Objective To explore the characteristics of counterfactual thinking in depressed individuals and its relation with depressive syndrome.Method This study firstly employed Zung’s self-rating depression scale（SDS）to select participants

a total of 21 college depressive students and 21 health ones（control group） were selected as the subjects for this study;then the subjects were required to recall a shame or guilty event which happened in their everyday life’ and instructions were offered to induce the subjects’ counterfactual thinking;lastly

the subjects’ counterfactual thinking were categorizd into three types following Niedenthal’s study.Results There is statistical significance in the differene between the depressive group and health group about categories of the whole counterfactual thinking（χ2=13.31

P<0.01）;so does self-related strategy of the two groups has statistical significance（73.8% vs.47.9%

χ2=11.01

P<0.01）;the situational strategy of the two groups（8.3% vs.27.4%

χ2=9.97

P<0.01）;behavioral strategy of the two groups shows no statistical significance（17.9% vs.24.7%

χ2=1.09

P>0.05）.Conclusion The individuals have self-bias on the negative life event in counterfactual thinking.This may be one of main factors which result in depression.