Attributional style among depressed patients.

Abstract

Depressed unipolar male patients (n = 30) were more likely to attribute bad outcomes to internal, stable, and global causes than were nondepressed schizophrenics (n = 15) and nondepressed medical patients (n = 61). Also, the depressed patients were more evenhanded in their attributions for good versus bad events than the other patients. These results support the existence, in clinical depression, of .the depressive attributional style postulated by the reformulated learned helplessness model and indicate that it is not a general characteristic of psychopathology.According to the reformulated learned helplessness model, depressive symptoms are associated with a particular attributional style-one in which bad outcomes are attributed to internal, stable, and global causes (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978). Recent research has investigated this hypothesis in samples of college students. Some studies have shown the hypothesized attributional style to be associated with mild depressive symptoms, as is (to a lesser degree) the opposite style for attributing good events (e.g., Seligman, Abramson, Semmel, & von Baeyer, 1979), but other studies have yielded contrary evidence (Blaney, Behar, & Head, 1980;Hammen & Cochran, 1981;Harvey, 1981).Any attempt to generalize from mild depression to clinical depression is hazardous because the two phenomena may be different in kind and not just in degree (e.g., Arieti

The relationship between cognitive hardiness, explanatory style, and depression-happiness in post-retirement men and women

“…Testretest reliability was reported by Peterson et al (1982) over 5 weeks as .70 for good events and .64 for bad events. Discriminant validity of this questionnaire has been demon-NOVEMBER 1999 W AUSTRALIAN PSYCHOLOGIST strated in a number of studies, showing significant relationships between it and general dysphoria, introversion, anxiety, and psychoticism (Corr & Gray, 1996), and between it and depression (Raps, Peterson, Reinhard, Abramson, & Seligman, 1982). In the present study, two negative and two positive items were removed from the questionnaire because they referred to work matters.…”

The effect of noncontingent feedback on attributional style

“…Attributional style measures assume, implicitly and explicitly, that the attributional characteristics of individuals may properly be considered to be personality traits that show temporal and situational stability . The frequency with which certain attributional patterns are reported in relation to such factors as self-esteem (Ickes & Layden, 1978), sex differences (Deaux & Farris, 1977;Nicholls, 1975;Simon & Feather, 1973) and depression Raps et al, 1982;Seligman et al, 1979) supports the viewpoint that these are enduring cognitive habits. Other researchers, however, find little evidence for cross-situational consistency in attributions (Cutrona, Russell, & Jones, 1985).…”

“…This attributional model of depression has received considerable experimental support (Anderson, Horowitz, & French, 1981; Golin, Sweeney, & Shaeffer, 1981; Raps, Peterson, Reinhard, Abramson, & Seligman, 1982), but an important and unresolved issue is that of the relationship between noncontingency and attributional style. The question whether an individual's typical attributional responses are influenced systematically by exposure to noncontingent reinforcement or are formed independently of reinforcement history is a critical link between learned helplessness theory and attribution theory.…”

Attributional biases in subclinical depression: A schema‐based account

“…In particular, the attributional tendencies of these two groups appear to be indistinguishable (Gotlib, Lewinsohn, & Seeley, 1995;Sweeney et al, 1986). Relative to normal controls, both subclinically depressed subjects (e.g., Blaney, Behar, & Head, 1980;Rizley, 1978) and clinically depressed subjects (e.g., Hamilton & Abramson, 1983;Raps, Peterson, Reinhard, Abramson, & Seligman, 1982) commonly exhibit an evenhanded pattern in their attributions. Quite apart from its relevance to clinical depression, however, subclinical depression (or dysphoria) is worthy of study in its own right (Ingram, 1990;Ingram & Hamilton, 1999;Klerman & Weissman, 1992).…”