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Counterfactual thinking and functional differences in depression
Author(s) -
Quelhas Ana Cristina,
Power Mick J.,
Juhos Csongor,
Senos Jorge
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
clinical psychology and psychotherapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.315
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0879
pISSN - 1063-3995
DOI - 10.1002/cpp.593
Subject(s) - counterfactual thinking , psychology , depression (economics) , style (visual arts) , clinical psychology , contrast (vision) , cognition , function (biology) , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , history , archaeology , artificial intelligence , evolutionary biology , biology , computer science , economics , macroeconomics
The purpose of the studies reported in this paper was to evaluate the function of counterfactual thinking (CT) in depression. In Experiment 1, depressed and non‐depressed participants were asked to imagine themselves as the protagonist of a hypothetical situation, and to think counterfactually about three different scenarios. The results showed that there was a similar CT style (in terms of direction, structure and focus of mutation) for the depressed and the non‐depressed groups. It was also found that the perceived preparation for a future similar situation increased after CT and, contrary to our hypotheses, this effect was observed in both groups. In Experiment 2, a real‐life situation was used (a course examination) in which participants experienced a negative outcome (a poor score on the test). Again, it was observed that depressed and non‐depressed participants showed the same CT style, but non‐depressed participants were more likely to use CT spontaneously. In addition, the second study showed further differences between the two groups: depressed participants not only showed a lack of cognitive benefits from thinking counterfactually (i.e., after CT they do not feel more prepared for future similar events, nor able to avoid a similar bad outcome, in contrast to the non‐depressed participants), but also show a lack of behavioural changes (both intentions to change and actual changes over the subsequent week). In conclusion, these results provide evidence about the function of CT both in depressed and in non‐depressed thinking, and highlight both the similarities and differences for these two groups. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.