catastrophize

• catastrophise (non-Oxford British English)

From catastrophe +‎ -ize.

• IPA^(key): /kəˈtæstɹəfaɪz/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: ca‧tas‧tro‧phize

catastrophize (third-person singular simple present catastrophizes, present participle catastrophizing, simple past and past participle catastrophized)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To regard a bad situation as if it were disastrous or catastrophic.
2. (transitive, intransitive, psychology) To expose a behaviour pattern of seeking worst interpretation and magnifying disagreeable outcomes (of).
   • 1947, Tavistock Institute of Human Relations, University of Michigan Research Center for Group Dynamics, Human Relations:

     Particularly likely to overreact are those who tend to catastrophize (Ellis, 1962) and those who have Type A personalities (Friedman & Rosenman, 1974).

   • 2001, David H. Barlow, Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders:

     Another way to catastrophize is to jump to an extreme conclusion from an unimportant or irrelevant event.

   • 2017, LeeAnne B. Sherwin, Emily Leary, Wendy A. Henderson, “The association of catastrophizing with quality-of-life outcomes in patients with irritable bowel syndrome”, in Quality of Life Research‎, volume 26, number 8, →DOI:

     ndividuals who catastrophized reported worse health-related quality of life, higher psychological distress, and perceived more somatic symptoms, worse consequences, and more severe emotional impact as compared to those participants who did not catastrophize.

3. (obsolete) To end a comedy.

• ruminate
• doompost
• declinism
• deteriorationism
• negativity bias