Assessing explanatory style: the content analysis of verbatim explanations and the Attributional Style Questionnaire

We compare two methods of assessing explanatory style--the content analysis of verbatim explanations (CAVE) and the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ). The CAVE technique is a method that allows the researcher to analyze any naturally occurring verbatim materials for explanatory style. This technique permits the measurement of various populations that are unwilling or unable to take the ASQ. We administered the ASQ and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to 169 undergraduates and content analyzed the written causes on the ASQ for explanatory style by the CAVE technique. The CAVE technique correlated 0.71 with the ASQ (P less than 0.0001, n = 159) and -0.36 with BDI (P less than 0.0001, n = 159). The ASQ correlated -0.51 with the BDI (P less than 0.0001, n = 160). Both the CAVE technique and the ASQ seem to be valid devices for assessing explanatory style.