Elderly Counterfactual Thinking And Its Relationship With The Mental Health Study

The terms"Counterfactual thinking(CFT)",literally, contary to the facts. Kahneman, Roese first put forward the definition of Counterfactual thinking from the view of philosophy. The pointed that the "counterfactual thinking"does not refer to future prospects, but only to denying the past events. In other words, it is a thinking activity of denying past events and meanwhile generating a possible hypothesis.Counterfactual thinking is one of sophisticated cognitive activities, counterfactual thinking is not only aspect of human thinking but also aspect of social cognition, almost everyone has counterfactual thinking to the activities that have happened in the past. However, psychologists have long neglected the study of this psychological phenomenon, counterfactual thinking for the elderly research has been studied.1980 years, American psychologists Kahneman and others first proposed the concept of counterfactual thinking. And the researchs began to pay attention to this issue.In this study,320 eldly people in nanjing as the research subjects,160 high schools students,160 college students as contral groups. Using self-report methed, scenario builing method and method of psychological measurement in elderly people counterfactual thinking and mental health to exploratory study, It Including spontaneous counterfactual thinking(SCFT)and cued counterfactual thinking(CCFT) two experimental studies and mental health self-assessment scale, to explore the characteristics of counterfactual thinking of the old people and its relationship with mental health.The study draws the following Conclusion:(1)The characteristics of the eldly peoper's counterfactual thinking showed difference,because their different gender,age and education background.(2) The amount of counterfactual thinking in old peoper less than the control group, and its rationality is higher(3)Counterfactual thinking in the old peoper had close correlation to their mental health status.specific performance:The number of counterfactual thinking on the old peoper have negative predict to mental health; The rationality of counterfactual thinking could positively predict the mental health of old peoper.(4)Emotion as an intermediary variable through which counterfactual thinking affect the psychological health of the elderly。Regret caused by upward counterfactual thinking,could decrease the mental health index; Grateful feelings caused by downward counterfactual thinking, could increase the health index.