A mother who has tragically lost a daughter in a car accident spends her days rehearsing "if onlys": "If only I had made her stay home that night"; "if only she had taken Route 78 instead of Route 22"; "if only I had offered to chauffeur her instead of letting her drive herself." The mother is engaging in the process known as

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The mother is engaging in counterfactual thinking, which refers to the process of imagining alternative outcomes to the actual events that occurred. In this case, the mother is thinking about how things might have been different if she had made different choices, which is a common reaction for people who are processing a traumatic event. Option B) blaming the victim does not apply because the mother is not blaming her daughter for the accident. Option C) the availability heuristic and option D) the self-fulfilling prophecy also do not apply to this situation.

A Mother Who Has Tragically Lost a Daughter in a Car