The regrets reported by Terman's intellectually gifted subjects were analyzed to determine the nature of their regrets, whether they are the same as those reported by the general population, and whether they stem predominantly from errors of omission or commission. A 1986 survey of these subjects in their advanced years (mean age = 74) asked them to specify what they would do differently if they could live over again. An analysis of their responses indicated that, like the population as a whole, they harbor many more regrets of inaction than regrets of action. The implications of these findings for a proposed temporal pattern to the experience of regret is discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
WestJ., Women's Wit and Wisdom, Running Press, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1991.
2.
GilovichT. and MedvecV. H., The Experience of Regret: What, When, and Why?Psychological Review, in press.
3.
GilovichT. and MedvecV. H., The Temporal Pattern to the Experience of Regret, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, pp. 357–365, 1994.
4.
GilovichT. and MedvecV. H., Some Counterfactual Determinants of Satisfaction and Regret, in What Might Have Been: The Social Psychology of Counterfactual Thinking, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, New Jersey, in press.
5.
LandmanJ., Regret: Persistence of the Possible, Oxford University Press, New York, 1993.
6.
HoustonD. A.ShermanS. J., and BakerS. M., Feature Matching, Unique Features, and the Dynamics of the Choice Process: Predecision Conflict and Postdecision Satisfaction, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 27, pp. 411–430, 1991.
7.
BellD. E., Explaining Utility Theory Paradoxes by Decision Regret, in Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Multiple Criteria Decision Making, MorseJ. (ed.), Springer, New York, pp. 28–39, 1981.
8.
LoomesG. and SugdenR., Regret Theory: An Alternative Theory of Rational Choice Under Uncertainty, Economic Journal, 92, pp. 805–824, 1982.
9.
KahnemanD. and TverskyA., The Simulation Heuristic, in Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases, KahnemanD.SlovicP., and TverskyA. (eds.), Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 201–208, 1982.
10.
MillerD. T.TurnbullW., and McFarlandC., Counterfactual Thinking and Social Perception: Thinking about What Might Have Been, in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 23, ZannaM. P. (ed.), Academic Press, New York, pp. 305–331, 1990.
11.
GleicherF.KostK. A.BakerS. M.StrathmanA. J.RichmanS. A., and ShermanS. J., The Role of Counterfactual Thinking in Judgments of Affect, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 16, pp. 284–295, 1990.
12.
KahnemanD. and TverskyA., The Psychology of Preferences, Scientific American, 246, pp. 160–173, 1982.
13.
LandmanJ., Regret and Elation following Action and Inaction: Affective Responses to Positive versus Negative Outcomes, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 13, pp. 524–536, 1987.
14.
KahnemanD. and MillerD. T., Norm Theory: Comparing Reality to its Alternatives, Psychological Review, 93, pp. 136–153, 1986.
15.
JamesH., Letter to Hugh Walpole, August 21, 1913, in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, (15th Edition), BeckE. M. (ed.), Little, Brown, Boston, 1913.
16.
NashO., I Wouldn't Have Missed It: Selected Poems of Ogden Nash, Little, Brown, Boston, 1972.
17.
WhittierJ. G.MullerMaud, in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, (15th Edition), BeckE. M. (ed.), Little, Brown, Boston, 1856.
18.
GilovichT.MedvecV. H., and ChenS., Omission, Commission, and Dissonance Reduction: Overcoming Regret in the Monty Hall Problem, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, in press.
19.
KinnierR. T. and MethaA. T., Regrets and Priorities at Three Stages of Life, Counseling and Values, 33, pp. 182–193, 1989.
20.
MethaA. T.KinnierR. T., and McWhirterE. H., A Pilot Study on the Regrets and Priorities of Women, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 13, pp. 167–174, 1989.
21.
OgdenM. H.GroupT., Genetic Psychology Monographs, 77, pp. 3–93, 1968.
22.
SearsR. R., Sources of Life Satisfactions of the Terman Gifted Men, American Psychologist, 32, pp. 119–128, 1977.
23.
SearsP. S. and BarbeeA. H., Career and Life Satisfaction among Terman's Gifted Women, in The Gifted and the Creative: A Fifty-year Perspective, StanleyJ. C.GeorgeW. C., and SolanoC. H. (eds.), Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland, pp. 28–65, 1977.
24.
TermanL. M. and OdenM. H., Genetic Studies of Genius: IV. The Gifted Child Grows Up, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1947.
25.
TermanL. M. and OdenM. H., Genetic Studies of Genius: V. The Gifted Group at Mid-life, Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, 1959.
26.
TermanL., Terman Life-cycle Study of Children with High Ability, (2nd Edition), Palo Alto, California, 1922–1986; TermanL. M. and SearsR. R., Inter-university consortium for Political and Social Research, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1989.
27.
U.S. Department of Education, Digest of Education Statistics, Washington, 1993.
28.
BrickmanP. and CampbellD. T., Hedonic Relativism and Planning the Good Society, in Adaptation Level Theory: A Symposium, Academic Press, New York, 1971.
29.
BrickmanP.CoatesD., and Janoff-BulmanR., Lottery Winners and Accident Victims: Is Happiness Relative?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 36, pp. 917–927, 1978.
