Abstract
Previous research has found that self-referent upward counterfactuals are associated with depression. However, empirical evidence regarding the way self-referent upward counterfactuals exert their ...
Highlights
Various cognitive models of depression suggest that engaging in negative self-referential cognitions evokes negative affect, which is an essential element in the development and maintenance of depression (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; Wisco, 2009)
The results indicate that generating highly frequent self-referent upward counterfactuals was associated with greater regret intensity, which in turn were associated with high levels of depressive symptoms; and that generating self-referent upward counterfactuals was no longer directly associated with depression after regret was added to the model
After including regret in the model, self-referent upward counterfactual thinking was no longer significantly associated with depression
Summary
Various cognitive models of depression suggest that engaging in negative self-referential cognitions evokes negative affect, which is an essential element in the development and maintenance of depression (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979; Wisco, 2009). When people generate self-referent upward counterfactuals, they compare a factual negative outcome with an imagined better outcome and blame themselves for their wrongful action and for failing to take the action required to produce the better outcome (Howlett & Paulus, 2013; Rye et al, 2008). They experience regret – the negative emotional concomitant of self-referent upward counterfactual thinking (Epstude & Roese, 2008). Examining this possibility is an important research aim of the current study
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