Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-132). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

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In this essay I will investigate some different opinions about how or whether we should change our views concerning moral responsibility if neuroscience shows that contra-causal free will is implausible and also argue that holding people morally responsible is not the best method of making people act morally. A common approach is to argue that we can hold people responsible in a non-absolute sense and many argue that this has practical benefits (i.e. that people would act more morally). I evaluate different alternatives and conclude that there are different beliefs and opinions that cause disagreement in this question. I argue that moral responsibility is implausible without the existence of contra-causal free will (because it is then just a question of luck what actions you will perform) and that it is more practical to shift our focus to other ways of changing people and not blaming them.

Despite the abundant research regarding individual-level feedback, few studies examine team feedback, particularly the relationship between team feedback reactions and organizational performance. Through a field study and a lab study, this paper examines two reactions to team feedback, specifically blaming and strategizing, and their relationship to team performance. Study 1 showed that both blaming and strategizing occur in about 1/3 of team feedback meetings in an international sample of teams. Blaming was found to negatively correlate with productivity improvement (r = -.59), whereas strategizing was found to positively correlate with productivity improvement (r = .33). Study 2 was a lab study conducted to addresses several of the limitations from Study 1. The results from Study 2 were mixed. Although the manipulation failed to differentiate the experimental conditions in Study 2, post hoc correlational analyses showed a positive relationship between strategizing and viability, and a negative relationship between excuse making and viability. Correlational analyses also revealed a negative relationship between blaming or excuse making and team cohesion. These results suggest further research is warranted in this area.

DeGood and Kiernan (1996) demonstrated that chronic pain patients who assigned blame to others for their pain reported greater concurrent mood distress, behavioural disturbance, poorer response to past treatment, and lesser expectations of future treatment benefits than participants who did not blame anyone for their pain. The present study partially replicated the DeGood and Kiernan study. Subjects were 210 (110 males and 100 females) chronic pain patients from the Flinders Medical Centre Pain Management Unit in Adelaide, South Australia. Participants completed self-report measures of demographic, psychosocial, and behavioural variables. Contrary to DeGood and Kiernan's (1996) results, other-blame was not found to be a significant predictor of poor response to past pain treatments. Rather, linear multiple regression analyses revealed that a perceived sense of control over pain was a significant predictor of confidence in past pain relief treatments. A logistic regression revealed that time since onset of pain was the only significant predictor of the tendency to blame others. Implications of this study for chronic pain research and treatment are discussed. / Thesis (MPsy(Clinical))--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of Tulsa. / Bibliography: leaves 168-174.

The relationships between sexual arousal, attributional style, attributions of blame for child sexual abuse (CSA) and psychopathology were investigated in a non-clinical sample. One hundred female undergraduates completed a questionnaire incorporating the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, (Rosenberg, 1965), the Symptom Checklist 90-R (Derogatis, 1996), the Extended Attributional Style Questionnaire (Peterson et al., 1988) and questions about CSA experiences. Participants reporting CSA also completed the Attributions of Responsibility and Blame Scales (McMillen and Zuravin, 1997), and were asked if they had experienced sexual arousal during their CSA. Twenty five per cent of participants reported a history of CSA, and of this group, 32% reported experiencing sexual arousal during CSA. The CSA group had higher levels of symptomatology and negative attributional style than the Comparison non-abused group. Within the CSA group, symptomatology was positively associated with self-blame and negative attributional style, and negatively associated with selfesteem. Self-blame for CSA was positively associated with family/other blame, and negatively associated with self-esteem. The Aroused group experienced greater frequency and severity (number of types) of CSA, and showed higher levels of selfblame for the CSA than the Non-Aroused group. No evidence was found in the current study for a connection between sexual arousal and psychopathology. Further research using a larger sample size is indicated. The importance of including frequency, severity and sexual arousal as possible characteristics of CSA experiences during clinical assessment and interventions with adult survivors and focussing treatment strategies accordingly is discussed.

Battered women who choose to remain with their abusive partners tend to blame themselves for the violence that occurs within their relationships. However, no empirical studies have systematically investigated the specific perceptions of battered women who stay in abusive relationships. Since self-blame may influence battered women's decision to stay or leave, a battered woman's assessment of her own behavior within conflict situations may be critical to understanding this process. The present study examined the differences between abused and non-abused women's cognitive attributions of their own behavior as well as their verbally abusive boyfriends' behavior in the context of hypothetical dating scenes. College age women (n=100) were presented with descriptions of dating situations involving conflict between a male and female. Half the women received scenes wherein the female's statement toward her boyfriend provoked anger (i.e., provocative condition). The other half of the women received scenes wherein the female's statement toward her boyfriend did not provoke anger (i.e., non-provocative). Other personality variables which have been shown to be related to the experience of abuse (i.e., self-esteem and feminine gender role beliefs) were additionally assessed in relation to attributional response. Results suggested that abused women who were exposed to non-provocative female statements were more inclined to blame themselves than were non-abused women who were exposed to non-provocative female statements. Few differences were found between abused and non-abused women who were exposed to provocative female statements. Low self-esteem was shown to be moderately related to attributions of self-blame. Implications of these findings were discussed with regard to abuse prevention and therapeutic intervention. / Master of Science

Sexual assault has consistently been found to be associated with depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology. Research shows that self-blaming attributions are directly linked to distress (Walsh, & Foshee, 1998; Walsh & Bruce, 2011). More specifically, the type of self-blame (i.e., behavioral and characterological) an individual associates with their experienced sexual assault, may influence their perceptions of avoidability of future assault and post-assault recovery. However, the role of self-efficacy in the relationship between behavioral and characterological self-blame in PTSD sexual assault survivors has been unexamined. The purpose of the proposed study is to assess the influence of self-efficacy in the association between variants of self-blame and post-assault distress. The proposed study considers the critical relationship between self-efficacy and self-blame, and aims to evaluate how these factors can ultimately influence posttraumatic adjustment in sexual assault survivors. Results revealed positive associations between behavioral self-blame and depression (r = .28, p < .05). Positive associations were also found between characterological self-blame, PTSD (r =. 42, p < .001) and depression (r =. 50, p p < .001) and self-efficacy was positively related to PTSD and depression symptom severity (r = -.27, p < .05; r = -.54, p < .001). Mediation was found between characterological self-blame, self-efficacy and depression, b = .11; CI: .04 - .21. Findings for this study can help with implication for postassault interventions by creating opportunities for therapist to custom-tailor patient treatments to match the self-blame they most associate with. This may lead to treatments that are more effective.

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