後悔之因應型態及其正負向效應

Abstract

後悔的定義為：因為對於現況不滿意，而希望回到過去的時間點做出某些改變，以獲得更好結果的一種負向情緒（Zeelenberg & Pieters, 2007）。由於其具有顯著對現狀不滿意的負向情緒，因此過去大部分的研究常將後悔視為個體決策後的一個負向適應指標。然而，也有研究發現後悔具有其正面的功能性，且相較於其他各種負向情緒而言，後悔也具有正面的積極性。因此本研究企圖檢驗後悔影響適應行為的兩種不同路徑。作者首先提出後悔可引發工具型思考及反芻型思考兩種不同的認知類型，其中工具型思考主要是針對個體自身的行為決策過程進行向上的反事實思考；反芻型思考則是指個體無法將注意力自目前所不滿意的結果上移開。隨後並檢驗此兩種認知型態與其對應的正、負向效應。由研究一的結果可知，後悔所引發的思考模式可分為工具型思考及反芻型思考兩種，其中反芻型思考中介後悔與負向適應之關聯，而工具型思考雖然能夠提升個體的在部分正向適應指標上的表現，但無法有效地降低後悔所產生的憂鬱、焦慮等負向適應。研究二則以貫時性的研究方式，觀察研究參與者在學業範疇的後悔經驗，除了大致上複製了研究一的結果之外，並發現後悔所引發的工具型思考能夠提升個體的改進意圖和實際行為改變。

Regret is the emotion that we experience when realizing or imagining that our current situation would have been better, if only we had decided differently. It is an unpleasant feeling, coupled with strong wishes to undo the current situation (Zeelenberg & Pieters, 2007). Because of its negative feelings about the status quo, it was usually considered as an indicator of bad decision making in past research. However, research has also found that regret has its positive functionality, and compared to other negative emotions, regret had positive more than negative evaluations. Therefore, the present study attempts to test two different paths of regret affecting psychological adjustment and behavior improvement. Depending on the different ways of people revisiting their regret experiences, I first propose two types of thinking style stems from regret, instrumental and ruminating. Instrumental thinking refers to the upward counterfactual thinking about the process of decision making; ruminating thinking indicates fail to disengage from the unfavorable outcome, then I test the corresponding positive and negative consequences of these two thinking styles. According to the result of study 1, regret induced instrumental and ruminating thinking. Ruminating thinking mediated the relationship between regret and negative psychological adjustment. Instrumental thinking elevated positive psychological adjustment, but had no buffer effect on depression and anxiety. Study 2 was a longitudinal study which focused on regret experiences in academic domain. In addition to replicating the results of study 1, It was also found that instrumental thinking resulting from regret enhanced participants’ upturn intention and behavioral improvement.