The Development of Regret and Its Relation to Other Emotions

The Nature and of Counterfactual Reasoning and the Function of Regret:  Focus on regret as a counterfactual emotion (implicating a cogntivie component) which motives changes in future behavior (implicating a behavior component).

Connolly, T., & Zeelenberg, M. (2002).  Regret in decision making. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 11, 212-216

Epstude, K., & Neal J. Roese, N. J. (2008). A functional theory of counterfactual thinking.  Personality and Social Psychology Review.12(2), 168–192. (Key paper)

Smallman, R., & Roese, N. J. (2009). Counterfactual thinking facilitates behavioral intentions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 45(4), 845-852.

Zeelenberg, M.  (1999). The use of crying over spilled milk.  A note on the rationality and functionality of regret. Philosophical Psychology, 12, 325-340.

Zeelenberg, M.  & Pieters, R. (2007).  A Theory of Regret Regulation 1.0.  Journal of Consumer Psychology, 17(1), 3–18

Regret Development:  Focus on the developmental trajectory of regret.. Although it may be demonstrated in young children, there is growing evidence that is it acquired only in mod to later adoelscence (see new reviews and papers designated with an (X)

Amsel, E., & Lopez, V. (2013).  The development of the distinction between regret, disappointment, and sadness.  Paper to be presented at the annual convention of the Cognitive Development Society, Memphis, TN.

Beck, S. R., & Riggs, K. J. (2014). Developing thoughts about what might have been. Child Development Perspectives, 8(3), 175-179. (X)

Beck, S. R., Weisberg, D. P., Burns, P., & Riggs, K. J. (2014). Conditional reasoning and emotional experience: a review of the development of counterfactual thinking. Studia Logica, 102(4), 673-689.

Burns, P., Riggs, K.J., & Beck, S.R. (2012). Executive control and the experience of regret. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111, 501-515.

Guttentag, R., & Ferrell, J. (2004). Reality compared with its alternatives: Age differences in judgments of regret and relief. Developmental Psychology, 40(5), 764. NEW

Habib, M., Cassotti, M., Borst, G., Simon, G., Pineau, A., Houdé, O., & Moutier, S. (2012). Counterfactually mediated emotions: a developmental study of regret and relief in a probabilistic gambling task. Journal of experimental child psychology, 112(2), 265-274. (X)

O’Connor, E., McCormack, T., & Feeney, A. (2012). The development of regret.Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111(1), 120-127..Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 111(1), 120-127. (x)

McCormack, T., & Feeney, A. (2015). The development of the experience and anticipation of regret. Cognition and Emotion, 29(2), 266-280.

O'Connor, E., McCormack, T., & Feeney, A. (2014). Do children who experience regret make better decisions? A developmental study of the behavioral consequences of regret. Child Development, 85(5), 1995-2010.

Rafetseder, E. & Perner, J. (2012). When the alternative had been better: Counterfactual reasoning and the emergence of regret. Cognition & Emotion, 26(5), 800-819.

Rafetseder, E., Schwitalla, M., & Perner, J. (2013). Counterfactual Reasoning: From childhood to adulthood. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.

Rafetseder, E., & Perner, J. (2014). Counterfactual reasoning: sharpening conceptual distinctions in developmental studies. Child Development Perspectives, 8(1), 54-58. (X)

Van Duijvenvoorde, A. C., Huizenga, H. M., & Jansen, B. R. (2014). What is and what could have been: Experiencing regret and relief across childhood.Cognition & Emotion, 28(5), 926-935.

Weisberg, D.P. & Beck, S.R. (2010). Children’s thinking about their own and others’ regret and relief. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 106, 184-191

Weisberg, D.P. & Beck, S.R. (2012). The development of children’s regret and relief. Cognition and Emotion, 26, 820-835.

Regret and Other Emotions:  Like Lopez and Amsel (2013), who studied regret along with other emotions, the focus on the development of regret should identify when childsren distinguish regret from other emotions notibly guilt.  These are some papers distinguishing guilt and regret in adults.  ONly Bybee et al (1998) examines the development in adolescence of guilt in relaton to regret.

Berndsen, M, van der Pligt, J., Doosje B., & Manstead, A.  (2004).  Guilt and regret: The determining role of interpersonal and intrapersonal harm. Cognition and Emotion, 18(1), 55-70.

Bybee, J., Merisca, R., & Velasco, R. (1998). The development of reactions to guilt-producing events. In J. Bybee (Ed.) Guilt and Children (pp. 185-214).  New York:  Academic Press.

Guttentag, R., & Ferrell, J. (2008). Children's understanding of anticipatory regret and disappointment. Cognition and Emotion, 22(5), 815-832. NEW

Kedia, G., & Hilton, D.J. (2011).  Hot as hell! The self-conscious nature of action regrets.  Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 47,  490–493.

Mandel, D. R., &  DhamiM. K,.(2005). "What I did” versus “what I might have done”: Effect of factual versus counterfactual thinking on blame, guilt, and shame in prisoners. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41(5), 627-635.

Zeelenberg, M., & Breugelmans, S. M. (2008). The role of interpersonal harm in distinguishing regret from guilt. Emotion, 8(5), 589-596.

The Development of Guilt:  Guilt is an early developing emotion but may only connect up guilt later in development (see Bybee et al. (1998).

Bafunno, D., & Camodeca, M. (2013). Shame and guilt development in preschoolers: The role of context, audience and individual characteristics.European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10(2), 128-143.

Barrett, K. C., Zahn-Waxler, C., & Cole, P. M. (1993). Avoiders versus amenders:  Implications for the investigation of guilt and shame during toddlerhood. Cognition and  Emotion, 7, 481-505.

Regret and Autism:  Do autistics experience regret?  There is controversy here about whether or not they can.  It is clear however, that they struggle with guilt.    

Begeer, S., De Rosnay, M., Lunenburg, P., Stegge, H., & Terwogt, M. M. (2014). Understanding of emotions based on counterfactual reasoning in children with autism spectrum disorders. Autism, 18(3), 301-310. (X)

Losh, M., & Capps, L. (2006). Understanding of emotional experience in autism: insights from the personal accounts of high-functioning children with autism.Developmental psychology, 42(5), 809-818 (See account of guilt).

Nicolle, A., Ropar, D., & Beck, S. R. (2014). Regret and disappointment in autism spectrum disorders: The matter of thinking versus feeling. Cortex, 58, 123-125

Zalla, T., Sirigu, A., Robic, S., Chaste, P., Leboyer, M., & Coricelli, G. (2014). Feelings of regret and disappointment in adults with high-functioning autism.Cortex, 58, 112-122.

Heerey, E. A., Keltner, D., & Capps, L. M. (2003). Making sense of self-conscious emotion: Linking theory of mind and emotion in children with autism. Emotion, 3, 394–400.  NEW

The Happy Victimizer

Keller, M., Lourenço, O., Malti, T., & Saalbach, H. (2003). The multifaceted phenomenon of ‘happy victimizers’: a cross-cultural comparison of moral emotions. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 1-18.

Gummerum, M., Cribbett, C., Nogueira Nicolau, A., & Uren, R. (2013). Counterfactual reasoning and moral emotion attribution. European Journal of Developmental Psychology, 10(2), 144-158.

Malti, T., Gasser, L., & Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, E. (2010). Children's interpretive understanding, moral judgments, and emotion attributions: Relations to social behaviour. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 28(2), 275-292.

Narrative Studies of Moral Behavior, Judgments, Emotions.

Gutzwiller-Helfenfinger, E., Gasser, L., & Malti, T. (2010). Moral emotions and moral judgments in children's narratives: Comparing real-life and hypothetical transgressions. New directions for child and adolescent development, 129, 11-31.

Wainryb, C., Brehl, B. A., Matwin, S., Sokol, B. W., & Hammond, S. (2005). Being hurt and hurting others: Children's narrative accounts and moral judgments of their own interpersonal conflicts. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1-122.