It is common in individuals that when something goes wrong or right, people habitually mull over how an outcome could have been altered if they acted otherwise. Such notions are also known as counterfactual thinking (Mandel & Lehman, 1996). These thoughts encompasses visualising options of various aspects of a supposed event. They are restrictive and emphasizes on actions that did not take place, coupled with the hinging of “if-then” where “if” denotes a particular act and “then” indicates a goal (Smallman & Roese, 2009). Past researchers tend to focus more on the formulation of counterfactual thoughts. An underexplored area of how self-esteem influences counterfactual thoughts and behavioural intention serves as a basis for further investigation. …show more content…
In a situation where an individual lingers over how a consequence would have been different if they did things contrarily, is also known as upward counterfactual. It is where there is a higher intent to prepare, higher determination and overall enhanced performance. More so, this is a result of dissatisfaction with current performance and a motivation to improve outcome (Markman & McMullen, 2003), by coming up with new ways. It is often linked with an increment in self-efficacy through individual experiences that are usually tied with emotions of regret or disappointment. Contrariwise, downward counterfactual recognizes how a consequence may possibly be unpleasant and adverse than the actual outcome. It is where individuals identifies and are satisfied with what they have, knowing that it could have been otherwise (McCrea, 2008). This gives rise to emotions shifting from happiness to being at ease (Galinsky & Moskowitz, …show more content…
The detrimental consequences of cigarette smoking are widely known across smokers. Yet they still engage in such unhealthy activities. Over the years, studies have looked into the use of counterfactual thinking and the intention of quitting cigarette smoking on youths (Eavers, Berry & Rodriguez, 2015). It is believed that when individuals mentally put together different outcomes to an undesirable smoking-affiliated circumstance, such as unhealthy teeth, premature death or occurrence of cancer, there is an increased resistance towards the negative circumstance. This in turn shape their later behaviour and intention – the ‘want’ to quit smoking (Page & Colby, 2003). A study by Gavanski and Wells 1989) hypothesized that upward counterfactual thoughts will reinforced behavioural intentions (quit smoking). Findings from the study suggest that youths with upward counterfactual thought tend to express guilt and regret with regards to their smoking behaviour as compared to their counterparts. Behavioural intention of quitting smoking can be attributed to the negativity of the consequences. In light of the negativity, a greater motivation drives individuals to think about actions they could have taken to prevent a negative consequence. With the increased in motivation, individuals begin to form relevant behaviour intention to stay away from smoking and take actions to
Skinner, Ellen A. Perceived Control, Motivation, & Coping. Thousands Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. 1995.
Thought processes can greatly influence people's social interactions, and the way that they live their lives. Cognitions develop how people perceive themselves and others on a daily basis. It is important to investigate how people attribute actions and behaviors exhibited, not only by themselves, but also those around them. These attributions shape the way an observer feels and reacts to others, and how people feel about themselves due to their own actions. The correspondence bias (fundamental attribution error) and the self-serving bias are two errors made in attribution by virtually every human being (Baron & Byrne, 2000). Both of these biases can be shown not only in adults, but also children (Guern, 1999). Even sport spectators display these biases when watching their favorite teams (Wann & Schrader, 2000). When the self-serving bias is absent in people's cognitions, they will show the self-defeating attributions. It is important to study people that demonstrate self-defeating attributions, because these individuals also show symptoms of depression (Wall & Hayes, 2000). Clearly, attributions are an imperative aspect of social cognition. Attributional bias is discussed by Marie Beesley. It is also important to investigate the factors that affect people's judgment biases in decision making and reasoning skills, which is explored by Amanda Wheeler. Because these two processes are so vital to the way in which people perceive themselves and others, and to the way a person chooses to behave, it is important to understand the factors that can cause inaccurate judgments. Judgment biases affect the way people form conclusions and make attributions about others, as well as abou...
Counterfactual thinking is part of everyday life because people are always thinking of past and future possibilities that may have happened or might happen. When people imagine the different possibilities it can cause them to feel upset or to have hope, which can motivate them to do or not to do something. Gopnik expresses that although counterfactuals are not reality it still affects all humans, when she states, “counterfactual thinking is pervasive in our everyday life and deeply affects our judgments, our decisions and our emotions” (Gopnik 164). Counterfactual thoughts start with our imagination and as a result, can change the future by triggering emotions and effecting beliefs. Gopnik explains an experiment completed by psychologists Daniel Kahnemanto to prove how exactly counterfactuals effect emotions. In the experiment, Mr. Tee and Mr. Crane both missed their 6:00 flights, but Mr. Crane watched his flight take off as he arrives and is much
The first topic of discussion is the self-imposed, or self-inflicted, self-fulfilling prophecy. This idea follows that if one has a preconception or notion of an outcome, then chances are that person will raise the possibility of making it so. Take for example these cases-in-hand that Channing Grigsby, teacher of self-esteem speaks of:
The self-serving bias is the tendency for an athlete to accommodate to factors that paint the athlete in a favorable light. In the athletic realm, individuals portray the self-serving bias to foster future, effective performance in a sport. Whereas an athlete will attribute positive events to the doing of themselves, an athlete will attribute negative events to the doing of others. Although an individual may be inaccurate when imputing a factor, the self-serving bias is a method by which an individual safeguards esteem. It is this protection of esteem that is paralleled in the attribution theory. For instance, an athlete uses the self-serving bias to attribute success as a byproduct of the team. On the other hand, the athlete uses the self-serving
Cognitive dissonance protects one’s self-esteem and as people, one does not like to admit their mistakes. In addition, it reduces regret and embarrassment which gives people an optimistic outlook. Although there are benefits, unfortunately there are also costs. For instance, once someone has
To explain this, as we learn from our “what if” moments we make better decisions for the future. For example, a student may question themselves what if I had studied two weeks before the test, maybe I would have passed. Counterfactual thoughts are emotional based situations, where people think about what could have been done differently in a situation whether they are happy, sad, or nervous. Counterfactual thinking requires the human mind to create alternatives to moments in life that have already happened. Our thoughts are counter to the fact, which often leads us into questioning our own actions to try to make previous situations better for future occurrences. (BOOK) According to _____, Our attributions influence our emotional reactions to events and therefore our counterfactual thoughts do as well. If we know better, we will do better. For example, If Andrea failed her big exam because she decided to go out the weekend before the test and got arrested for drunk driving, Andrea wouldn’t have much time to study because she spent the night in jail. She then may come up with counterfactual scenarios (e.g., if only I had called an Uber to drive me
An example of this is when he is kicked out of the school he was attending, Pencey. This was because he failing his classes and even though he knew this he didn’t try to bring up his grades. He states calmly and without any regret “I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself...they gave me frequent warnings…” (Page 6) This decision to let himself get kicked out of school was a poor one because he does not know how this will affect him in the future, including what kind of job he will be able to get.
(p 73). Imagining one’s self in an event does not have a big impact compared
Smoking is a lifestyle, a habit, and a trend. Smoking has become a social activity among teens, connecting them through the craving of a smoke. Smoking is seen as seductive and cool in the media and movies which influences teenagers to smoke even more. The World Health Organization has stated that “Tobacco kills around 6 million people each year. More than 5 million of those deaths are the result of direct tobacco use while more than 600,000 are the result of non-smokers being exposed to second-hand smoke.” As of April 2016, only 7% of teenagers in the U.S. smoke, but it is said that tobacco use will kill 8 million people annually by 2030. 99% of adult smokers start in their years as teenagers. Smoking is an epidemic that has taken control of people’s lives since 1881 and the media since the early 1900s. Smoking currently kills about 440,000 people a year in the U.S. I feel that it is an issue because it is the #1 most preventable way to die, but people still continue to smoke because of how it looks and how they are perceived as a person if they do. The fact that people become addicted to a trend that will attribute to their death for the sake of being thought of as cooler, is a problem that needs to be addressed.
Consequentialist Theory. INTRODUCTION. This essay is a brief discussion on one of the types of Ethics which is referred to as Consequentialist Theory. The theory considered an action to be morally right if the end results is more favorable than unfavorable.
Self-improvement initiates both happiness and an increased ability to succeed in things over which we have some but not complete control. Because we cannot control them, the greatest thing we can do is to internalize the goals we form about the things over which we lack complete control. Irvine’s example depicts a person who wants to win a tennis match. This person does not have control over their opponent or how they play, but they do have control over how much they prepare for the match and how they perform during it. If they set goals to train and play to their best ability, then they increase their chances of winning compared to if they did not play as well as they
In the article “Smoking”, people who consider smoking as a habit is also one of the reasons that lead to addiction with “serious health consequence” (Boughton 2090). Every addiction only starts with just one puff to another until it became one stick to one pack. Most of the people today, they said that they only smoke occasionally, saying that they use it for instant stress reliever and moderate using only. But, what they don’t know is that one day they will be craving it and slowly they will realize that they can’t stand a minute of not smoking a stick of a
The diverse views of reality come with the understanding of the culture that the individual experiences. Based on the other cultures, there will be different senses of identity if there are different experiences. If there was another reality in which the elderly were role models, and were viewed as the ones to imitate, there would be a different cultural reality. The social and cultural psychology aspects of this culture would allow those that are elderly to be viewed as the younger generation in our culture. Social psychology is defined as the study of the causes and consequences of sociality (Schacter, Gilbert, Nock, & Wegner, 2017). The cultural psychology is defined as the “study of how people shape and are shaped by their [own] cultures” (Cohen, 2015).
One of the biggest problems that people are faced with on a day-to-day basis is cigarette smoke. The sole cause for 480,000 deaths each year just in the United States is accredit to cigarettes(CDC). For a lot of the smokers the habit of smoking happens to assist them when under stress and dealing with issues that are unmanageable. Some smoke to appeal to their peers or simply because it “feels good.” Smoking one cigarette can lead to a major addiction. The effects of smoking hurt oneself and those amongst us. Smoking Kills as the ad portrays this revolver and cigarettes as the bullets, and also lists the side effects of smoking. Cigarettes causes cancer, increases the risk of you getting a stroke, highly addictive and causes a lot of health problems. Nearly 16