Studying the Connections between Different Variants of Causal Explanations in the Attributional Style

Abstract

This paper examined the features of the relationship between several causal explanations differentiated by the personalization effect: opportunity, reinforcement, influence of others, and chance circumstances. Two groups of subjects took part in the event, 244 and 270 people each, respectively. The subjects were asked to fill out a specially designed differential questionnaire and the attributional style and USK questionnaires. In the questionnaire, test takers had to evaluate a list of reasons about the measurements: constancy and globality. To study the structure of connections, the Principal component method and correlation analysis are used. It has been established that all the analyzed causes of negative events are combined into one factor, and the attribution of events into two: a group of internal causes (abilities and efforts) and a group of external consequences (others and accidents). There were also significant correlations between assessments of globality and stability, both internal and external attributions, with optimism. The results indicate the mixed role of externalities for optimism and pessimism.