• Korean Journal of Culture and Social Issue
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.171-190
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• 2002

Counterfactual thinking refers to a mental simulation of "What might have been," a cognitive process of once-possible-but-unrealized alternatives to facts, Counterfactuals have been reported to produce intensive emotional experiences, specifically regret. The present research reviewed and tried to integrate the previous inconsistent findings in the view of functional value of counterfactuals. Social psychologists proposed that counterfactuals could be categorized into upward(thoughts of better alternatives) versus downward(thoughts of worse alternatives) and additive versus subtractive. Counterfactual processes are more likely to occur following negative or unexpected rather than positive expected outcome, consistent with the minimization-mobilization hypothesis. Downward counterfactuals serve affective functions(to make one feel better) through contrast effects. Upward counterfactuals serve preparative functions(to prepare and improve performance in the future similar tasks) through causal inferences. Also, upward counterfactuals have been demonstrated in several studies to be followed by success-related attitudes and intentions and actual performance improvement. Furthermore, in terms of regulatory focus, downward counterfactuals were related with the prevention focus(to maintain the current status and upward counterfactuals were related with the promotion focus(to improve the current status). Those findings from numerous studies support that counterfactuals are functional to serve human ongoing motives. In conclusion, applicability and limitation of functional value of counterfactual thinking were discussed.

• (The) Korean Journal of Educational Psychology
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.355-377
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• 2018

This study aimed to examine the effects of upward counterfactual thinking in academic majors, academic major satisfaction, and job-seeking anxiety on university students' happiness along with the grade levels(the lower and upper grades). The participants were 581 university students in Seoul, Korea. Upward counterfactual thinking in academic majors (related to schoolwork and job-seeking) had negative effects on academic major satisfaction. Upward counterfactual thinking in academic majors related to job-seeking had positive effects on job-seeking anxiety. Academic major satisfaction decreased job-seeking anxiety, and promoted happiness. Job-seeking anxiety had negative effects on happiness. In the path model between variables, the differences according to the grade were found in the influence of upward counterfactual thinking in academic majors related to schoolwork on major satisfaction and in the influence of job-seeking anxiety on happiness. These results are expected to help select interventions that would foster happiness among university students.