Question

Bob tends to wait until the "last minute" to buy Christmas gifts. Unfortunately, this year, by the time he tried to purchase a gift for his wife, the store had closed. He convinced himself that everything in the store was overpriced anyway, so he decided to make a gift for his wife himself. Arguably, Bob is using a type of ________ in order to convince himself that he "never had a chance" to purchase the gift.

Answer 1

Answer: Bob is using a type of COUNTER FACTUAL THINKING.

Explanation: Counterfactual thinking in Psychology can be said to be a communication that occurs in the mind of an individual that an activity that already happened has a tendency to happen differently or alternatively.

These thoughts consist of the "What if?" and the "If I had only..."

A counterfactual thought occur when an individual change part of what has already happened and thinks "what if..."or "if I had only..." done things differently.

This is really what Bob did. Saying that the store is overpriced because they had closed already.