Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-82). Also available via the Internet.

Bachelor-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2007.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 122-132).

M.A.(Clinical Psychology) / Recently the concept of depression in children has been receiving much attention, in contrast to the previous decade when children were generally regarded as being incapable of experiencing depression. This study was conducted in an attempt to ascertain whether depressed children exhibited a depressogenic attributional style as predicted by the Reformulated Learned Helplessness Model of Depression (Abramson, Seligman & Teasdale, 1978), and whether these children's attributional style matched those of either of their parents. Furthermore, the childrearing practices of the parents were investigated in order to establish whether parental attributional style was transferred to children through a particular child-rearing style. The Children's Depression Inventory (Kovacs & Beck, 1977) was used to screen 166 privata school pupils, and an experimental and control group of 10 pupils each was formed on the basis of criterion scores. The KASTAN (Kaslow, Tannenbaum & Seligman, 1978) was the instrument employed to assess the attributional style of the children. Both mothers and fathers of the experimental and control groups were required, separately, to complete the Attributional Style Questionnaire (Peterson, Semmel, Abramson, Seligman & von Baeyer, 1978), which assesses adult attributional style and the Child-Rearing Practices Questionnaire (Dielman, Catell, Lepper & Rhoades, 1971). Data obtained from the investigation were subjected to t-tests, and Pearson product-moment correlation co-efficients were calculated to determine any significant differences and associations, respectively, between variables. The results of the study did not substantiate the hypotheses. It was suggested that perhaps the initial screening instrument, the Children's Depression Inventory, differentiated children with a general emotional disturbance, rather than depression per se, and that children develop attributional styles independently of their parents' style and childrearing practices. It was suggested that the development of an attributional style in children was related to their own experiential world.

Researchers raise concerns that the diagnostic approach can create stigma and lead to clinical inferences that focus on dispositional characteristics at the expense of situational variables. From social cognitive theory to strict behavioral approaches there is broad agreement that situation is at least as important as disposition. The present study examined the clinical inferences of graduate student clinicians randomly presented a diagnosis (borderline PD) or no diagnosis and either randomly given context information or no context information before watching a videotaped clinical interaction of a fabricated client. Responses to a questionnaire assessing dispositional or situational attributions about the client’s behavior indicated a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder did not significantly increase dispositional attributions and did not significantly moderate the importance of contextual factors. A notable difference between the attributions made by psychodynamic and third wave behavioral respondents was observed. Conceptual and experimental limitations as well as future directions are discussed.

In Weiner's attributional perspective on emotion, recipients appraise outcomes in terms of three attributional dimensions--locus, controllability, and stability. The specific pattern of inferred attributions determines the nature of the resulting emotional experience. Weiner further claims that a sender's own emotion may serve as a precipitating event for a receiver's resulting attributions and emotions. Parkinson critiques the notion that there are inflexible or unique links among senders' emotions, the attributions conveyed by senders' emotions, and the resulting attributions or emotions aroused in recipients. Parkinson implies instead that the nature of the interpersonal relationship between senders and receivers, independent of attributional inferences, is a more important determinant of the specific emotion aroused. The main question asked in the present study was whether a sender's anger or pity led to receiver attributions and emotions consistent with Weiner's model across different types of sender-receiver relationships. Using a variation on Weiner's paradigm, 174 female and 104 male university students were presented with scenarios depicting the interaction of two people who were friends, enemies, or strangers. In each scenario, a receiver's behavior was followed by either a reaction of anger o pity from the sender. Participants then answered four questions to check the effectiveness of manipulations, rated the sender's attributions about the receiver's behavior and the receiver's own attributions, and predicted the intensity of the receiver's own emotional response (including guilt and shame). Because the pity manipulation was deemed ineffective, data were analyzed for the sender-anger condition only. Although Weiner's model was somewhat supported in the friend condition, there was only a weak relation between sender and receiver attributions, as well as either of these attributions and sender anger when examined across the three relationship conditions. Importantly, relationship variables more than attributional ones affected the degree to which receivers responded with guilt and shame to the sender's anger. Discussion focuses on the potential epiphenomenal role of attribution in eliciting emotion and the need to examine Parkinson's view that identity-related concerns, which vary as a function of the nature of the target relationship, are more central to arousing specific emotional responses.

Research shows that interracial relationships are more likely to dissolve than same-race relationships (Bratter and King, 2008), with evidence suggesting social disapproval may play a role (Lehmiller and Agnew, 2006). However, people seem to overlook external attributions for failures and minimize internal attributions for successes when judging interracial relationships (Ellithorpe, Colvin, Missel, and Sinclair, 2012), thus making the ultimate attribution error. To test whether individuals make this error, 642 participants read one of 16 vignettes manipulating the race (Caucasian vs. African American) of relationship partners and the opinions of their parents (Approving vs. Disapproving). Participants predicted the likelihood of relationship success and indicated reasons for potential relationship outcomes. Participants were more likely to predict success for relationships that had approval, but were significantly more likely to predict failure for interracial relationships. Consistent with ultimate attribution error theory, individuals scoring high in prejudice were more likely to make these attribution patterns.

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