Essay Example on Counterfactual Thinking: What Could Have Been and Was Not?

Introduction

A suitable expression to understand what counterfactual thinking is would be "what could have been and was not." Counterfactual thinking has to do with the mental creation of different alternatives about events that have taken place in the past (Broomhall, Phillips, Hine, & Loi, 2017). The mind has a great tendency to build this type of thought that, if a person does not know how to control and manage, can generate emotional and behavioral problems. They refer to events that contradict the facts and that are linked to feelings of discomfort, regret, or feelings of guilt. Counterfactual thinking starts when one makes a mistake and fails to reach a goal. At that moment, a reasoning pattern is set in motion that tells a person what he should have done to achieve that goal but did not do. The problem is that the events involved in achieving the goal can no longer be changed, and therefore the satisfactory result is no longer within the person’s reach. The error is irreversible.

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Activation of counterfactual thoughts occurs when one fails to meet an established goal, and follows a pattern of reasoning that specifies what would have had to happen to accomplish that goal. The problem, of course, is that the events involved in achieving that goal are no longer modifiable, nor is the initially stipulated achievement likely to be achieved. In every counterfactual, there is a process of underlying causal inference, which is expressed by the antecedent conditional clause and the consequent clause (Broomhall & Phillips, 2018). For this reason, counterfactuals play a role in reasoning, causal attributions, and decision-making. Thus, when faced with a negative result in a given situation, the counterfactual simulation of an alternative hypothetical scenario allows comparing different possibilities of the same event and establishing causal links that may be useful to face similar future contingencies. Playing through fictional scenarios triggers negative feelings in people, such as remorse for mistakes made.

Counterfactual Thinking and Depression

Counterfactual thinking is helpful when used to build a favorable scenario, but it becomes pernicious and dysfunctional when it only promotes feelings of guilt about past events that can no longer be modified (Roese & Epstude, 2017). An adequate dose of thinking about the reasons why one made mistakes can be beneficial, it can help a person make better decisions in the future. But entering into a persistent and blaming debate about the inadequacy of the decision one made is going to harm that person substantially.

Problem-focused thoughts and repetitive thoughts predict higher psychological distress and coping behaviors that are not productive. In the context of counterfactual reasoning, and as pathology, mention must be made of what is called “rumination”. Rumination is a recurring thought in which a lot of time is spent unproductively (Mitchell, Contractor, Dranger, & Shea, 2016). Rumination manifests itself between a perceived, real state, and a desired one, in this case, an “if I had”, and they can be perpetuated in a depressed state. When this is the case, counterfactual thinking and mental ruminations finally lead to extreme situations: for example, they encourage bipolar disorders and suicidal risks, addictions of all kinds, anger, and even heightened perfectionism.

In people with depression, counterfactual thinking and rumination go through frequent and repetitive thoughts about feelings of sadness, apathy, and depression. Concerning this dysfunctionality, worry and counterfactual thinking generate in the person who suffers them a great discomfort that has been associated with many psychological disorders. Regret is closely related to counterfactual thinking (Broomhall et al., 2017). Regret generates a negative emotional state, with some pain and discomfort that is identified with loss and error. Regret can come given by the commission or the omission of conduct, and controllable or accidental. From counterfactual thinking, one can reach a process of regret or criticism of oneself, which in turn leads to a strong feeling of guilt. Sometimes regret or guilt becomes an overly present, tireless thought. Faced with attempts to think accurately, the critical internal dialogue becomes too strong. One aggressive thought follows another in a process called chaining. Each of those chained thoughts has an underlying theme, the mistake, or the wrong decision made. When a person falls into such a state, depression intensifies, mood falls, and negative emotions such as sadness, hopelessness, or apathy emerge.

The counterfactual contrast between reality and what could have been induces or amplifies the so-called "counterfactual emotions" such as frustration, regret, guilt or shame, typical emotions associated with rising counterfactuals, or feelings of relief, satisfaction, well-being and luck, characteristic of descending counterfactuals (Sirois, Monforton, & Simpson, 2010). The contrasts between reality and its alternatives, derived from a counterfactual, cause a kind of compensation between events and emotions. That is, in descending counterfactuals, the imaginary alternative is negative and the accompanying feeling is one of consolation; on the other hand, in upward counterfactuals the imaginary alternative is positive and the feelings it provokes are negative, such as the feeling of regret.

Individual Differences in the Use of Contractual Thinking

Research conducted by Gallup-Healthways established that women more optimistic than men regarding their lives (Rudow, 2011). Contractual thinking is different between optimistic and pessimistic people. Optimistic people would tend to generate more bottom-up counterfactuals than pessimists. Moreover, an optimistic person may eventually use downstream counterfactuals, thus celebrating being saved from a bad result, for example, a traffic accident.

The functionality of the ascending or descending counterfactual will depend on the type of problem situation, the degree to which it encourages the development of appropriate actions, and the intensity of the resulting emotion (Mitchell et al., 2016). All this leads to a balance between cost and benefit and apparently, both would be balanced in someone with an optimistic personality. Instead, certain negative personality traits can determine the use of upward counterfactuals, as is the case of pessimistic people who tend to attribute negative results to their performance or even their way of being. For individuals with negligent or complacent behavior, those who leave everything for tomorrow, their case is different as well. In these cases, the frequency of use of descending counterfactuals is higher, since they use counterfactual reasoning to compensate and maintain their defeatist behavior in the face of stressful events in everyday life.

All of the above indicates that the type of counterfactual depends on the personality of the individual, but also on external factors such as the particular situation in which the events occur. Thus, in situations where an individual knows beforehand that he will face a repetitive task, the production of ascending type counterfactuals will increase. According to Feng et al. (2017), personality differences not only determine the type of counterfactual most used, but also differences in manual lateralization also predict trends in the use of counterfactuals.

Conclusion

Counterfactual thoughts are an important form of mental stimulation, with significant cognitive functions, which can affect the social functioning of the individual. People tend to imagine what could have happened to try to prevent bad results in the future and feel better about situations that have occurred. Counterfactuals are useful to modify behaviors in recurring situations in the short term, in which case the regret that leads to a negative result is an incentive for the near future; however, the grief caused by decisions about unique events, such as having chosen a career poorly, can last a lifetime and the possibility of correcting that mistake may never happen. People with depression have a higher number of occurrences of counterfactual thinking than those without depression, which may suggest that people with depression are more attached to past events.

References

Broomhall, A. G., Phillips, W. J., Hine, D. W., & Loi, N. M. (2017). Upward counterfactual thinking and depression: A meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 55(7), 56-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.04.010

Broomhall, A. G., & Phillips, W. J. (2018). Self-referent upward counterfactuals and depression: Examining regret as a mediator. Cogent Psychology, 5(1), 1416884. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1080/23311908.2018.1440996

Feng, X., Gu, R., Liang, F., Broster, L. S., Liu, Y., Zhang, D., & Luo, Y. J. (2015). Depressive states amplify both upward and downward counterfactual thinking. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 97(2), 93-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.04.016

Mitchell, M. A., Contractor, A. A., Dranger, P., & Shea, M. T. (2016). Unique relations between counterfactual thinking and DSM–5 PTSD symptom clusters. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 8(3), 293-300. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000089

Roese, N. J., & Epstude, K. (2017). The functional theory of counterfactual thinking: New evidence, new challenges, new insights. Advances in experimental social psychology, 56(1), pp. 1-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.aesp.2017.02.001

Rudow, H. (2011). Strength in numbers: women are more optimistic than men because of their close friendships. A Publication of the American Counseling Association Journal, 1. Retrieved from https://ct.counseling.org/2011/10/strength-in-numbers-women-are-more-optimistic-than-men-because-of-their-close-friendships/

Sirois, F. M., Monforton, J., & Simpson, M. (2010). “If only I had done better”: Perfectionism and the functionality of counterfactual thinking. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 36(12), 1675-1692. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167210387614