Deterministic Thinking and Mental Health: A Review Article

One of the most important cognitive distortions is ‘deterministic thinking’. It brings about cognitive rigidity, may be the source of all kinds of distortions, plays a destructive role in family- and society-based interactions, and leads to psychological problems. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of deterministic thinking, which was introduced by Younesi and Mirafzal in 2013, on mental health. We identified relevant studies through searching the computerized databases PsycINFO, ProQuest, Scopus, Iranian Scientific Information Database (SID) and Google Scholar. Additional relevant studies were identified through exploring the reference sections of studies found during the initial search. We retrieved a total of 11 studies, 5 of them indicated a positive significant correlation between deterministic thinking and immature defense mechanisms, anxiety, risky behaviors, and depression, and the remaining 6 showed a negative significant correlation between deterministic thinking and mature defense mechanisms, occupational stress, hope, mental health, creativity, emotional creativity and marital satisfaction. Although deterministic thinking plays a destructive role in individual interactions in family and society leading to psychological problems, in some situations or careers such as nursing it leads to the reduction of psychological problems.