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Attributional style in depression: a meta-analytic review
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
|May 1, 1986
Summary
People who attribute negative events to internal, stable, and global causes are more likely to experience depression. These attributional styles consistently link to depression across various studies.
Area of Science:
- Psychology
- Psychiatry
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Attributional style, the way individuals explain events, is theorized to influence mental health.
- Previous research suggests a link between attributional patterns and depression, but comprehensive meta-analyses are needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To conduct a meta-analysis examining the relationship between attributional styles and depression.
- To identify specific attributional patterns associated with depressive symptoms.
Main Methods:
- Meta-analysis of 104 studies.
- Inclusion of nearly 15,000 subjects.
- Analysis of attributional factors for both negative and positive events, including ability and luck.
Main Results:
- Negative events attributed to internal, stable, and global causes significantly correlate with depression.
- Attributions for positive events to external, unstable, and specific causes also associate with depression, though less strongly.
- These associations remained consistent across different study designs and populations.
Conclusions:
- Specific attributional styles are reliably associated with depression.
- The findings support attributional models of depression.
- The robustness of these findings is independent of potential confounding factors.