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At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2005

Symptom experiences, symptom attributions, and causal attributions in patients following first-time myocardial infarction.

We examined symptom experiences, symptom attributions, and causal attributions reported by patients hospitalized for a first-time myocardial infarction (MI). We also explored the roles of symptoms, negative affect, and risk factors in promoting stress and other causal attributions. Patients (N = 65) completed measures of symptom experiences and attributions, perceived causes of their MI, state and trait negative affect, and risk factors. Patients attributed most of their symptoms to the heart condition, although rates varied from 48% (headaches) to 97% (nausea). The most common causal attribution was stress, followed by high cholesterol, heredity, fat consumption, and hypertension. Stress attributions were positively associated with state anxiety and specific, stress-related symptoms (e.g., fatigue and breathlessness). Anxious mood and stress-related symptoms appear to enhance the plausibility of stress as a cause of MI. Risk factors were moderately correlated with associated causal attributions. For many patients, however, attributions to hypertension, cholesterol, and family history of heart disease were discordant with their clinical data. Causal attributions remained stable over the subsequent 6 months.

Affect↗
PubMed1985

Development of learning-disabled and normally achieving children's causal attributions.

The causal attributions of learning-disabled (LD) and normally achieving (NA) children in grades 3 through 8 were compared. Attributions were measured by two scales that asked children to attribute hypothetical academic failure situations to factors that were either within (e.g., insufficient effort) or beyond (e.g., insufficient ability, blaming others) their control. Consistent with a learned helplessness hypothesis. LD girls, regardless of age, were more likely than NA children to attribute their failures to factors beyond their control. In contrast, LD boys' explanations for their failures paralleled those of NA children. That is, with increasing age the LD boys were more likely to attribute their failures to insufficient effort. Explanations and implications of sex differences in developmental patterns of LD children's causal attributions are discussed.

Achievement↗
PubMed1988

Causal attributions and coping with pain in chronic headache sufferers.

In the present study the relationship between attributions of causality and pain-coping behavior in headache patients was examined. Data from 441 chronic headache sufferers were collected by means of self-report inventories. The most frequently reported causal attributions were hereditary factors, emotional distress, menses or menopause, an overactive life-style, weather conditions, nutrition, and physical exertion. Some support was found for a hypothesized association between physically and psychologically related causal attributions and allied pain-coping behavior. However, as far as a relationship was revealed, it served to explain only less than 2% of the variance in pain-coping behavior. It is concluded that causal attributions do not contribute to the understanding of pain-coping behavior in chronic headache sufferers.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1995

The role of covariation versus mechanism information in causal attribution.

Traditional approaches to causal attribution propose that information about covariation of factors is used to identify causes of events. In contrast, we present a series of studies showing that people seek out and prefer information about causal mechanisms rather than information about covariation. Experiments 1, 2 and 3 asked subjects to indicate the kind of information they would need for causal attribution. The subjects tended to seek out information that would provide evidence for or against hypotheses about underlying mechanisms. When asked to provide causes, the subjects' descriptions were also based on causal mechanisms. In Experiment 4, subjects received pieces of conflicting evidence matching in covariation values but differing in whether the evidence included some statement of a mechanism. The influence of evidence was significantly stronger when it included mechanism information. We conclude that people do not treat the task of causal attribution as one of identifying a novel causal relationship between arbitrary factors by relying solely on covariation information. Rather, people attempt to seek out causal mechanisms in developing a causal explanation for a specific event.

Adult↗
PubMed1980

The stability of causal attributions.

The stability of causal attribution over repeated test days was examined using a 2 (win, loss) X 2 (immediate, one day delay) X 3 (post game, 2 weeks, 4 weeks) design. Male high school football players outlined the degree of causality attributed to ability, effort, luck, task difficulty and officiating. The results from an ANOVA analysis supported a view that attributions are stable over a four week interval. However, a correlational analysis revealed that there is only a moderate to low consistency of individual differences in attribution over repeated tests. Thus, retrospective judgements for causality may not be reliable.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

A multi-level analysis of cultural experience and gender influences on causal attributions to perceived performance in mathematics.

BACKGROUND: Causal attributions to academic performance are among the most important factors that influence the student's subsequent achievement behaviour. AIM: The effects of student's gender and cultural experience (region) on the ratings of previously identified causal attribution factors were investigated. SAMPLE: The participants were 341 high school students from the urban (N = 144) and the rural (N = 197) regions of Kenya. There were 205 male and 136 female students. METHODS: Causal comparative research design was used and data collected using the Causal Attribution Scale (CAS). The Hierarchical linear model (HLM) technique was used to test the hypotheses. RESULTS: There were significant gender and cultural experience variations in the mean ratings of the attribution factors. Instructional Strategy was highly rated for perceived success, and lack of Ability for perceived failure. Effort was of least importance in making attribution to either perceived success or failure. CONCLUSIONS: The findings do not concur with research findings from Western and Asian countries where Effort is considered important in making attributions for either perceived success or failure. The findings, however, agree with research findings from Asian and other non-Caucasian societies where success is attributed to external factors (e.g., task difficulty) and failure to internal factors (e.g., ability). These findings have some implications for cross-cultural research in causal attribution as it relates to academic performance. While certain causal attributions studied in 'Western' and Asian cultures differ in terms of perceived success and failure, the current study indicates that other causal attributions are important and used differently by students from Kenya.

Achievement↗
PubMed2003

Self-responsibility and the self-serving bias: an fMRI investigation of causal attributions.

We use causal attributions to infer the most likely cause of events in the social world. Internal attributions imply self-responsibility for events. The self-serving bias describes the tendency of normal subjects to attribute the causation of positive events internally ("I am responsible em leader ") and negative events externally ("Other people or situational factors are responsible em leader "). The self-serving bias has been assumed to serve a positive motivational function by enhancing self-esteem. Abnormalities of attributional style have been implicated in both depression and psychosis. We examined the neural basis of both self-responsibility and the self-serving bias using functional magnetic resonance imaging during the performance of attributional decision tasks. We found that the determination of self-responsibility recruits areas previously implicated in action simulation (bilateral premotor cortex and cerebellum), suggesting that such higher order social cognition is related to simpler internal models of goal-directed action. The dorsal striatum, previously implicated in motivated behavior, mediates the self-serving bias.

Adult↗
PubMed1997

Causal attributions in paranoia and depression: internal, personal, and situational attributions for negative events.

Causal attributions for positive and negative hypothetical social events made by paranoid patients, depressed patients, and nonpatient participants were examined via a novel measure of causal locus, the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire. Depressed patients tended to attribute negative social events to internal (self-blaming) causes. Nonpatient participants and patients with delusions of persecution tended to avoid such self-blame. However, whereas nonpatient participants tended to choose situational or circumstantial external attributions, paranoid patients tended to choose external attributions that located blame in other individuals. These findings support R. P. Bentall, P. Kinderman, and S. Kaney's (1994) defensive attributional model of persecutory delusions, suggest some modifications to that model, and have implications for the understanding of the relationship between causal attributions and social and self-perception.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Self-discrepancies and causal attributions: studies of hypothesized relationships.

The self-concept and causal attributions are both centrally implicated in psychological disorders including depression and paranoia. In two investigations of the dynamic relationships between causal attributions and self-representations, non-patient participants completed questionnaires derived from Higgins' (1987) Self-Discrepancy Theory before and after completing a measure of causal attribution. In Study 1, consistent with cognitive models of depression, external attributions for negative events were associated with reductions in self-actual:self-ideal discrepancies. Study 2 revealed significantly different effects on self-discrepancies of three types of causal attributions. Internal attributions led to increased self-actual:self-ideal discrepancies as well as increased discrepancies between self-perceptions and the believed views of others about the self (self-actual:other-actual discrepancies). External situational attributions led to no changes in either self-actual:self-ideal or self-actual:other-actual discrepancies. External personal attributions led to no changes in self-actual:self-ideal discrepancies but increased self-actual:other-actual discrepancies. These findings point to the value of distinguishing between different kinds of external attributions. They show that self-representations and causal attributions are closely coupled cognitive domains. The results also suggest that paranoid ideation might be specifically associated with external-personal attributions for negative events.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Multi-level analysis of causal attribution of injury to alcohol and modifying effects: Data from two international emergency room projects.

Although alcohol consumption and injury has received a great deal of attention in the literature, less is known about patient's causal attribution of the injury event to their drinking or factors which modify attribution. Hierarchical linear modeling is used to analyze the relationships of the volume of alcohol consumed prior to injury and feeling drunk at the time of the event with causal attribution, as well as the association of aggregate individual-level and socio-cultural variables on these relationships. Data analyzed are from 1955 ER patients who reported drinking prior to injury included in 35 ERs from 24 studies covering 15 countries from the combined Emergency Room Collaborative Alcohol Analysis Project (ERCAAP) and the WHO Collaborative Study on Alcohol and Injuries. Half of those patients drinking prior to injury attributed a causal association of their injury with alcohol consumption, but the rate of causal attribution varied significantly across studies. When controlling for gender and age, the volume of alcohol consumed and feeling drunk (controlling for volume) were both significantly predictive of attribution and this did not vary across studies. Those who drink at least weekly were less likely to attribute causality at a low volume level, but more likely at high volume levels than less frequent drinkers. Attribution of causality was also less likely at low volume levels in those societies with low detrimental drinking patterns, but more likely at high volume levels or when feeling drunk compared to societies with high detrimental drinking patterns. These findings have important implications for brief intervention in the ER if motivation to change drinking behavior is greater among those attributing a causal association of their drinking with injury.

Adult↗
PubMed1985

Causal attributions of married couples: when do they search for causes? What do they conclude when they do?

In this study, we examined when and whether married people engage in attributional activity or form causal attributions to explain their partners' behavior. We used an indirect probe to better approximate naturally occurring cognitive activity. We also examined the content of spouses' causal attributions, using both direct and indirect probes. Spouses were asked about frequent as well as infrequent relationship events, and about partner behaviors that had positive or negative impacts on the recipient. Husbands in unsatisfying relationships reported more attributional thoughts than did happily married husbands, whereas wives in the two groups did not differ. Behaviors having negative impacts elicited more attributional activity than did positive behaviors. Behavioral frequency and impact interacted in ways contrary to predictions. Finally, distressed couples were particularly likely to report distress-maintaining attributions and were particularly unlikely to report relationship-enhancing attributions, compared with their nondistressed counterparts.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

[A study of relation between hopelessness and causal attribution in school-aged children].

This study was conducted to investigate the relation between hopelessness and causal attribution in Japanese school-aged children. In Study 1, the Japanese edition of hopelessness scale for children developed by Kazdin, French, Unis, Esveldt-Dawsan, and Sherick (1983) was constructed. Seventeen original items were translated into Japanese and they were administrated to 405 fifth- and sixth-graders. All of the items could be included to the Japanese edition of hopelessness scale. The reliability and validity was examined. In Study 2, the relation between hopelessness and causal attribution in children were investigated. The causal attribution questionnaire developed by Higuchi, Kambare, and Otsuka (1983) and the hopelessness scale developed by Study 1 were administered to 188 sixth-graders. Children with high scores in hopelessness scale significantly attributed negative events to much more effort factor than children with low scores. It supports neither the reformulated learned helplessness model nor the causal attribution theory of achievement motivation. It was explained mainly from points of self-serving attribution, cultural difference, and social desirability. Some questions were discussed for developing studies on depression and causal attribution in Japan.

Achievement↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Causal attribution, perceived control, and adjustment in patients with lung cancer.

The relationships among causal attribution, perceived control, and adjustment to lung cancer were examined in 61 outpatients who had received a diagnosis of primary lung cancer. Data were collected using a structured interview and a self-report questionnaire. Both internal and external causal attributions were significantly positively correlated with perceived control. The relationship between internal causal attribution and perceived control was stronger. No significant relationships were found between perceived control and adjustment, although both internal and external causal attributions were significantly negatively correlated with aspects of adjustment. Recommendations are made for future research.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1997

Self-esteem and causal attributions.

The relationship between self-esteem and causal attributions of success and failure in achievement-related behavior was examined among undergraduate students. An integration of a self-consistency model of causal attribution and self-enhancement theory was attempted. Self-esteem and performance outcome conditions of success and failure served as independent variables. Success and failure conditions were created via feedback regarding the participants' performance on an anagram task. The participants' attributions of six causal elements (ability, effort, immediate effort, task difficulty, luck, and mood) were categorized and combined with three causal dimensions (internal-external locus, stability, and controllability), which served as dependent variables. Participants' expectations regarding performance also served as a dependent variable. The relationship between self-esteem, expectancies of success and failure, performance, and stable causality were reported. In terms of causal dimensions, internal, stable, and controllable dimensions were explained by self-enhancement.

Achievement↗
PubMed2001

Effects of affect, stereotype consistency, and valence of behavior on causal attributions.

The authors examined 3 hypotheses about the effects of 2 positive and 2 negative affects on causal attributions. On the basis of cognitive appraisal theories of emotion, they predicted that the grateful and angry participants would attribute causality for like-valenced behaviors to the target more strongly than would the happy and sad participants, respectively. Following an affect-induction procedure, 229 Anglo-American participants read a description of an African American target whose behavior was stereotype consistent or stereotype inconsistent and positive or negative in valence. As predicted, when the behavior was negative, the angry participants attributed it more strongly to the target than did the sad participants. When the behavior was positive, the grateful participants attributed it more strongly to the target than did the happy participants. The importance of distinguishing among affects and considering their multidimensional nature in predicting effects on social judgments is emphasized.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Simulated grading decisions of allied health educators. Part II: Variations in causal attributions.

The present study investigated the causal attributions of allied health faculty to hypothetical student achievement data. Faculty rated linear and nonlinear (ascending or descending) grade profiles along ten causal dimensions. As predicted, student ability and effort attributions were prominent for ascending and uniformly high performance while external factors were more prevalent for descending and uniformly low performance. Faculty also used a diverse set of attributions in rating the performance profiles. Faculty age and length of clinical experience appeared to have mediating effects on perceptions of causality for declining student performance. Overall, these results suggest that allied health faculty demonstrate predictable patterns of causal attributions, yet differ in several important aspects from that expected from previous research.

Achievement↗
PubMed2005

Why did I get chronic fatigue syndrome? A qualitative interview study of causal attributions in women patients.

OBJECTIVES: To explore causal attributions among women with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). DESIGN: Qualitative study where data from individual semi-structured interviews were analysed according to Malterud's systematic text condensation. SETTING: Bergen, Norway. SUBJECTS: A purposeful sample of eight women aged 25-55, recruited among members of a self-help organization. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Accounts of causal attribution for CFS among the informants, focusing on gender. RESULTS: The participants agreed that their way of living could have increased the vulnerability of their resistance resources. Pressure they put upon themselves, workload burdens without subsequent relaxation, emotional conflicts, or preparing for assumed problem-solving were mentioned as gendered dimensions. They presented different explanations regarding potential triggers encountering their fragile immune systems, most often a virus infection. The participants thought women might have a weaker immune system than men, or that CFS was caused by a virus that women are more likely to catch. In their experience, their symptoms were activated when people put pressure on them, such that they might be nervous as to whether they could live up to the demands of their surroundings, and in the case of emotional strain related to family and work. CONCLUSION: More studies are needed exploring hypotheses concerning the complex interplay between molecular predispositions and more or less gendered lifestyle issues in CFS. Doctors need to challenge their strong beliefs regarding medically unexplained conditions, where facts still remain unresolved. Recognizing this, the doctor may provide realistic support and advice, and contribute to the establishment of common ground for understanding and managing the condition.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

Patterns of depression in medical patients and their relationship with causal attributions for illness.

The present study investigated the factor structure of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and causal attributions for the development of illness in a sample of 102 inpatients of a thoracic surgery department, with the main objective of examining the power of causal attributions and functional support in predicting different factors derived from the BDI. The results revealed that the BDI clusters into affective/motivational, somatic/vegetative, self-blame and self-punitiveness dimensions. Causal attributions for the development of illness were represented by family conflicts, environmental adversity, finance/health problems, bad luck, and four self-related clusters. Examination of the predictors of the BDI dimensions showed that causal attributions to uncontrollable, unmodifiable variables were predictors for the affective/motivational dimension, whereas illness severity and greater age were related to the somatic/vegetative symptomatology. The results supported the recommendations for the exclusion of such symptoms in assessing depression severity among medical patients.

Adolescent↗