Hindsight Bias CBT Worksheet
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
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What is the theory behind this Hindsight Bias CBT worksheet?
Highsight bias is a type of cognitive distortion or fault in our thinking that makes us believe the outcome of an event was just as we had predicted all along. In more common terms it is the ‘i knew this would happen’ bias.
Even though in reality, we have no evidence to prove that we were certain about the event’s outcome before it happened. But our mind tricks us into thinking that way leading to negative emotions such as guilt and shame for our past decisions that were made based on facts we knew then. It is impossible to know the true outcomes of our decisions beforehand but hindsight bias makes us believe we should have acted based on what we know now as opposed to what we knew then. .
This worksheet will target the hindsight bias using the thought challenging technique used in Cognitive Behavioral therapy
How will the worksheet help?
This worksheet uses a series of questions to challenge the hindsight bias in one’s thinking. It can be particularly helpful for clients with PTSD, depression and any other conditions where they are riddled with guilt and shame for making wrong decisions in the past. This will help them reframe their past and move on from ‘I should have done this’ to ‘I did my best with what I knew then’.
How to use the worksheet?
This worksheet can be used in counselling and therapeutic settings with clients whose thought patterns indicate the presence of the hindsight bias. Instruct them to write down a decision or action that they regret and answer the series of questions from left to right.
