Selective abstraction

In clinical psychology, selective abstraction is a type of cognitive bias in which a detail is taken out of context and believed whilst everything else in the context is ignored. It commonly appears in Aaron Beck's work in cognitive therapy. Another definition is, "focusing on only the negative aspects of an event, such as, ‘I ruined the whole recital because of that one mistake’" "Also known to be a cognitive distortion in generalized anxiety disorder, "when a person makes a judgment based on some information but disregards other information. Example: Someone attends a party and afterward focuses on the one awkward look directed her way and ignores the hours of smiles.".

Anxiety
Selective abstraction is also related to child depression. For instance, a team of researchers analyzed the association between cognitive errors in youths with anxiety disorders by using the Children’s Negative Cognitive Error Questionnaire (CNCEQ) and "several other self-reporting measures" (Children’s Depression Inventory, Childhood Anxiety Sensitivity Index, Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children-Trait Version). This particular test measured four cognitive distortions through four distinct subscales in order to "demonstrated acceptable internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and construct validity estimates" By assessing the CNCEQ, the researchers found that "measures of anxiety (i.e., trait anxiety, manifest anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity) and their cognitive errors (i.e., catastrophizing, overgeneralization, personalizing, and selective abstraction)" had significant connections with the depressed child participants"

Depression
Selective abstraction has also been linked to depression, in some scientific studies. Cognitive Behavioral researcher Maric, M., Heyne discovered "consistent findings have emerged with respect to the presence of speciﬁc cognitive errors in anxiety versus depression. ‘Selective abstraction’ is more commonly associated with depression than with anxiety"