Year: 2021
Type: dissertation
Abstract: According to previous research, a person’s tendency to think counterfactually is related to their levels of life satisfaction and their goal-setting patterns. That research, however, has primarily tested these relationships using either direct counterfactual prompts or self-recollection reports, neither of which are able to sufficiently address the role of personally relevant and presently occurring counterfactual thoughts. To address these serious methodological shortcomings, using a sample of university students (N = 110) this study attempted to prompt counterfactual thoughts through a novel approach. In doing so this study made use of the counterfactual mindset and correlated the occurrence of counterfactual thoughts and their content with participants’ reports of life satisfaction and their self-described relevant life goals. Generally, the results were not definitive. Despite the statistically ambiguous results, interesting avenues for exploration in the realm of counterfactual thinking were discovered; namely, the notion of counterfactual pondering, a unique form of counterfactual thought that appears to have gone unaddressed and unspecified in previous counterfactual literature. Results, limitations, future directions, and implications of the present study are discussed.
Author: Kieran Waitschies
Language: English
Topic: Mind wandering and attention
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3194519552