PSY 226 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Counterfactual Thinking, Opata Language
Document Summary
[week 3; friday september 19: controlled social cognition, high effort thinking, chapter 4] The monitoring process is the automatic process of searching for evidence that the unwanted thought is about to intrude on consciousness. The operating process is the controlled, effortful and conscious attempt to distract oneself by finding something else to think about. Is mentally changing some aspect of the past as a way of imagining what might have been. Is usually conscious and effortful, but not always voluntary of intentional. The more people engage in counter factual thinking, the more distressed they are about the events. People are likely to engage in counterfactual thinking when they are nearly able to avoid a negative event. People are also able to do the reverse: thinking about negative events that nearly happened, but did not.
