Counterfactual Thinking : A Negative Effect On A Person 's Mood And Emotional Effect

Throughout generations people believed that having positive visualizations can make situations better, but when you are in a situation that gives you a negative outcome you become devastated. In the essay “The Benefits of “Negative Visualization”’ Oliver Burkeman discussed how negative visualization is more likely to make people happier than positive visualization. Burkeman supported that negative visualization makes an individual happier rather than positive visualization; he supported this claim by describing how spending time and focusing how well things would go reduces one’s motivation to achieve their goal, having tranquility would give individuals the opportunity to focus on negative emotions, positive thinkers are less prepared and more acutely distressed, “negative visualization” causes less stress, and being prepared for the to the worse-case scenario helps establish what to expect. When using negative visualization, it would be beneficial to use it to prepare oneself for the worse-case scenarios and to reduce both fear and anxiety. In regards to Burkeman’s position, I can relate to the information he is presenting and apply it to my personal life. Therefore, I can strongly agree with his point of view that negative visualization is more likely to make an individual happier than positive visualization.

Hindsight bias- The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)

Have you ever considered using reverse psychology on a loved one? If used correctly it can be a highly effective (yet slightly manipulative) way of getting the outcome that you want from a situation

An individual who is cognizant are capable of determining one’s psychological states exuded during any particular circumstance. Adults who augment such necessary cordial competencies will discern, elucidate, and justify such psychological states occurring internally and in others. Comprehension is pivotal for the regulation of one’s psychological states. The primary objective of writing this essay is to written with the prime intent on how the decisions of other counterfactual thinking influences the experience of envy. Envy is self-pernicious due to the inability to cherish one’s exceptional bestowed treasures. An example of envy includes the following: you have been working for a company as a business administrator for fifteen years with no capability to advance in an eminent status in the job setting while a recent hire who only has been working for the company for only one year manages to become the corporate executive officer. It is a frustrating experience that can lead to both a desire that the other loses the advantage and a motivation to improve oneself (Parrott & Smith, 1993; Smith & Kim, 2007; Van de Ven, Zeelenberg, & Pieters, 2009). Mental images occurring in the cognitive process for any alterations for the previous circumstances influence ones psychological

Sometimes people reflect back on their lives and those of others and think what might have been had some events happened or never happened

Automatic thoughts can be neutral, positive, or negative. We all have our own automatic thoughts as we move through our day-to-day lives and interact with others. In regards to individuals with psychological disorders, the cognitive model looks at how negative thoughts influence the individual’s feelings and behaviors (Beck, 1995). From a CBT lens, it is the negative automatic thoughts that an individual has that perpetuate symptoms of psychological disorders, the occurrence of negative mood, uncomfortable physiological responses, and maladaptive or inappropriate behaviors (Beck, 1995). While we all have moments of experiencing negative automatic thoughts, for those with psychological disorders, and more pervasive difficulties in living, negative thoughts are often experienced in situations that are neutral, producing negative feelings that lead to maladaptive behaviors or responses that would not

In other words, if we would not have a role of imagination we would not be able to predict what will happen next on the future. In addition, there was a day that I went to the livestock judging competition of the steers and I predicted that one of the steers such as a Brahman steer would win the grand champion and my role of imagination made sense. In fact, if I would of not have the role of imagination I would have made a wrong prediction of who would have won the livestock judging steer competition.

How should we engage in such speculation safely without overstepping our bounds? This question is particularly important in law—we don’t want to equip judges with the power to engage in pure, unbounded speculation. Sometimes the cost of speculation is high, but the cost of abnegation may be higher. I certainly hope that the first section, which offered examples that were intended to demonstrated the indispensability of counterfactual reasoning, was convincing enough to suggest that we indeed do sometimes need to engage in the enterprise. I certainly do not advocate that we engage in counterfactual reasoning recklessly or without care—quite on the contrary, I advocate a keen awareness of our counterfactual reasoning.

The human brain possesses a special power that enables humans to form wonderful mental images that are not identified through the five senses. These mental images are known as counterfactuals. Counterfactuals can be envisioned in many directions by the visualizer. They can go from dragons to unicorns; from a simple cardboard box to a powerful rocket; from a simple bathtub to the deep blue Atlantic Ocean; from an ordinary closet to an intricate time machine; and endless counterfactuals. All of these unique counterfactuals are visualized through the process of imagination. Imagination allows humans to conjure up images and factual scenarios that do not exist in the actual world. However, in today’s society the practice

Counterfactual means that you describe an event as if it were not the case. Essentially it's removing a a factual part of history to make a point or describe the significance of the group, thing, or idea removed. Writing about historical events in a counterfactual way can have flaws as well as triumphs.

That is an example of the illogical thinking process. In cognitive therapy the therapist helps the client recognize the negative thoughts, emotions and why they are having them in a nonjudgmental way. In

Based on the type selected – create a statement that represents your specific distorted thinking.

Have you ever wondered what might have been? The proverb “of all the sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest ones, it might have been”” describes when people have doubts about the choices they have made in life. They often wonder would things be different if they have taken an another route. A person may create differ alternatives to a past situation, that may or may not have occurred. This is called counterfactual thinking. Counterfactual thinking can lead to sadness and regret in an individual because they will never know what the possible outcome of that situation would be. The choice they made may not have turned out the way they have planned. Counterfactual thinking as well as many other psychological concepts such as self- handicapping

There is a general assumption that as we age we will experience a decreased quality of life. We feel that as our sight, hearing and joints begin to fail us and we realise that we are approaching the end of our lives we assume that we will become “grumpy old” men and women. However research consistently, and surprisingly, shows that older adults in fact often report a greater satisfaction with life as they age. Not only that, they are actually better at emotional regulation than younger adults(Carstensen, Pasupathi, Mayr, & Nesselroade, 2000). Researchers have described this as Socioemotional Selectivity theory(Carstensen, Isaacowitz, & Charles, 1999). One of the

Selective abstraction-one example of this would be a person getting a good grade in a class but mainly focusing on the one assignment that they got a bad grade in and think about that in a negative aspect. I use this sometimes because in my life I always want to do my very best when it comes to school, when get a bad grade I sometimes do dwell on that for a while. Negative predication, one example of this would be if a person thinks that they are not going to get an apartment that they signed up for even though they have a perfect record when it comes to paying rent on time. Overgeneralization- one example for this would be if an individual had a bad day at work, he might conclude that he is a bad coworker. Looking through the many cognitive