead of getting rid of me by an answer? Also, as you keep replying the link about procrastination applies to you as well. As of the last sentence, you're probably mixing German and English grammar because I don't get it. And stop trying to mentor or insult me please. I really do not like it.

@TomášZato: sorry, I don't have time for your plays. Enjoy!

@Revious suddenly so overwhelmed... Asking more questions why people are evil instead of talking with them?

@TomášZato: in 5 years read again your insistence and compare with a children behavior. There is only one way to "survive" a discussion against a children: ignoring him. Rationality can show everything. If you are, like I strongly believe, motivated to waste your time the best I can do is ignoring you. I can be of course completely wrong, but the more you insist the more I think I'm right. (since it's very evident the emotional push, and the attempt to improve others idea to avoid working on our own). So, if your motivation is to help me, sorry I don't want it. If you want to study what is

a disfunctional belief, you can use google. If your motivation is to improve your self esteem you can find better ways, if you want to pump your ego I'm not interested in this game. I really don't have time. Probably you could go on for hours, days or months (what pushes you??? is it functional for your life?).

You think civilised discussion is based on ignoring the other person? Or am I not being civilised? Let me show you a quote from the answer to your very own question: "[...] people's natural tendency is to hold on even tighter to those beliefs rather than to reassess their position.". Sounds much like you.

Did you actually read the article as you claim? I think I should upvote that answer and post this as an evidence of it being right - instead of relating with me, you're ridiculing me. Great example of the backfire effect. My improve is to make sure the flavour of SE network is clean of people who don't like straight questions and answers. Normal forums were developed for more open discussion and you'd be welcome there, especially if you don't pretend everyone who's asking a question you don't like is a stupid child.

Anyway, you're still not ignoring me, you just swayed the original topic of this discussion to questioning my rationality, which is what you've been trying to do all the time. You still did not answer my original question. If you've read those articles you should know the definition by heart.

@TomášZato: you look - to me - like a child which says to a girl: "since you said this you have to kiss me, you have, you have, you have". Like if a rational arguing would change stuffs (ps: I've read only the last of your 3 comments)

More insults... You're proof of what you keep complaining about - you don't relate, you insult m

You don't answer questions.

Yes, you didn't promise to, but there must be a terrible reason to avoid answer if you'd instead undergo this nasty debate to do so.

@TomášZato: I think I was harsh before and I'd like to apologize with you.

for dysfunctional beliefs I mean beliefs which leads to a dysfunctional behavior.

For dysfunctional I mean something which is leading to be unadaptive and thus to suffer

I haven't studied psychology, but as far as I know, there is a formal definition for dysfunctional beliefs

I understood what you meant, but not by a scientific way. Like I know that someone who thinks people of different color are bad is something wrong with him. But that think is so dificult to grasp, isn't it?

You could say that a christian has a dysfunctional belief because he does something weird...

if I have well understood (my english is not mother language...) I agree.. it's hard to state what is dysfunctional

Anyway I'm glad you've changed your mind!

I agree that it's not easy to speak of this topic, but functional should be very near to adaptive..

thanks.. I've realized that my harsh behavior was not related to you, but to some people I've met before...

Should it? Most adaptive people do jobs they hate to buy things they don't need and they are sad and suffering.

I accept your apology and respect it, as accepting mistake something only a real man (or woman) can do.

however have you ever suffered DOC? or anxious attack?

I mean.. being able to give a definition of something may be hard

and we could try to argue that having a panic attack is not dysfunctional

but then I think we would really get philosofical

It is. When people ask me about something I can't explain I just tell them I can't explain it

I just say: I feel this way. I can't help myself sorry.

But you can't afford this on scientific forum. That's why I was being picky about it.

but I think the definition of dysfunctional is scientifically given

Might be. I don't know. If it is your question can be re-opened and get a good answer.

however my question had probably something wrong..

May I ask: Didn't you feel that I'm advocating for whoever motivated to ask you that question?

As of your other question I see people being irational are troubling you.

yes..

I can only tell you I feel the same. But it might happen anyone gets irational. Me, you, master Yoda...

yes, you know.. I'm also insisting a lot when I'm right.. (you were right this time)

I just suggest you never let your feelings take over. Like, some of the things you said made me feel uncomfortable. But so many did the same before that I just ignore the uneasy feeling.

Once somebody does this to you just do the same. If you don't let them piss you off, they'll lose.

yes.. I am sorry however.. when I read your first sentence again, I realized that I was wrong..

My girlfriends mother is a very irational person at the moment. I'd like to yell the nastiest things at her, but what would be the point?

probably it wouldn't help..

My point is, that I feel with you but I have doubts that current science can deal with this bigh problem.

I think science cannot tell us what is "good" or "better" or "fair" or..

And I also noticed that people are arguing irational when they are afraid to admit something. That wasn't so much your case, but might give you an idea how to deal with them

And when I say deal with them I mean a positive result - not ridiculing them or making them cry.

yes, I hate when people are not admitting something..

But god save you if you're wrong.

:D

I think not admitting things is a behavior deeply rooted in all cultures.

it's a very interesting point..

This also leads to people being afraid to say they were wrong.

often it's hard to state if it comes from something ancient or if it's the "natural" point where society tend to bring everyone's psychology

it's something that I strongly hate..

(people unable to say: "I was wrong")

But it might not be so much their fault. We're thought not to be wrong so that we're afraid to make mistakes...

And you can't be so sure that it's a bad thing if you don't want everybody making mistakes all the time and saying "Sorry I was wrong".

probably you centered the point..

This is as far as I got thinking about these things.

I think the problem is not rooted thousand of years ago

beyond it's the world of "what would things be if they were different"

what do you mean?

I mean that us not admitting mistakes because it motivates us not to do them is something that's so bound with the world you can't argue how would things be if this was different

It's too much to make a guess what would world like if noone was afraid to say "I was wrong."

maybe beautiful

maybe lacking any humans