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The Influence of Counterfactual Thinking and Thought Control Strategies on Posttraumatic Growth

The Korean Journal of Health Psychology / The Korean Journal of Health Psychology, (P)1229-070X; (E)2713-9581
2011, v.16 no.3, pp.577-593
https://doi.org/10.17315/kjhp.2011.16.3.009


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Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of counterfactual thinking and thought control strategies on posttraumatic growth. According to previous research, counterfactual thoughts could be categorized into upward versus downward with respect to the direction and functions. Upward counterfactuals serve preparative functions, and Downward counterfactuals serve affective functions. Based on this viewpoint, counterfactual thoughts were divided into two types(upward versus downward) in this study. We examined whether counterfactual thoughts and thought control strategies could predict posttraumatic growth, and whether there were interaction effects between counterfactual thoughts and thought control strategies on posttraumatic growth. For this purpose, the questionnaire including Traumatic Experience Schedule, Counterfactual Thinking for Negative Events Scale(CTNES), Posttraumatic Growth Inventory(PTGI), Thought Control Questionnaire(TCQ) and Social Desirability Scale(SDS) were completed by 438 adults(138 men and 300 women) who had experienced traumatic events before. The results were as follows. First, thought control strategies predicted posttraumatic growth significantly, but upward counterfactuals did not. And, there were no interaction effects between upward counterfactuals and thought control strategies on posttraumatic growth. Second, thought control strategies and downward counterfactuals predicted posttraumatic growth significantly, and there were no interaction effects between the two. In this light, this study suggests that preparative functions of upward counterfactuals can not demonstrate in traumatic events which happen very rarely and arouse severe psychological distress. However affective functions of downward counterfactuals can help posttraumatic growth by considering reason and meaning of the traumatic event in a positive direction to decrease negative emotions.

keywords
posttraumatic growth, upward counterfactuals, downward counterfactuals, thought control strategies, 외상 후 성장, 상향식 사후가정사고, 하향식 사후가정사고, 사고통제방략, posttraumatic growth, upward counterfactuals, downward counterfactuals, thought control strategies

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