Negative Attributional Style Research Articles

Relations between Positive and Negative Attributional Styles and Sales Performance as Moderated by Length of Insurance Sales Experience among Japanese Life Insurance Sales Agents

Past studies have shown that a sales agent’s attributional style for positive and negative events is related to sales performance. The aim of the present study was to examine an agent’s length of sales experience as a moderator of the relation between sales performance and attributional style for positive/negative events. 360 Japanese life insurance sales agents were assessed with attributional styles for positive and negative events (would be referred to as positive attributional style and negative attributional style, respectively), sales performance and their lengths of sales experience. It was found that relationship between sales performance and the two types of attributional styles was largely different depending upon length of an agent’s insurance sales experience. Among “novices” (n = 183) whose lengths of insurance sales experience were less than three years, sales performance was related significantly to negative attributional style, whereas it was not related to positive attributional style. By contrast, among “veterans” (n = 177) whose lengths of insurance sales experience were three years or more, sales performance was related significantly to positive attributional style, whereas it was not related to negative attributional style. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Preliminary Evidence for a Relationship Between Sleep Disturbance and Global Attributional Style in Depression

We hypothesized that a negative, stable, and global attributional style would mediate the relationship between sleep continuity and depression. Twenty-three currently depressed and 31 never-depressed participants completed the Attributional Styles Questionnaire and wore an actigraph during the course of 1 week. Linear and logistic regression techniques were used to calculate path coefficients to test the mediating relationship. Results indicated that a global attributional style mediated the relationship between poor sleep continuity (frequency of awakenings), delayed morning waketime, increased total time spent in bed, and depression. Reverse mediation analyses indicated that these relationships may be bidirectional. No effects were found for stable or internal attributions. These results suggest that global attributions may, in part, mediate the relationship between sleep disturbances and depression. They also provide data consistent with the hypothesis that disrupted sleep is associated with learned helplessness. Prospective studies are necessary to test the directionality of these relationships.

Shyness in late childhood: relations with attributional styles and self‐esteem

Shyness in late childhood is related to social and psychological problems. The present study examined the relations among shyness, attributional styles and self-esteem. It was hypothesized that self-esteem mediated the effects of attributional styles on shyness. Self-reported data on degree of shyness, attributional styles and self-esteem were obtained from 326 Chinese children with mean age of 10.85 years. It was found that positive attributional styles predicted shyness in the negative direction and the effects were fully mediated by self-esteem, and negative attributional styles predicted shyness in the positive direction both directly and through self-esteem. The results imply that how children attribute positive and negative outcomes affect both self-esteem and shyness. It is suggested that practitioners should conduct attribution-retraining workshops for shy children and help teachers and parents learn how to mitigate negative attributional style and foster positive attributional styles in children.

Are we exacerbating students’ learning disabilities? An investigation of preservice teachers’ attributions of the educational outcomes of students with learning disabilities

While claims of the importance of attribution theory and teachers' expectations of students for student performance are repeatedly made, there is little comprehensive research identifying the perceptions preservice teachers have of students with learning disabilities (LD). Accordingly, 444 Australian preservice primary school teachers were surveyed using vignettes and Likert-scale questions, to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. It was found that preservice primary school general education teachers held a negative attribution style towards students with LD. Preservice primary teachers perceived students with LD as a lacking ability in comparison to others in the class. Recommendations for research and training programmes conclude the paper.

‘That’s what I thought you meant!’ Theory of Mind: Explaining placement breakdown for adults with learning disabilities

A conference at the University of Lincoln in 2010 included a presentation concerning placements for people with ‘challenging behaviour’ and learning disabilities. Such placements, particularly when service users have a history of severe challenging behaviour and autism, have a high risk of failure.Following discussions with the manager of a company providing specialist support for people with Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), it is postulated that the assumptions and attributions made by carers (i.e. their theory of mind) following the ‘challenging behaviour’ of someone with an ASC often fail to take into account the theory of mind deficit. This leads to negativity and unhelpful behaviour.Recommendations are made for further research into interventions which lead to enhanced understanding and acceptance of the theory of mind deficit, with the hypothesis that this will have implications for the theory of mind of staff members, leading to less assumptions and negative attributional styles, resulting in more effective behavioural strategies being implemented in a non judgemental manner, less staff stress and decreased likelihood of placement breakdown for the service user.

Course and prediction of somatoform disorder and medically unexplained symptoms in primary care

Theory/objective Somatoform disorder (SFD) is associated with considerable psychosocial impairment. However, only a few studies have dealt with the course of this clinical subgroup. Therefore, the objective was to identify predictors for the various courses of SFD and medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Method We screened 620 consecutive patients in primary care using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-15). Afterwards, 308 patients were studied in more detail using a diagnostic interview and a set of questionnaires. One year later, we were able to interview 277 participants a second time. Result After 1 year, 48.8% of the respondents had a remitted SFD. The following variables proved to be significant predictors of MUS: current depressive episode, negative life events, number of MUS at baseline, attributional style, autonomic sensations and catastrophizing cognitions. The course of SFD could be predicted through current depressive or anxiety disorder, negative life events, functional disability and attributional style. Conclusion Somatoform disorder has a favorable course. The predictors of the courses of SFD and MUS we found can be integrated into previous explanatory models. The coping with MUS or SFD can be seen as a mediating factor.

Experimental modification of attribution processes.

Attributional style is hypothesized to be a causative factor in depression vulnerability; however, no studies to date have examined whether manipulation of attributional style influences depressed mood. The purpose of this study was to determine whether computer-based cognitive bias modification (CBM) procedures could modify attributional style and influence stress vulnerability. Participants were provided with multiple training trials that were intended to promote the use of either a positive or a negative attributional style. Compared with individuals in the negative attributional style condition, individuals in the positive attributional style condition showed decreased tendency to make self-deficient causal attributions for poor performance on a difficult anagram test. Furthermore, individuals in the positive attributional style condition reported less depressed mood in response to this academic stressor. These results suggest that attributional style is not invariable and can potentially be modified with CBM approaches.

Prevention of depression among Icelandic adolescents: A 12-month follow-up

This paper reports the 12-month follow-up results regarding a program designed to prevent the initial episode of depression and/or dysthymia among Icelandic adolescents. This indicated prevention program was implemented in school settings for 14–15 year-old students judged to be “at risk” for depression because of the presence of some depressive symptoms and/or a negative attributional style. We previously reported (Arnarson & Craighead, 2009) that this program, when compared to treatment-as-usual, was effective in preventing the first episode of depression and/or dysthymia at 6-months following completion of the program. Survival analyses of the 12-month follow-up data indicated that the preventive effects were sustained at the end of 1 year following the completion of the prevention program with only 2 of the prevention program participants reporting an initial episode of MDD/DYS versus 13 of the TAU participants (χ2 = 5.02, p = .025). Using logistic regression, we also found that initial level of depressive symptoms significantly (p = .0330) predicted the first episode of depression and/or dysthymia among TAU subjects. The limitations of the study were noted, and future directions of research regarding prevention of depression were discussed.

Electrophysiological Correlates of Cognitive Control and the Regulation of Shyness in Children

Shyness is associated with social-emotional maladjustment in some, but not all, children. The ability to flexibly regulate attention under conditions of potential conflict may protect shy children from developing internalizing problems. In the current study, the associations between shyness, the N2 event related potential (ERP) response, and social-emotional adjustment were examined in a sample of 36 typically developing 9- to 13-year-old children. It was hypothesized that the N2 amplitude, an ERP measure associated with aspects of cognitive and attention control, would moderate the associations between shyness and social-emotional functioning (negative attribution style, social self-perceptions, social anxiety). Shyness was unrelated to behavioral or ERP measures collected during a modified Flanker task; however, shyness and N2 amplitude were alone and in combination associated with all three measures of social adjustment. In general, shyness was associated with poor outcomes primarily among children with relatively large amplitude, or enhanced, N2 responses. The results are discussed in terms of the role of conflict sensitivity in the regulation of attention and emotions associated with shyness and the importance of studying the combined influences of reactive and self-regulatory aspects of temperament in relation to adjustment in childhood.

Adherence to Masculine Norms and Attributional Processes Predict Depressive Symptoms in Recently Unemployed Men

We investigated individual differences in adherence to masculine norms (AMN) as predictors of concurrent and prospective depressive symptoms above and beyond negative attributional style and explanatory flexibility in a community sample of unemployed men. Sixty-two men from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds were recruited from an unemployment center in a large industrial city and were followed for 3 months. Adherence to the specific masculine norms of emotional control and self-reliance accounted for variance in concurrent depressive symptoms after statistically controlling for attributional processes. At the 3-month follow-up, only AMN predicted depressive symptoms after accounting for attributional processes and initial depressive symptoms. Negative attributional style was negatively associated with the likelihood of reemployment at the 3-month follow-up while AMN was positively associated with the likelihood reemployment. Results suggested that AMN may be an important sociocultural factor contributing to depression that is largely independent of attributional processes.

Attributional Beliefs of Students with Learning Disabilities

While claims of the importance of attribution theory and teachers' expectations of students in regards to performance are repeatedly made, there is little comprehensive research identifying the perceptions preservice teachers have of students with learning disabilities (LD). Accordingly, this study examined 154 Australian preservice secondary school teachers to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. It was found that preservice secondary school teachers held a negative attribution style towards students with LD. Preservice secondary teachers perceived students with LD as lacking ability in comparison to others in the class. Recommendations for research and training programs conclude the paper.

Attributional style and anxiety sensitivity as maintenance factors of posttraumatic stress symptoms: A prospective examination of a diathesis–stress model

Diathesis–stress models of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) assert that traumatic events function as stressors that interact with vulnerabilities to influence the development of PTSD. The present study prospectively examined negative attributional style (NAS) and anxiety sensitivity (AS) as maintenance factors for PTSD in female adult sexual assault victims. A diathesis–stress model was tested by examining interactions between the vulnerabilities and negative life events. The present study included both the traditional three-factor model of PTSD (re-experiencing, avoidance and emotional numbing, and arousal) and the dysphoria four-factor model of PTSD (re-experiencing, avoidance, arousal, and dysphoria). Robust regression analyses revealed that negative life events at Time 2 significantly predicted increases in all clusters of the three-factor model (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance and numbing, and arousal) and the re-experiencing, arousal, and dysphoria clusters of the four-factor model (but not avoidance). Neither NAS nor AS significantly independently predicted any of the symptom clusters for either model. Both NAS and AS interacted with negative life events to predict increases in the avoidance and numbing symptoms. However, examination of the dysphoria four-factor model of PTSD revealed that the NAS and AS interactions with negative life events only predicted dysphoria symptoms.

Depression in Adults With Mild Intellectual Disability: Role of Stress, Attributions, and Coping

The experience of stressful social interactions, negative causal attributions, and the use of maladaptive coping efforts help maintain depression over time in the general population. We investigated whether a similar experience occurs among adults with mild intellectual disability. We compared the frequency and stress impact of such interactions, identified causal attributions for these interactions, and determined the coping strategies of 47 depressed and 47 nondepressed adults with mild intellectual disability matched on subject characteristics. The depressed group reported a higher frequency and stress impact of stressful social interactions, more negative attribution style, and more avoidant and less active coping strategies did than the nondepressed group. Findings have implications for theory building and development of psychotherapies to treat depression.

Prevention of depression among Icelandic adolescents

Major depression and dysthymia are frequent, debilitating, and chronic disorders, whose highest rate of initial onset is during the late adolescent years. The effectiveness of a program designed to prevent an initial episode of major depression or dysthymia among adolescents was investigated. Participants were 171 fourteen-year-old “at risk” Icelandic adolescents who were randomly assigned to a prevention program or a treatment-as-usual assessment only control group. They were identified as “at risk” by reporting the presence of depressive symptoms or a negative attributional style. The program was based on a developmental psychosocial model of enhancement of resilience to factors associated with the occurrence of mood disorders. The results indicated that the prevention program resulted in a significantly lower rate of major depression and dysthymia than did the control group. The study demonstrated that school personnel in the school setting can implement such prevention programs.

The Effects of Rumination and Depressive Symptoms on the Prediction of Negative Attributional Style Among College Students

Research on cognitive vulnerability to depression has identified negative cognitive style and rumination as distinct risk factors for depression but how rumination would influence negative cognitive style remains unclear. The present study investigated the relationship between rumination and negative attributional style and specifically tested the potential moderating effect of depressive symptoms and processing mode during rumination on activating negative attributional style. After completing the baseline measures of depressive symptoms, dysphoric affect, and negative attributional style, participants were randomly assigned to three experimental conditions: analytical self-focus, experiential self-focus, and distraction, in which the degree of self-focus and mode of processing were manipulated. A second set of mood and cognitive measures was administered afterwards. Results showed that a stronger positive relationship between negative attributional style and level of depressive symptoms was found in the analytical self-focus condition, relative to the experiential and distraction conditions. This finding suggested that processing mode in rumination interacted with depressive symptoms to predict negative attributional style.

P01-296 The study of rearing, coping, attributional style and their relations in depression adolescents

Background and aims:To explore rearing, coping, attributional style and their relations in depression adolescents.Methods:64 adolescents with depressive disorder and 125 normal subjects of similar age, sex were presented with self-made social demographic scale, Egna Minnen av Barndoms Uppfostran-own memories of parental rearing practices in childhood (EMBU), Children attributional style questionnaire (CASQ) and Coping style questionnaire.Results:1.As to EMBU, there was a significant deficit in parental emotional warmth (p< 0.001) with depression adolescents, and whose parental punishment and strict (p< 0.05), rejection and denial (p< 0.001) were higher than normal ones.2.As to CASQ, the differences were significant in self-blame (p< 0.001), asking for help (p< 0.001), daydreaming (p< 0.001) and recession (p< 0.05).3.The difference of attributional pattern was significant (p< 0.001).4.Mather’ emotional warmth and rejection and denial were both related to adolescents’ coping style and attributional style.Conclusion:Depressive adolescents had negative coping style and attributional style, and mother’ rearing style may has relation with them.

Dysfunctional Attitudes, Attributional Styles, and Phase of Illness in Bipolar Disorder

Whereas an abundance of studies have been devoted to the study of cognitive vulnerability in unipolar depression, comparatively less is known regarding the cognitive styles of patients with bipolar disorder. This study examined the cognitive styles of 395 of the first 500 bipolar patients enrolled in the NIMH Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder as a function of mood state at study entry. Patients completed diagnostic and mood assessments and two measures of cognitive style: The Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (DAS) and the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ). Patients in mixed episodes exhibited significantly more negative dysfunctional attitudes and negative attributional styles than euthymic patients and significantly more dysfunctional attitudes than manic/hypomanic patients. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to episode vulnerability, mood-state dependency of cognitive style, and cognitive-behavioral treatment.

Exploring Modeling-based Hypotheses in Preadolescent Girls’ and Boys’ Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression

In a community sample of 163 children (ages 9–12) and their mothers, we explored modeling-based hypotheses that may underlie how cognitive vulnerability components to depression (negative cognitive triad and negative attributional style) are transmitted from mother to preadolescent children. Results found mothers’ negative cognitive triad partially mediated the relation between mothers’ depressive symptoms and children’s negative cognitive triad. Moreover, mothers’ negative cognitive triad was uniquely and significantly related to children’s negative cognitive triad, after statistically adjusting for the effects of mothers’ depressive and anxiety symptoms in our full sample, as well as in a subsample of our mothers with more depressive symptoms. Most importantly, in our full sample and our subsamples with more depressive symptoms, the amount of time that mothers reported spending with their children moderated the relation between mothers’ and children’s negative cognitive triad, with significantly stronger relations found between mothers’ and children’s negative cognitive triad when mothers reported spending higher in comparison to lower amounts of time spent together. Our modeling-based hypotheses with respect to attributional style, and child sex, were not supported. Implications of our findings for further understanding of family-based modeling mechanisms of risk, and directions for future research, are highlighted.

Interactive effects of attributional styles for positive and negative events on psychological distress

The purpose of the present study was to analyse the relationships between attributional styles for positive and negative situations and positive and negative affect. Four hundred and thirty six undergraduate students completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire and Positive and Negative Affect Scales. The results showed that people with negative attributional style (NAS) or tendency to explain negative situations through internal, stable, and global causes reported higher negative affect and lower positive affect. According to the reformulated learned helplessness model, individuals with NAS who explained positive events with external, unstable, and specific causes scored highest on negative affect. Moreover, the enhancing attributional style or tendency to explain positive situations by internal, stable, and global causes was associated with the report of positive affect. We conclude that NAS has an association with psychological distress and suggest that direction of attributional style for positive situations might play an important role in the distress or well-being of individuals.

Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Depressive Disorders

Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Depressive Disorders