This study investigated the relationship between the depressive attributional style described by Beck and Seligman and elevation of mood. It was proposed that mood elevation would reduce the level of depression and, in addition, would reduce the number of negative attributions. The reduction of negative attributions was assumed to be a more cognitively mediated process and was proposed to occur subsequent to mood change. These assumptions are contrary to the current cognitive theories of depression and attribution which view attributional style as a prerequisite to both the development and reduction of depression. Subjects were 30 undergraduate students between the ages of 19 and 40 years old who volunteered to participate in the study. They were screened on the basis of demonstrated depression (13 and above on the Beck Inventory) and susceptibility to hypnosis (high susceptibility on the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility) . Subjects were randcmly assigned to one of three groups; (1) hypnosis with mood elevation, (2) hypnosis with relaxation, and (3) no treatment control. The results supported the hypothesis that mood elevation would reduce level of depression. The mood elevation group demonstrated a lowering of depression. The effects of the treatment procedure did not appear until the fourth session. As anticipated, reduction in negative attributions did not precede or coincide with reduction in depression. It was not possible to determine the change in the attributional style of subject during the time period of this study. The results were discussed in terms of Bower's Associative Network Theory in which activation of mood facilitates the access to memories, behaviors, and interpretation of events which are congruent with the mood state.

Previous research indicates that survivors of sexual assault often blame themselves for the assault. Research has also shown that people blame the perpetrator in some situations and the survivor in other situations involving sexual assault. The purpose of this study was to discover if survivors of sexual assault who blame themselves tend to blame other survivors (survivor blame) in situations different from their own. Another purpose was to assess whether or not sexual assault survivors who do not blame themselves for their attack tend to blame other survivors. The participants' attributional style was also assessed in order to understand the relations between self-blame and survivor blame in situations involving sexual assault. Findings indicated that certain types of attributional style are related to self-blame in sexual assault survivors and blame toward sexual assault survivors depicted in vignettes. This indicates that attributional style may have important implications in the clinical setting to aid sexual assault survivors who experience self-blame, as well in educating society about sexual assault and the ultimate responsibility of perpetrators.

The aim of the current study was to examine variations in the impact of ambiguous versus blatant race related stressors on ego depletion in a sample of African American adults. Blatant race related stress was compared with ambiguous race related stress in regards to the relative impact on the constructs of ego depletion and perseverative cognition. Perseverative cognition was also examined as a potential mediating variable in the relationship between race related stress and ego depletion. Additionally, attributional ambiguity was hypothesized to moderate the effect of race related stress on perseverative cognition. The study implemented an experimental design, and assessed the integrity of the proposed moderated mediator model in a sample of 159 African American undergraduate students using MANCOVA and hierarchical multiple regression. Analyses failed to detect significant differences in ambiguous versus blatant race related stressors on perseverative cognition or ego depletion, and did not support the proposed model. Limitations of the study and implications for future research are discussed.

Although internalizing and externalizing problems are often considered in isolation from one another, the frequently co-occur in individuals leading to unique behavior profiles. The current study examined the associations between the forms, functions, and subtypes of aggression, anxiety, hostile attributional bias (HAB), and perceived (proactive or reactive) provocateur motivation in a sample of youth (mean age = 13.84 years, 51% male, 37.5% Caucasian). Results indicated that only reactive relational aggression significantly predicted anxiety, while relational and reactive aggression did not. HAB was not significantly associated with either anxiety or any type of aggression. Perceived proactive provocateur motivation was significantly associated with anxiety, but not aggression, and reactive motivation was not significantly associated with either. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

O presente trabalho apresenta o resultado da análise sobre o novo foco da ferramenta Avaliação do Ciclo de Vida (ACV): a ACV consequencial. O método convencional da ACV - ACV atribucional - tem sido criticado pelo fato de não suportar decisões baseadas em cenários futuros. Como resposta a esta deficiência, a ACV consequencial surge como uma proposta a um método mais apropriado que avalia consequências ambientais futuras provocadas pelo uso do produto em estudo. O enfoque consequencial apresenta uma abordagem nova da ACV; ainda existem visões distintas e, algumas vezes, divergentes desta abordagem na comunidade internacional da ACV, seja na área acadêmica, seja fora dela. Neste trabalho são apresentadas e discutidas as diferenças, limitações, vantagens e desvantagens entre essas duas ferramentas. Foi possível observar que na realização de um estudo de ACV de um produto ou serviço, a definição do objetivo e escopo do estudo é fundamental para a escolha de qual enfoque da ACV será aplicado. Observou-se, também, que há limitações metodológicas tanto para a ACV atribucional como para a ACV consequencial. No caso da ACV atribucional, por exemplo, há incertezas com relação à escolha subjetiva do método de alocação de co-produtos. Já no caso da ACV consequencial, os resultados podem ser mais sensíveis e mais suscetíveis a incertezas devido às inclusões de estudo da tendência e projeções do mercado para a escolha dos dados e tecnologias marginais, e para a previsão de dados. / The main purpose of this master is to present the analysis results on the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) new approach: consequential LCA. The conventional method of LCA the attributional approach - has been criticized for not supporting decisions based on future scenarios. In response to this deficiency, the consequential LCA appears as a proposal to a more appropriate method to evaluate future environmental consequences caused by the use of the product under study. As the consequential LCA represents a new approach to LCA, there still are divergent opinions within the LCA international community. In this work, there are shown and discussed the main differences, limitations between these two approaches. It was observed that in conducting an LCA study of a product or service, the definition of the objective and scope of the study is fundamental to the choice of which LCA methodology is applied. It was also observed that there are methodological limitations to both attributional LCA and consequential LCA. In case of attributional LCA, for example, there are uncertainties related to the subjective choice of the allocation method of co-products. In case of consequential LCA, the results may be more sensitive and more susceptible to uncertainties due to inclusions of trend studies and market projections for choosing marginal data and technologies, and for forecast data.

Purpose: A systematic review and meta-analysis tested the 'paranoia as a defence' model's original prediction that those experiencing persecutory delusions would take excessive credit for positive events as part of an attributional style that protects them from low self-esteem. The empirical project explored forensic mental health nurses' experiences of a Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) training programme with an emphasis on complex case conceptualisation and implications for clinical practice. Methods: In relation to the systematic review and meta-analysis, those experiencing persecutory delusions were compared to those with non-paranoid psychosis, depression, and healthy controls, in terms of the magnitude of internalising attributional bias (IAB) for positive events. Correlation analysis also examined the association between magnitude of IAB and paranoia severity. In the empirical study, 10 forensic mental health nurses took part in semi-structured interviews to qualitatively explore their experiences and applications of CAT training. Results: Consistent with the model, an internalising attributional bias was present for those experiencing paranoid delusions when compared to individuals with depression. Contrary to the model, there were no differences between the other control groups and there was no significant correlation between IAB and paranoia severity. Internal attributions for positive events appear to be associated with depression, rather than paranoia. Analysis of the empirical data provided a rich account of nurses' experiences of the CAT training and how this helped them to conceptualise complex patients and promoted more positive ways of working. Conclusions: The findings from the systematic review and meta-analysis do not support the original model, but are consistent with the modified 'paranoia as a defence' model of persecutory delusions. Other cognitive models also help explain paranoia suggesting that refining the existing models further could be useful. The empirical findings suggest that CAT could be a valuable model of psychologically informed practice for nurses working in a forensic setting. Specifically, training appeared to help nurses develop a better understanding of their patients, greater self-reflection skills, and improved clinical care approaches.

When stigmatized or oppressed groups are able to protect their self-esteem by attributing a negative outcome to prejudice and/or discrimination, this has been titled "attributional ambiguity". Whereas it has been proven in many studies that attributional ambiguity does exist among the stigmatized and oppressed groups the methodological approach of these studies were bias. In these studies the evaluator(s) has always been white and/or physically able. The goal of this study was to investigate whether attributional ambiguity is utilized by any individual (stigmatized/oppressed or non-stigmatized/non-oppressed) who feels that their outcome is the result of prejudice and/or discrimination. Our methodological approach allowed participants to be evaluated by same-race, or cross-race evaluators of the same sex. It is believed that this did address the issue of stigmatized/oppressed being evaluators themselves. However, the lack of reported prejudice made it difficult to test the construct validity of attributional ambiguity. In addition this study yielded results that revealed that subtle differences such as skin color is not enough to imply prejudice even when paired with negative feedback.

The aim of this study was to examine differences between happy and unhappy people, with respect to individuals interpretations, their attributonal style and in what way the priming effect is related to their attributional style and well-being. The participants were 74 senior high school and 21 undergraduate college students. Participants were asked to read a short story, some words were in bold type, and thereafter for their subjective perception of the words in bold type loading and memory of them in a recognition list. Attributional style was operationalized with an own constructed instrument. The results show that happy individuals interpreted more words as positive than negative in comparission with unhappy individuals. No correlation between participants well-being and global or attributional style for negative events were found. Both groups showed a tendency to be more optimistic than pessimstic for positive events. No differences were found for either memory or priming of loaded words. In sum the results suggest that happy individuals tend to conceive the world more positive.

The purpose of the study is to explore the relationship among the employee hostile attributional style, abusive supervision, job engagement and regulatory emotional self-efficacy. The total valid sample consisted of 291 subordinates from Aerospace industrial development, defense technology and system development industry in Taiwan workplace and was analyzed by factor analysis, reliability analysis and hierarchical regression analysis to measure the relationship among the constructs. Research results found that: (1) Subordinates¡¦ hostile attributional style was negatively related to their job engagement and that this effect was stronger when abusive supervision were high. (2) Subordinates¡¦ hostile attribiutional style was positively related to subordinates¡¦ perceptions of abusive supervision and that this effect was attenuated when subordinates were high in perceived self-efficacy in managing anger/irritation.

<p>The aim of this study was to examine differences between happy and unhappy people, with respect to individuals interpretations, their attributonal style and in what way the priming effect is related to their attributional style and well-being. The participants were 74 senior high school and 21 undergraduate college students. Participants were asked to read a short story, some words were in bold type, and thereafter for their subjective perception of the words in bold type loading and memory of them in a recognition list. Attributional style was operationalized with an own constructed instrument. The results show that happy individuals interpreted more words as positive than negative in comparission with unhappy individuals. No correlation between participants well-being and global or attributional style for negative events were found. Both groups showed a tendency to be more optimistic than pessimstic for positive events. No differences were found for either memory or priming of loaded words. In sum the results suggest that happy individuals tend to conceive the world more positive.</p>