Pessimistic explanatory style and response to illness

Previous studies have shown that a pessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for illness, but the factors linking explanatory style and illness are unknown. One's characteristic response to poor health may mediate this relationship. Perhaps pessimistic individuals act helplessly in the face of their symptoms, thereby exacerbating disease. In the present study, we investigated this possibility by asking 96 young adults to complete measures of explanatory style, habitual response to illness, and ways of coping during their most recent episode of illness. Subjects who explain bad events pessimistically (with internal, stable, and global causes) reported more frequent illnesses during the past year and rated their overall health more poorly than those who habitually favor external, unstable, and specific explanations. When ill, the pessimistic subjects were less likely than their optimistic counterparts to take active steps to combat their illness. Our results suggest that one pathway leading from pessimistic explanatory style to poor health is mundane: passivity in the face of disease.     

Dispositional and explanatory style optimism as potential moderators of the relationship between hopelessness and suicidal ideation

To test the hypothesis that higher levels of optimism reduce the association between hopelessness and suicidal ideation, 284 college students completed self-report measures of optimism and Beck scales for hopelessness, suicidal ideation, and depression. A statistically significant interaction between hopelessness and one measure of optimism was obtained, consistent with the hypothesis that optimism moderates the relationship between hopelessness and suicidal ideation. Hopelessness is not inevitably associated with suicidal ideation. Optimism may be an important moderator of the association. The development of treatments to enhance optimism may complement standard treatments to reduce suicidality that target depression and hopelessness.     

The impact of self-efficacy on stressor-strain relations: coping style as an explanatory mechanism.

The present study was designed to examine whether coping style influences the impact of self-efficacy on stressor-strain relations. It was hypothesized that high self-efficacy would weaken stressor-strain relations when accompanied by frequent use of active coping and infrequent use of avoidance coping. Data collected from 2,293 members of the U.S. Army revealed 3-way interactions among self-efficacy, role clarity, and active coping and among self-efficacy, work overload, and avoidance coping. As predicted, self-efficacy mitigated the effects of low role clarity on strain only when active coping was high. Also as expected, strain levels were lower for participants with high self-efficacy than for participants with lower self-efficacy when work overload was low but avoidance coping was high. Implications of these findings for occupational stress research are discussed.     

Cultural identity, explanatory style, and depression in Navajo adolescents

This study investigated the interrelationships among cultural identity, explanatory style, and depression in Navajo adolescents. A total of 332 (197 female, 135 male) Navajo adolescents completed 7 self-report measures. These data were used to create, via structural equation modeling, a series of factor models and full structural models. Analyses indicated that current factor structures for explanatory style and depression are adequate for use with Navajo adolescents. Increased control and predictability and limited duration of stressful encounters were both predictive of decreased symptoms of depression. Higher levels of Navajo cultural identity had a modest effect in terms of reducing depression. Other factors, such as perceived discrimination and urban/reservation domicile, are important to study to provide an increased understanding of depression among Navajo adolescents.     

The secret life of pronouns: flexibility in writing style and physical health

Numerous disclosure studies have demonstrated that individuals randomly assigned to write about emotional topics evidence improved physical health compared with those who write about superficial topics. The writing samples from three previously published studies of 74 first-year students, 50 upper-division students, and 59 maximum-security prisoners were reanalyzed using Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) to explore possible relationships of writing content and style to changes in frequency of physician visits following the disclosure intervention. LSA revealed that flexibility in the use of common words—particularly personal pronouns—when writing about traumatic memories was related to positive health outcomes. The findings point to the importance of the role of discussing the self and social relationships in writing and, at the same time, to the remarkable potential of techniques such as LSA.     

The relationship of attributional style to agoraphobia severity, depression, and treatment outcome

The present study examined the relationship of attributional style, as measured with a revised version of the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) and measures of agoraphobia severity, depression, and treatment outcome in 73 Ss who met DSM-III criteria for agoraphobia with panic attacks and participated in one of three 13-week treatment conditions: paradoxical intention, graduated exposure, or progressive deep muscle relaxation training. Subjects completed assessments at four periods: pretreatment, midtreatment, posttreatment, and at 3 month follow-up. In addition to the three dimensions typically examined on the ASQ, this revised version also measured Ss' estimates of the perceived importance, and future likelihood for both positive and negative events. Congruent with previous research, moderate but somewhat inconsistent associations were observed between attributional style and depression both within and across assessment periods. Predictions about associations between attributional style and agoraphobic severity were not supported; however, an interaction was observed between depression and attributional style with respect to severity of agoraphobia. There was no evidence of group differences across treatment types, although there were several significant changes in attributional style across time. Attributions for health related events were also examined. Conceptual, clinical, and research issues related to the findings are discussed.     

The explanatory power of theism

Special thanks to Alvin Plantinga, Michael Detlefsen and William Alston for many helpful suggestions.     

The explanatory dispensability of idealizations

Enhanced indispensability arguments seek to establish realism about mathematics based on the explanatory role that mathematics plays in science. Idealizations pose a problem for such arguments. Idealizations, in a similar way to mathematics, boost the explanatory credentials of our best scientific theories. And yet, idealizations are not the sorts of things that are supposed to attract a realist attitude. I argue that the explanatory symmetry between idealizations and mathematics can potentially be broken as follows: although idealizations contribute to the explanatory power of our best theories, they do not carry the explanatory load. It is at least open however that mathematics is load-carrying. To give this idea substance, I offer an analysis of what it is to carry the explanatory load in terms of difference-making and counterfactuals.     

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.     

The explanatory objection to the fitting attitude analysis of value

Philosophical Studies - The fitting attitude analysis of value states that for objects to have value is for them to be the fitting targets of attitudes. Good objects are the fitting targets of...     

Pessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for physical illness: a thirty-five-year longitudinal study

Explanatory style, the habitual ways in which individuals explain bad events, was extracted from open-ended questionnaires filled out by 99 graduates of the Harvard University classes of 1942-1944 at age 25. Physical health from ages 30 to 60 as measured by physician examination was related to earlier explanatory style. Pessimistic explanatory style (the belief that bad events are caused by stable, global, and internal factors) predicted poor health at ages 45 through 60, even when physical and mental health at age 25 were controlled. Pessimism in early adulthood appears to be a risk factor for poor health in middle and late adulthood.     

The explanatory potential of artificial societies

It is often claimed that artificial society simulations contribute to the explanation of social phenomena. At the hand of a particular example, this paper argues that artificial societies often cannot provide full explanations, because their models are not or cannot be validated. Despite that, many feel that such simulations somehow contribute to our understanding. This paper tries to clarify this intuition by investigating whether artificial societies provide potential explanations. It is shown that these potential explanations, if they contribute to our understanding, considerably differ from potential causal explanations. Instead of possible causal histories, simulations offer possible functional analyses of the explanandum. The paper discusses how these two kinds explanatory strategies differ, and how potential functional explanations can be appraised.     

Learned helplessness in children: a longitudinal study of depression, achievement, and explanatory style

In this longitudinal study, the depressive symptoms, life events, and explanatory styles of 168 school children were measured five times during the course of 1 year. Measures of school achievement were obtained once during the year. Depressive symptoms and explanatory styles were found to be quite stable over the year. As predicted by the reformulated learned helplessness theory, explanatory style both correlated with concurrent levels of depression and school achievement and predicted later changes in depression during the year. Depression also predicted later explanatory styles. The implications of these results for intervention with children with depressive symptoms or school achievement problems are discussed.     

The explanatory role of consistency requirements

Synthese - Is epistemic inconsistency a mere symptom of having violated other requirements of rationality—notably, reasons-responsiveness requirements? Or is inconsistency irrational on its...     

The relationship between extraversion and verbal-imagery learning style in twelve-year-old children

The extraversion score of 12-yr-old children was compared with a measure of their verbal-imagery learning style and their immediate recall performance on concrete and abstract prose passages. Learning style was assessed by the verbal-imagery code test which attempts to monitor the presence of verbal associations and images during information processing. The test gives a ration which when high indicates high imaginal and low verbal performance, and when low the reverse. Extraversion was found to be significantly negatively correlated with the verbal- imagery code ratio. Further, a significant interaction between extraversion and passage type in their effect on recall was observed. Extraverts were superior on the abstract passage, while introverts did best on the concrete material. The findings were consistent with the interpretation that extraverts are verbalisers and introverts are imagers.