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Styles of Counterfactual Thoughts in People with and without Signs of Depression

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2015

Juliana Sarantopoulos Faccioli  and
Patricia Waltz Schelini
Juliana Sarantopoulos Faccioli*
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil)
Patricia Waltz Schelini
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de São Carlos (Brazil)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Juliana Sarantopoulos. Av. Otto Werner Rosel, 1111. Cond. Moradas II. casa 466. Jardim Ipanema. CEP. 13563673. São Carlos (Brazil). Phone: +55–16991537088. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

People in a depressive state frequently believe that things could have happened differently in their lives, which is regarded as counterfactual thought. This study aimed to investigate whether the styles of counterfactual thought shown by people with indicating signs of depression and by people without any of those signs are different. Study participants were 42 adults divided into two groups: those with signs of depression and those without signs of depression. Five stories taken from newspapers and magazines and fictional scenarios were presented to the participants. After reading such stories, participants had to answer questions about how the narrated facts could have been different from what they actually were. Results indicated similar counterfactual thought styles in both groups (with and without depression signs). Most of the thoughts found were categorized as upward, subtractive, self-referent and that modified an aspect referred to action/inaction. A few significant differences between groups were observed, and most of them were obtained through directed modifications, in the last three stories. Some tendencies were shown in the group of people with signs of depression, such as those found for the subtractive category, t(40) = 2.33, p < .05, which can indicate a trend of possible failure in the preparatory function of CT, and in the hetero-referral function, t(40) = 1.97, p < .05, indicating a difficulty in thinking of different forms of action in the future. The removal of negative events may indicate that these experiences are not beneficial to people’s survival. These results may indicate some tendencies about how people in depressive states think about past events.

Keywords

imaginationchange of realitycounterfactual thinkingdepression
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 18 , 2015 , E55
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2015 

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