Abstract
The current study aimed to investigate a recently observed significant positive relationship between other-referent upward counterfactual thinking and depressive symptoms in a Filipino sample by exploring whether collectivist harmony may determine when other-referent upward counterfactual thinking confers risk for depression. An online survey was completed by 598 university-educated residents of the Philippines (Mage = 29.74, SD = 10.27; Range = 18 to 71). As hypothesised, both other-referent upward counterfactuals and collective harmony were significantly positively associated with depression. A moderation analysis revealed that other-referent upward counterfactual thinking was positively related to depression at low and moderate levels of harmony but not at high levels of harmony. This interaction suggests that generating other-referent upward counterfactuals may increase depression among individuals who adhere to low or moderate harmony maintenance norms, and that individuals with high harmony are likely to experience high levels of depression irrespective of their generation of other-referent upward counterfactuals. However, the predictive effect of this interaction was small, which may limit its practical significance. Possible implications of these results are discussed.
Highlights
After a negative life event, people often imagine the good things that could have happened to them if not for other people’s actions
Other-referent upward counterfactuals and collective harmony were positively associated with depression, and advice was negatively associated with depression
In the current study, we assessed if the two domains of collectivism, that is, advice and harmony, may each have a different relationship with depression
Summary
After a negative life event, people often imagine the good things that could have happened to them if not for other people’s actions. Other-referent upward counterfactual thinking is a cognitive activity that pertains to envisioning how negative life events could have been better and how other people were responsible for such undesired outcomes (Callander, Brown, Tata, & Regan, 2007; Rye, Cahoon, Ali, & Daftary, 2008) (or “other-focussed”; Catellani & Bertolotti, 2014; Roese & Epstude, 2017). Individuals engage in other-referent upward counterfactual thinking activity to deflect blame; it has been postulated to play an important role in regulating negative affect (Roese & Epstude, 2017), including reducing depression symptoms (Rye et al, 2008). A recent study found a significant positive relationship between other-referent upward counterfactual thinking and depressive symptoms in a university-educated Filipino sample, suggesting the opposite effect (Broomhall & Phillips, 2018)
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