Counterfactual thinking
Counterfactual thinking (alternative versions of one’s personal past) refers to the comparison of reality to hypothetical alternatives (“what if I had made different choices”).
People create counterfactual alternatives to reality when they imagine how things would have turned out differently. Imagined alternatives may trigger guilt, remorse, and shame. However, thoughts about how things could have turned out differently provide a roadmap for change.
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Counterfactual Thinking
There are two types of counterfactual thinking: upward and downward counterfactual thinking.
- Upward counterfactual thinking: it happens whenever we look back at a scenario and ask the "what if" questions in terms of how our life coul...
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