The way you explain an occurrence in your life is known as attributional style, which can affect your well-being.
When something positive or negative happens in our lives, we often seek to explain its occurrence. We may ask: Why did this happen to me? Is it because of something I did? Do I just have bad luck?
These are attributional styles, which refer to the ways people explain the causes of specific events in their life.
Attributional types can say a lot about how we interact with the world. They can shape our view on how much control we have over what happens to us. The way you think about events in your life can also impact your mental health.
Attributional styles, also known as explanatory styles, are how we explain the causes of events in our lives and others’ lives.
Attributional styles are based on the historical work of:
There are three domains of attributional styles:
The internal-external domain is about who causes events.
For example, if you make a mistake at work and have an internal explanatory style, you might state: “I wasn’t careful enough and didn’t try hard enough.”
Those with an external explanatory style might state: “I didn’t receive clear enough instructions from my supervisor.”
The global-specific domain refers to whether you believe the event will have a consistent effect on your life compared to its impact only in that particular situation.
For example, a global attribution might look like: “All my relationships are unhealthy.”
And a specific attribution may be: “ This relationship is unhealthy, but I can find a more healthy one.”
The stable-unstable domain refers to whether you believe an event will be long lasting or short term.
For example, the statement, “ My financial problems are preventing me from buying a house at the moment,” may represent a stable attributional style.
On the other hand, the statement “My financial problems are only happening right now and can get better” may express a more unstable explanatory style.
The Attributional Style Questionnaire measures attributional styles. This is a self-report questionnaire in which people are asked to name the causes of events in hypothetical situations.
Optimistic and pessimistic attributional styles include general views of self and the world grouped from the three domains.
For example, research suggests that people with optimistic attributional types generally make internal, global, and stable explanations for successes in their lives. But it’s the opposite when failures occur.
People with more pessimistic explanatory styles tend to attribute failures to internal, global, and stable explanations and resort to the opposite with successes.
Optimistic explanatory styles have been linked with positive moods, perseverance, high levels of achievement, and overall well-being. Conversely, pessimistic explanatory styles have been linked with hopelessness, depressive symptoms, and lower levels of self-esteem.
