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.     

Predictors and consequences of childhood depressive symptoms: a 5-year longitudinal study.

A 5-year longitudinal study investigated the interrelationships among children's experiences of depressive symptoms, negative life events, explanatory style, and helplessness behaviors in social and achievement situations. The results revealed that early in childhood, negative events, but not explanatory style, predicted depressive symptoms; later in childhood, a pessimistic explanatory style emerged as a significant predictor of depressive symptoms, alone and in conjunction with negative events. When children suffered periods of depression, their explanatory styles not only deteriorated but remained pessimistic even after their depression subsided, presumably putting them at risk for future episodes of depression. Some children seem repeatedly prone to depressive symptoms over periods of at least 2 years. Depressed children consistently showed helpless behaviors in social and achievement settings.     

大学生归因方式、气质性乐观与心理幸福感的关系

采用问卷调查的方法,对350名大学生的归因方式、气质性乐观与心理幸福感(即抑郁、生活满意度)的关系进行了研究,结果表明:(1)归因方式问卷的总分与气质性乐观、生活满意度呈显著负相关,与抑郁呈显著正相关,气质性乐观与抑郁呈显著负相关,与生活满意度呈显著正相关;(2)归因方式的自身性维度上,乐观者、悲观者的归因方式无显著性差异;持久性和整体性维度上,对可控性低水平事件的归因方式无显著性差异,对中、高水平事件,悲观者的归因方式比乐观者更悲观;(3)归因方式对抑郁、生活满意度的影响以气质性乐观为中介变量.     

Daily diaries and minority adolescents: random coefficient regression modeling of attributional style, coping, and affect

Many researchers underscore the importance of coping in the daily lives of adolescents, yet very few studies measure this and related constructs at this level. Using a daily diary approach to stress and coping, the current study evaluated a series of mediational coping models in a sample of low-income minority adolescents (N = 89). Specifically, coping was hypothesized to mediate the relationship between attributional style (and dimensions) and daily affect. Using random coefficient regression modeling, the relationship between (a) the locus of causality dimension and positive affect was completely mediated by the use of acceptance and humor as coping strategies; (b) the stability dimension and positive affect was completely mediated by the use of both problem-solving and positive thinking; and (c) the stability dimension and negative affect was partially mediated by the use of religious coping. In addition, the locus of causality and stability (but not globality) dimensions were also directly related to affect. However, the relationship between pessimistic explanatory style and affect was not mediated by coping. Consistent with previous research, these findings suggest that attributions are both directly and indirectly related to indices of affect or adjustment. Thus, attributions may not only influence the type of coping strategy employed, but may also serve as coping strategies themselves.     

Family and Contextual Predictors of Depressive Symptoms in Inner-City African American Youth

Family and contextual predictors of depression in inner-city, African American youth have rarely been examined. In this study we explore the contribution of current and historical life events, family conflict, perceived social support from mother, maternal depression, and maternal explanatory style to the depressive symptoms of inner-city African American school-age (M = 10.7 years) children. Home interviews were conducted with 89 mother and child dyads living in moderate- to high-violent areas of a southeastern city. Regression analyses revealed that the children in this sample with higher levels of depressive symptoms had higher levels of child-reported everyday stress, were more likely to have been abused at some point in their past, came from homes with mothers who were less well educated, and had mothers who reported higher levels of depression, a past history of domestic abuse, as well as a less pessimistic explanatory style. Implications for interventions with inner-city African American families are discussed.     

Explanatory style and cell-mediated immunity in elderly men and women

Correlated pessimistic explanatory style--the belief that negative events are caused by internal, stable, and global factors--with lowered immunocompetence in a sample of 26 older adults. Two measures of cell-mediated immunity--T-helper cell/T-suppressor cell ratio and T-lymphocyte response to mitogen challenge--were lower in individuals with a pessimistic style, controlling for the influence of current health, depression, medication, recent weight change, sleep, and alcohol use. A relative increase in the percentage of T-suppressor cells seemed to underlie this immunosuppression. Although the mechanism by which explanatory style might influence immune function remains unknown, we speculate that a pessimistic style might be an important psychological risk factor--at least among older people--in the early course of certain immune-mediated diseases.     

Attributional Style and Personality as Predictors of Happiness and Mental Health

This paper contains two studies which set out to examine to what extent attributional style (internal, stable, global) and personality traits predicted happiness and psychiatric symptoms in a normal, non-clinical, population of young people in their early twenties. Two hundred and three participants completed five questionnaires: the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) (version one & version two), Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Oxford Happiness Inventory, and Langner 22-Item Measure. Sample 1 (n = 120) completed ASQ version one (in both positive and negative situations) and sample 2 (n = 83) completed ASQ version two (in expanded negative situations). Regressional analysis showed that ASQ (in both versions) was the significant predictor of happiness and mental health accounting for 20% to 38% of variances. The ASQ was significantly associated with extraversion and neuroticism. Further, with happiness and mental health as dependent variables and attributional style, personality traits, and demographic variables as independent variables respectively, extraversion and attributional stability (in positive situations) were the significant predictors of happiness accounting for 59% of the total variance whilst neuroticism and psychoticism were the significant predictors of mental health accounting for 53% of the total variance. The results indicated that optimistic attributional style in positive situations was a stronger predictor of self-reported happiness than mental health and pessimistic attributional style in negative situations was a predictor of both happiness and mental health. Extraverts tended to have optimistic explanatory style for positive outcomes whereas neurotics tended to have pessimistic explanatory style for negative outcomes.     

Pathogenic Beliefs Mediate the Relationship Between Perceived Negative Parenting and Psychopathology Symptoms

Negative parenting style, such as abuse, neglect, and intrusiveness, is significantly related to subsequent development of psychopathology. Here we sought to examine pathogenic beliefs as a potential mechanism of change. We explored whether pathogenic beliefs help explain the relationship between perceived negative parenting style and common psychopathology symptoms. This study assessed the psychometric properties of the self-report Pathogenic Beliefs Scale and tested its mediating effect on the relationship between negative parenting and psychopathology. A community sample of 732 adults completed an online survey that included measures of perceived negative parenting style (MOPS), pathogenic beliefs (PBS), and a transdiagnostic measure of common indicators of psychopathology (anxiety, low self-esteem, emotional instability, pessimistic attitude, and depression). Results showed that pathogenic beliefs were significantly associated with negative parenting experiences in childhood and adult psychopathology symptoms. Moreover, pathogenic beliefs mediated the relationship between negative parenting style and psychopathology. Implications for clinical practice are discussed.     

Explanatory Style and Illness

Explanatory style is an individual difference that influences people's response to bad events. The present article discusses the possibility that a pessimistic explanatory style makes illness more likely. Several studies suggest that people who offer internal, stable, and global explanations for bad events are at increased risk for morbidity and mortality. We tentatively conclude that passivity, pessimism, and low morale foreshadow disease and death, although the process by which this occurs is unclear.     

Cognitive biases in three prediction tasks: A test of the cognitive model of depression

Cognitive therapy for depression is based on an assumption that depressed individuals have inaccurate, negative biases. Whether this assumption is accurate remains unresolved. Thus, this study sought to examine the relationship between depressive symptoms and bias in three sets of predictions (i.e., predictions of future life events, how one would be rated by a significant other, and performance on a vocabulary test). Following study announcements made to a subset of people pre-screened for depressive symptoms, 85 participants with widely varying depressive symptoms (17 of whom met diagnostic criteria for depression) made predictions on three judgment tasks and the outcomes for these tasks were assessed. Optimistic/pessimistic biases were related to depressive symptoms for each of the three tasks. Participants with high levels of depressive symptoms and depressed participants exhibited substantial pessimistic bias. Those high in depressive symptoms exhibited significant pessimistic bias on all three tasks. Participants meeting diagnostic criteria for depression exhibited pessimistic bias on two of three tasks. There was no evidence that depressive symptoms were associated with greater accuracy in judgments. Results are largely consistent with cognitive models of depression which postulate that depression is associated with pessimistic biases.     

Explanatory style and coping with controllable events by student-athletes

Abstract

The present study investigated the relationship between explanatory style and the appraisal and coping of 66 major college football players with respect to stressful but controllable events in the academic and the athletic domains. A path analysis showed that for controllable events, a “pessimistic” explanatory style-in which bad events are attributed to internal, stable, and global causes-predicted appraisals of adequate resources to cope with demands, which in turn predicted increased attempts to cope.     

Depression as a mediator of negative cognitive style and hopelessness in stress generation

Over the past 20 years, there has been considerable interest in the role of cognitive factors in the stress generation process. Generally, these studies find that depressed individuals, or individuals at cognitive risk for depression, are more likely to experience stressful life events that are in part influenced by their own characteristics and behaviours (i.e., negative dependent events). However, there is still much to be learnt about the mediators of these effects. For example, does the development of depression symptoms explain why individuals at cognitive risk for depression experience increased negative dependent events? Or, is it that increases in cognitive risk explain why depressed individuals experience increased negative dependent events? To explore these questions, a short‐term prospective study was conducted with 209 college students who were given measures of depression, depressogenic risk factors (i.e., negative cognitive style and hopelessness), and negative dependent events at two time points 6 weeks apart. Support was found for three models: (1) depression symptoms mediated the relationship between negative cognitive style and negative dependent events; (2) depression symptoms mediated the relationship between hopelessness and negative dependent events; and (3) first hopelessness and then depression symptoms mediated the relationship between negative cognitive style and negative dependent events in a multiple‐step model. In contrast, the reverse models were not confirmed, suggesting specificity in the direction of the mediational sequence.     

Is pessimism a risk factor for depressive mood among community-dwelling older adults?

This study examined two senses in which pessimism might be a risk factor for depressive mood among older adults. The first was that a pessimistic explanatory style would predict changes toward depressive mood when combined with stressful life events. The second was that predictive pessimism, or thinking that bad events will happen in the future, would predict changes in depressive symptoms. We found an interaction between explanatory style and life stressors, but it was the optimists who were at higher risk for depressive symptoms after negative life events. We also found support for predictive pessimism, however, as a predictor of depressive symptoms over time.     

Indirect pathways between depressive symptoms and marital distress: the role of conflict communication, attributions, and attachment style

Previous studies have focused on concomitants of depression and marital distress in order to help explain the relationship between the two, suggesting that several variables, such as conflict communication, attributions, and attachment style, are associated with depression, marital distress, or both. Our contention is that the selected variables may be important mediators (hypothesis 1) or moderators (hypothesis 2) of the concomitance between depression and marital adjustment, exploring the direct and indirect ways in which depressive symptoms and marital adjustment are related. In total, 415 heterosexual couples were recruited, and a series of regression analyses was conducted to test our hypotheses separately for men and women. Results indicated that demand-withdrawal, avoidance, causal attributions, and secure, ambivalent, and avoidant attachment mediated the relation between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment in the female sample, whereas constructive communication and causal and responsible attributions were significant mediators of men's levels of depressive symptoms and marital adjustment. In addition, avoidance and secure attachment moderated the association between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment in the female sample, and causal attributions were significant moderators of the association between depressive symptoms and marital adjustment for men. Several conclusions and implications for theory and future research are discussed.     

压力对大学生抑郁的影响机制:领悟社会支持与应对方式的中介作用

基于心理应激理论、素质-压力三模式以及社会支持主效果模型考察领悟社会支持、积极应对方式和消极应对方式在压力与抑郁关系中的链式中介效应,使用压力量表、领悟社会支持量表、应对方式量表和抑郁量表对抽取的641名大学生进行调查。研究显示:(1)领悟社会支持中介了压力对大学生抑郁的影响;(2)积极应对方式、消极应对方式中介了领悟社会支持对大学生抑郁的影响。因此,领悟社会支持以及应对方式在压力与大学生抑郁之间起链式中介作用。     

Pessimism and behavioural signs of depression in East versus West Berlin

Quantified behavioural signs of depression in relation to pessimism across cultures. First, by observing workmen in 1985 East and West Berlin bars, we found more behaviour consistent with depression in East Berliners than in West Berliners. We then measured pessimism in both cultures by assessing explanatory style in newspaper reports of the 1984 Winter Olympic Games. Despite having more Olympic victories to report, East Berlin newspaper accounts were more pessimistic than West Berlin reports. We suggest that, with proper controls, convergent measurements of explanatory style and behavioural signs consistent with depression allow to quantify pessimism and depression across culture and time.     

Working models of attachment and attribution processes in intimate relationships

Two studies examined the link between working models of attachment and social construal processes in romantic relationships. In Study 1, individuals high in attachment-related anxiety responded to hypothetical partner transgressions by endorsing relationship-threatening attributions, experiencing emotional distress, and endorsing behavioral intentions that were likely to result in conflict. These effects emerged after controlling for pessimistic explanatory style, depressed mood, and self-esteem. In addition, the association between anxiety and emotional distress was mediated by attributions and attachment-related needs. In Study 2, anxious individuals endorsed relationship-threatening attributions for their partner's transgressions but less so for their partner's positive behaviors, and these effects occurred primarily among those in unhappy relationships. In contrast, avoidant individuals endorsed pessimistic attributions for their partner's positive behavior but less so for their partner's transgressions, and these effects occurred regardless of their level of relationship satisfaction.     

Arousal seeking as a moderator of life stress

This study investigated the relationship between life stress and measures of anxiety, depression, and hostility as a function of subjects' arousal-seeking status. Results indicated significant relationships between negative life change and measures of both anxiety and hostility. These relationships, however, held only for subjects who were low on the arousal-seeking dimension. The results suggest that arousal-seeking status may serve as a moderator variable in determining the relationship between life stress and other variables.     

Cognitive appraisal,vulnerability and coping: An integrative analysis of appraisal and coping mechanisms

Research on stress has generally concluded that stress occurs within the person as a result of their cognitive appraisal of experience. However although a number of cognitive theories of emotion exist, an integrative analysis of cognitive appraisal and vulnerability to stress has not been produced. This report contains two studies. Study 1 draws together the major variables identified in the literature in an analysis of their power to differentiate between a clinical sample (n = 48), a self-help group (n = 54), and a control sample (n = 509). The analysis shows that achievement motivation, attributional style, problem-solving style, emotional reactivity; hopelessness, perceived control and perceived social support are significant discriminators. In a second study the relationship between these variables and aspects of life stress, work stress, life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and positive affect were investigated. Again the data support an explanatory role for these variables. The suggestion is that these variables can be utilized in an integrative model of cognitive appraisal in the stress process to guide intervention.     

Depressive symptoms are associated with unrealistic negative predictions of future life events

This study examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and bias in the prediction of future life events. Responding to internet announcements, 153 participants varying widely in self-reported depression symptom severity estimated the probability of 40 events occurring over the succeeding 30 days. After the 30-day period, participants reported which events occurred. Optimistic/pessimistic biases were related to level of depressive symptoms. A non-significant optimistic bias characterized participants with low depressive symptoms whereas a significant pessimistic bias characterized participants with high depressive symptoms. Those reporting mild symptoms did not exhibit a systematic pessimistic or optimistic bias. General imprecision in predictions for undesirable events was associated with depressive symptoms. These findings suggest that depression is associated with pessimistic bias rather than accuracy in judgment.