Attributional style in clinically depressed and conduct disordered adolescents

We tested the reformulated learned helplessness theory of depression with adolescent inpatients (N = 63) who were diagnosed by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980) criteria as depressed, or conduct disordered, or both. Adolescents with major depression diagnoses differed from nondepressed adolescents with significantly lower attributional style scores for positive events. The study also evaluated the relation of self-reported depression, anxiety, and social maladjustment to attributional style. Subjects who reported more severe depression had a significantly lower composite score for internal, stable, and global attributions for positive events. The composite of internal, stable, and global attributions for negative events was not significantly related to either diagnosed or self-reported depression.     

The effect of noncontingent feedback on attributional style

The relationship between experiences with noncontingency and attributional style was examined in experimental and correlational models. One hundred and twenty-six college student subjects were provided noncontingent, contingent, or no feedback as to the correctness of their responses on a concept discrimination problem. They then completed an attributional style questionnaire, a scale designed to measure life experiences with noncontingency, and a depression inventory. The experimental hypothesis was that exposure to noncontingent outcomes, both in a laboratory and historically, would result in more depressive attributions than would exposure to contingent outcomes or to no outcomes. The manipulation of feedback contingencies produced the predicted effect on attributions for positive and negative events combined into a single composite difference score. A correlation between life experiences with noncontingency and attributions was found only for the positive events measure. However, such life experiences were correlated significantly with depression.     

The role of attributions in the process of overcoming shame: A qualitative analysis

Objectives While attributions have been found to play an important role in the experience of shame, little is currently known about attributions that occur as part of shame reparation. This exploratory study investigated the attributions associated with recovery from shame, based on the perspectives of participants. Design Grounded theory was used in data collection and analysis. This approach has been used extensively for developing understandings of how people construct meaning, interpret events, and act on the basis of their beliefs and interpretations. Methods The participants were nine women and four men between the ages of 24 and 70. Data came from interviews in which the participants recalled a distressing shame experience and described how they recovered. Emphasis was on the participants' subjective perspectives, meanings, and interpretations. Results Shame involved global and stable dispositional attributions where the entire self was regarded as flawed and unattractive, and participants perceived themselves as powerless to change an unwanted identity. Internal causal attributions and self‐blame were present in most but not all shame experiences. Recovery involved a movement towards specific and unstable attributions that enhanced self‐concept and maximized a sense of power and control over the future. Shared and external factors that contributed to the event were also identified. Conclusions When applied to psychotherapy for shame‐related distress, these findings point to the importance of exploring clients' attributions related to specific shame events and using interventions that promote attributional change. Directions for further research are discussed.     

Social stress and depression during pregnancy and in the postnatal period in British Pakistani mothers: a cohort study

BackgroundBiased causal attribution is a critical factor in the cognitive model of depression. Whereas depressed patients interpret events negatively, healthy people show a self-serving bias (internal attribution of positive events and external attribution of negative events).MethodsUsing fMRI, depressed patients (n = 15) and healthy controls (n = 15) were confronted with positive and negative social events and made causal attributions (internal vs. external). Functional data were analyzed using a mixed effects model.ResultsBehaviourally, controls showed a self-serving bias, whereas patients demonstrated a balanced attributional pattern. Analysis of functional data revealed a significant group difference in a fronto-temporal network. Higher activation of this network was associated with non self-serving attributions in controls but self-serving attributions in patients. Applying a psycho-physiological interaction analysis, we observed reduced coupling between a dorsomedial PFC seed region and limbic areas during self-serving attributions in patients compared to controls.LimitationsResults of the PPI analysis are preliminary given the liberal statistical threshold.ConclusionsThe association of the behaviourally less frequent attributional pattern with activation in a fronto-temporal network suggests that non self-serving responses may produce a self-related response conflict in controls, while self-serving responses produce this conflict in patients. Moreover, attribution-modulated coupling between the dorsomedial PFC and limbic regions was weaker in patients than controls. This preliminary finding suggests that depression may be associated with disturbances in fronto-limbic coupling during attributional decisions. Our results implicate that treatment of major depression may benefit from approaches that facilitate reinterpretation of emotional events in a more positive, more self-serving way.     

大学生抑郁情绪与归因方式和自尊的关系

目的：探讨抑郁的无望感／自尊理论在中国大学生被试中的应用。方法：对大学生进行Beck抑郁量表（BDI）、归因方式问卷（ASQ）和白尊量表（SES）的测定。结果：不同抑郁水平大学生之间归因方式有显著差异，但在正性事件和内外维度上关系不稳定。抑郁与自尊有显著相关，不同自尊水平大学生之间的抑郁有显著差异，低自尊大学生的抑郁和归因方式的关系明显，高自尊大学生不明显。结论：本研究总体上验证了抑郁的无望感／自尊理论，中国大学生抑郁者具有对负性事件宿命性、普遍性和持续性归因、无望感和低自尊的特点。     

归因方式问卷的初步编制

目的：编制归因方式问卷(Attributional Style Questionnaire,ASQ)及探讨抑郁症患者的归因方式的特征。方法：对419名大学生、98名抑郁症患者及与之匹配的100名正常对照试测。结果：大学生各年级、性别之间无差异，ASQ各维度的相关、内部一致性及重测信度较好。与正常对照相比，患者倾向于将负性事件归因为整体的、持久的，而将正性事件归因为外在的、局部的、暂时的，治疗后患者对负性事件治疗后更多地归因为暂时的、局部的、总体指标上为外在的，对正性事件治疗后更多地归因为内在的。结论：归因方式问卷基本达到了测量学的要求，抑郁症患者治疗后归因有自我服务倾向。     

Coping and attributional styles as predictors of depression

This study examined how coping styles relate to attributional styles and how the two interact in relation to depression. One hundred seventy-six subjects completed the Ways of Coping Checklist, the Attributional Style Questionnaire, and the Beck Depression Inventory. Problem-focused coping correlated with stable and global attributions for positive events for men. Emotion-focused coping correlated with internal, stable, and global attributions for negative events for women and internal and global attributions for men. Correlations between depression and attributions as predicted by the reformulated model of helplessness were significant only for women. These results indicate that research on attributional styles should analyze all data separately by gender. While the results show that both coping and attributions accounted for some of the variance in depression for females, coping contributed considerably more unique variance than attributions.     

Future‐directed thinking and depression in relapsing‐remitting multiple sclerosis

Background. Research has shown that depression is associated with a view of the future characterized by reduced anticipation of future positive experiences, but not necessarily increased anticipation of future negative experiences. The aim of the present study was to investigate how participants with relapsing‐remitting multiple sclerosis (MS) anticipated their future in terms of positive and negative events. Design. A mixed design compared three groups of participants on a measure of future thinking using an adapted verbal fluency paradigm. Methods. Depressed MS participants (N = 14), non‐depressed MS participants (N = 28) and healthy control participants (N = 26) were assessed on their ability to generate future positive and negative experiences. A content analysis was also conducted on the responses generated by the MS depressed and MS non‐depressed groups according to whether or not they were related to MS. Results. The MS depressed group anticipated significantly fewer future positive events than the healthy control group and the MS non‐depressed group. The three groups did not differ in the total numbers of anticipated future negative events, though the MS depressed group did anticipate a significantly higher proportion of MS‐related negative events. Conclusions. Like depressed but physically healthy individuals, the MS depressed group was characterized by a lack of positive thoughts about the future, rather than an increased number of negative thoughts. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed along with recommendations for future research.     

Attributional style of depressed chronic low back patients

This study used the Attributional Style Questionnaire to study the attributional styles of depressed and nondepressed chronic low back pain patients (N = 91) in order to test the Revised Learned Helplessness model's prediction of differences between the two. The results partly supported the hypothesis; an internal, stable, global style for negative events distinguished the depressed group from the nondepressed, but there were no differences in attributional style for positive events. The findings are consistent with recent reviews of the literature that have reported general support for the negative outcome style, but consistent failure to confirm the predictions associated with positive outcome style. In addition, the attributional style was not common to all subjects in the depressed group, which suggested that other factors may be involved in the development of different subtypes of depression. Implications for studying attributional aspects of depression and chronic low back pain are discussed.     

The attributional model of depression: a path analysis test in a naturalistic setting

A path analysis test of the attributional model of depression was conducted in a naturalistic achievement setting (N = 77). Relatively depressed and nondepressed students reported their attributions on an academic test, and then their subsequent test performance were measured. In support of the attributional model of depression, the results indicated that for successful outcomes the attribution dimension of stability (i.e., stable vs. unstable across different situational contexts) served to buffer the influence of depression on later test performances. The results thus show that stability attributions for a successful behavior, defined in terms of consistency across different situational contexts, play a mediating role in the behavioral consequences of depression.     

Anxiety,Depression, and Explanation-based Pessimism for Future Positive and Negative Events

A study is reported which examined pessimism about the future in anxiety and depression. Anxious patients (N=20), depressed patients (N=15) and controls who were either high in trait-anxiety (N=17) or low in trait-anxiety (N=16) were asked to estimate the likelihood of a range of future positive and negative events, and were also asked to provide explanations why these events would (pro reasons) or would not (con reasons) happen to them. Anxiety and depression were associated with judging negative events to be likely and positive events to be unlikely. These probability judgements were reflected in accessibility of reasons, where, compared with controls, anxious and depressed subjects gave more pro relative to con reasons for negative events and more con relative to pro reasons for positive events. Results are discussed in relation to the simulation heuristic (Kahneman and Tversky, 1982) and the possible differences in future-directed thinking in anxiety and depression. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Attributional biases in subclinical depression: A schema‐based account

Non‐depressed individuals exhibit a self‐serving attributional bias, taking more credit for success than for failure. Clinically and subclinically depressed people are less self‐serving, often to the point of making similar attributions (explanations) for successes and failures. The present studies evaluated a schematic account of these distinct attributional biases. Subclinically depressed and non‐depressed participants completed measures of attributional bias (the relative strength of ability attributions for success versus failure), schema‐based optimism (the relative expectedness of success versus failure) and self‐schemas of competence. Two studies evaluated a hypothesis derived from the schematic account: the greater the perceived competence and optimism, the more self‐serving the attributional bias. As predicted, (a) attributional bias scores covaried with optimism and competence scores in both magnitude and valence (or direction), (b) depressed‐non‐depressed differences in attributional biases paralleled differences in competence and optimism and (c) when attributional bias scores were adjusted for the effects of optimism or competence, depressed–non‐depressed differences in attributional biases were eliminated. The schematic account raises questions about the common assumptions that attributional patterns are traits, and that they play a central role in the aetiology and treatment of depression. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Retrospective and prospective psychological and physical health as a function of negative affect and attributional style

Subjects completed questionnaires designed to assess (a) attributions along internal-external, stable-unstable, and global-specific dimensions subsequent to undersirable events; (b) negative affect; and (c) retrospective psychological and physical health. Subjects then kept weekly records, for 12 weeks, of their visits to doctors and days of illness (prospective physical health) and days they experienced emotional problems (prospective psychological health). Multiple regression analyses that used negative affect and attributional variables as predictors showed that negative affect was the best predictor of retrospective health and that global attributions were the best predictors of prospective health. Analysis of the comparative predictive value of the internal, stable, and global attributions revealed that global attributions were the most significant predictors of retrospective and prospective health.     

An examination of congruency hypothesis in hopelessness theory of depression

A longitudinal study was conducted to test two hypotheses, congruency and hopelessness-mediation, in hopelessness theory of depression. Three cognitive diatheses (attributional style, and inferential styles for consequences as well as the self), symptoms of depression, and hopelessness were measured in a survey of 279 men and women. About three months later, symptoms and hopelessness were measured again, along with negative life events in the interim. Some support was obtained for congruency hypothesis. Women with depressogenic attributional style in interpersonal domain became depressed when they experienced negative events in the domain, while men with depressogenic attributional style in achievement domain similarly became depressed. However, no comparable effect was found for the other diatheses: inferential styles. Hopelessness-mediation hypothesis was partly supported in interpersonal domain.     

Memory retrieval and subjective probability judgements in control and depressed participants

Two studies examined the relationship between memory recall and subjective probability judgement in an attempt to understand the mechanisms involved in depressive future thinking. In study 1, the relationship between general impression memory (GIM) latencies and subjective probability, and the relationship between specific event memory (SEM) latencies and subjective probability, were examined in normal mood individuals. Results demonstrated that GIM latencies were correlated with subjective probability. That is, participants who were faster to say they had experienced events in the past also thought themselves more likely to experience similar events in the future. In contrast, SEMs were not significantly correlated with subjective probability judgements. Study 2 tested the prediction that the same mechanism is operative in depression, but in this instance it is differential accessibility of negative memories which biases judgements for future events. As predicted, depressed patients, relative to controls, recalled more negative events and rated negative events as more likely to happen to them in the future. However, subjective probability judgements were not associated with the recall of either GIMs or SEMs in depressed patients, but GIMs were correlated with subjective probability judgements in the control participants. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The minimizing of blaming attributions and behaviors in delinquent families

Parents' data were evaluated in three studies of families with a delinquent adolescent. Families were provided with different forms of a positive versus negative interactional (attributional) context. Study 1 demonstrated that the negative context elicited significantly more negative behaviors than did the positive context when parents interacted with each other and with their delinquent adolescent. Study 2 demonstrated that the dispositional attributions of parents were influenced by the manipulation of set, with a dissatisfied set producing negative blaming attributions and a satisfied set producing nonblaming, positive attributions. Study 3 demonstrated that parents' negative sets regarding their adolescent's negative behaviors, once established and discussed by the family for 5 min, were unresponsive to a subsequent positive reattribution regarding those behaviors. Taken together, the data provide some support for reattribution techniques such as relabeling. Yet, the data question the ease with which such techniques can be successful and challenge proponents of such techniques to develop methodologically sound empirical demonstrations of their effectiveness.     

抑郁倾向大学生的作业期望改变和社会比较特点

抑郁的认知理论认为抑郁患者的自我评价是消极和歪曲的。本研究提出，应从社会比较的角度考察其自我评价特点，在实验情境中，本文比较了抑郁倾向大学生与正常大学生在作业之后作业期望改变的程度。结果发现，成功后，两组被试的社会比较结果没有差别。失败后，①抑郁倾向组的社会比较特点是消极的，自我贬低的；②正常组的社会比较既没有自我贬低，也没有自我提高，是相对积极的。文中就上述结果作了一定讨论。     

Work stress,burnout and coping: A review and an empirical study of staff in supported housing

The literature on work stress, burnout and coping is reviewed and a small scale empirical study reported which sought to explore the nature of burnout in staff of supported housing for people with long-term mental health problems. Burnout was seen to arise principally as a result of job strain in relation to caring for people. As in depression, the process was hypothesized to be mediated by environmental and individual resources (including social support, coping and attributional styles, and life events). High levels of workplace stress correlated with the depersonalization component of burnout and with absence from work. Environmental and individual factors appeared to significantly mediate the effect of work stress. Social support at work (particularly practical support) was linked to all burnout measures at follow-up. Specific, unstable attributions of negative work events and practically driven coping styles were found to be most adaptive in terms of experiencing less burnout. Individuals who experienced more negative life events were more likely to become emotionally exhausted. No correlation was found between burnout and depression, suggesting the processes are distinct. Unlike depression, burnout is specific to the work setting.     

Attributions and perceptions of childhood in women with ADHD symptomatology. Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Now that it is recognized that Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often persists into adulthood, there are many adults being identified with ADHD who were not diagnosed as children. Individuals identified with ADHD during adulthood may be at risk for maladaptive attributional styles based on the notion that they were exposed to more negative feedback during childhood than adults without identified ADHD. This study examined current attributions and perceptions of childhood of 51 women identified in adulthood with ADHD symptomatology and 51 nonADHD women. Women with ADHD symptomatology had more uncontrollable, stable, and global attributions, reported more dissatisfaction in their childhood parent, peer, and teacher relationships, and felt less in control of negative childhood events as compared with the nonADHD women. Both depression and ADHD contributed significantly to these group differences, suggesting that negative perceptions and attributions are more than reflections of current thinking and mood. ADHD symptomatology also may be an important risk factor for maladaptive attributions.