“If Only I Didn't Embarrass Myself in Front of the Class!”: Social Anxiety and Upward Counterfactual Thinking

Monforton, Jennifer; Vickers, Kristin S.; Antony, Martin M.

doi:10.1521/jscp.2012.31.3.312

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Regret itself is a cognitive habit for negative mood and inadaptation ( O’Connor et al, 2012 ). Regretful individuals are often anxious and self-critical ( Fisher and Exline, 2010 ; Monforton et al, 2012 ). Correspondingly, their life satisfaction is low ( Gahm et al, 2010 ; Purvis et al, 2011 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Look at the Impact of Maximizing on Unhappiness: Two Competing Mediating Effects

Peng

Zhang

et al. 2018

Front. Psychol.

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The current study aims to explore how the decision-making style of maximizing affects subjective well-being (SWB), which mainly focuses on the confirmation of the mediator role of regret and suppressing role of achievement motivation. A total of 402 Chinese undergraduate students participated in this study, in which they responded to the maximization, regret, and achievement motivation scales and SWB measures. Results suggested that maximizing significantly predicted SWB. Moreover, regret and achievement motivation (hope for success dimension) could completely mediate and suppress this effect. That is, two competing indirect pathways exist between maximizing and SWB. One pathway is through regret. Maximizing typically leads one to regret, which could negatively predict SWB. Alternatively, maximizing could lead to high levels of hope for success, which were positively correlated with SWB. Findings offered a complex method of thinking about the relationship between maximizing and SWB.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A New Look at the Impact of Maximizing on Unhappiness: Two Competing Mediating Effects

Peng

Zhang

et al. 2018

Front. Psychol.

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“…Despite this, the high social anxiety group evidenced a much greater propensity to respond with "If only…" thoughts following these scenarios. Thus, the increased readiness or availability of U-CFT following a stressful event in socially anxious individuals may lead to more frequent negative mood in this group, though further experimental research is needed to test this prediction (Monforton et al, 2012).…”

Section: For Whom May U-cft Be a Maladaptive Process?mentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Overall, there is reason to believe that upward counterfactuals may be used in maladaptive ways by those who are experiencing anxiety and/or depression, and that such selfdefeating cognitive patterns occur in those with moderate to severe levels of social anxiety (e.g., Kocovski et al, 2005;Monforton et al, 2012).…”

Section: For Whom May U-cft Be a Maladaptive Process?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, the presence of psychopathology such as depression (e.g., Markman &Miller, 2006) and social anxiety (e.g., Kocovski et al, 2005;Monforton et al, 2012) may interact with situation characteristics (e.g., controllability, repeatability) to set the stage for maladaptive, unhelpful U-CFT generation that leads to prolonged negative affect in the absence of selfimprovement and problem-solving motives and opportunities.…”

Section: Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, higher scores on this index represent a greater number of upward counterfactuals generated in comparison to downward counterfactuals. This type of CFT index has been used in previous studies in the area of counterfactual thinking (e.g., Monforton et al, 2012;Roese, 1994;Sirois et al, 2010) and controls for differences in generativity.…”

Section: Is the Current Dataset Appropriate For A Principal Components Analysis?mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Counterfactual thinking and repetitive thought in social anxiety

Monforton¹

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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Research suggests that those experiencing Social Anxiety (SA) symptoms are more likely to engage in repetitive thought (RT), including upward counterfactual thinking (U-CFT). Findings indicate that these cognitive patterns may lead to deleterious thoughts and emotions, particularly when U-CFT focuses on non-repeatable, uncontrollable situations and negative self-appraisals. The present dissertation consisted of two complementary studies. Study 1 attempted to 1) validate new measures of state and trait U-CFT, 2) examine the relationship between U-CFT and established measures of RT and mood, and 3) explore the relationship between SA symptoms and counterfactual thinking within a student population. Results indicated that the U-CFT-S (trait measure of U-CFT) and the Counterfactual Likelihood scales (state measure of U-CFT) evidenced sound psychometrics in terms of internal consistency, factor structure, and relationships with related questionnaires. Factor analyses revealed that the Maladaptive U-CFT-S scale clustered with negative mood, rumination, and learned helplessness, while the Adaptive U-CFT subscale clustered with measures of positive mood and self-efficacy. Finally, symptoms of SA correlated positively with state and trait U-CFT generation. Study 2 1) compared patterns of U-CFT and emotions such as guilt and self-blame between a diagnosed Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) group and a Healthy Control (HC) group 2) determined if disorder-specific content impacts U-CFT generation, and 3) piloted a brief, CBT-based, video intervention targeting maladaptive U-CFT. Results indicated that the SAD group evidenced higher amounts of U-CFT in response to the socially-based scenarios than the HC group and in response to social than non-social scenarios. The SAD group evidenced higher levels of unhelpful emotions (e.g., guilt) both pre- and post-CFT generation than HC participants. Finally, the CBT intervention was generally unsuccessful at reducing maladaptive U-CFT, but was more likely to be effective among SAD than HC participants. Implications of this dissertation include: 1) the benefit of including state- and trait-based measures of U-CFT in future research, 2) the importance of conceptualizing U-CFT as a multifaceted construct, 3) addressing that those with SAD are engaging in maladaptive U-CFT and experiencing consequent guilt and self-blame, and 4) the direction of creating more comprehensive, brief interventions aimed at targeting maladaptive U-CFT.

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Multidimensional perfectionism and counterfactual thinking: Some think upward, others downward

Stoeber

Diedenhofen

2017

Personality and Individual Differences

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“If Only I Didn't Embarrass Myself in Front of the Class!”: Social Anxiety and Upward Counterfactual Thinking

Cited by 8 publications

References 30 publications

A New Look at the Impact of Maximizing on Unhappiness: Two Competing Mediating Effects

A New Look at the Impact of Maximizing on Unhappiness: Two Competing Mediating Effects

Counterfactual thinking and repetitive thought in social anxiety

Multidimensional perfectionism and counterfactual thinking: Some think upward, others downward

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