About

Maladaptive Pattern refers to a diagram demonstrating the difference between a "Maladaptive Pattern" of thought and thought "after cognitive restructuring. In the original diagram, the Maladaptive Pattern is demonstrated by a flow chart reading, "My boss yelled at me → 'I'm worthless' → Depression." The chart after cognitive restructuring reads, "My boss yelled at me → 'My boss was having a bad day' → No depression." After being posted to Twitter, the chart turned into an exploitable meme template in which various elements of the chart are replaced with other, more humorous labels.

Origin

On April 24th, 2021, Twitter user @AaronLinguini^[1] posted a chart they claimed to find in a psychology textbook showing the difference between a "maladaptive pattern" of thought and thought after "cognitive rescontruction." The tweet gained over 22,000 retweets and 209,000 likes (shown below).

Spread

Over the following week, the tweet inspired an exploitable template where users would replace various aspects of the chart. For example, on April 26th, 2021, Twitter user @acczibit^[2] posted an example featuring Ned Flanders, gaining over 100 retweets and 920 likes (shown below, left). On April 28th, Twitter user @gamewatchtoday^[3] posted an example about Overwatch (shown below, right).

The template spread beyond Twitter to other social media communities. For example, on April 28th, Redditor Prestigious_Leg_5179 posted an example to /r/DoTA2^[4] that gained over 470 points (shown below, left). On April 27th, iFunny^[5] user Dongerill posted a Chess-themed example (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References