ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses a major derivative extreme attitude and its non-extreme counterpart, namely awfulizing and non-awfulizing attitudes. An awfulizing attitude is predicated on the idea that it is bad when an adversity happens to us. Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) hypotheses that non-extreme, non-awfulizing attitudes stem from the flexible attitudes a person may hold. In self-defeating anxiety reactions leading to avoidance behaviour, the rigid demand for flawless performance, and the derivative extreme attitude that it is awful to perform imperfectly, figure prominently. The awfulizing attitudes derived from core rigid attitudes, are hypothesized to play a significant role in emotional and behavioural disturbances. A healthier concerned response for performing well at an important task which would likely not lead to avoidance and rumination would be to hold flexible attitudes towards performing imperfectly as well as non-extreme derivative attitudes towards the possibility of performing imperfectly.
