Theory Overview
In his learned helplessness model of depression, Seligman (1975) proposed that the way individuals view events may have an impact on their mental health. He further developed Hopelessness Theory of Depression that centered on attributional styles. Specifically, the theory proposes that some individuals have a more pessimistic attributional style to negative life events as being internal (“my fault”), global (“affects everything in my life”), and stable (“always going to happen”). These individuals are also more likely to have an external, specific, and unstable attribution to positive life events (Seligman et al., 1979).
As you look at the table, it is easy to imagine how people with a more internal, global, and stable attribution style, thinking that they are not smart enough for every math test they fail, are prone to mental health issues. And tons of research has investigated the relation between tendencies of attributional style and mental health. For example, Alloy and others (1984) found that students who have a global attribution style (“the events influence every part of my life”) will demonstrate learned helplessness in both new similar and dissimilar situations, whereas students who have a specific attribution style only demonstrate learned helplessness in new similar situations, not dissimilar situations (Alloy et al., 1984). This research tells us that individuals with more pessimistic attributional style are more likely to develop learned helplessness, which then lead to unhealthy mental state.
Depression
As you may have suspected, attribution styles are of vital importance to your mental health. Many consider pessimistic attribution styles to be a common cause of depression, which is well supported by research. Past studies found that depressed college students make more internal and stable attribution than non-depressed individuals (Stoltz and Galassi, 1989) and that students with more pessimistic attributional styles (internal, global, and stable) are more likely to develop depression after receiving a low grade (Metalsky et al., 1982).
Imagine getting a C on an essay that you spent two late nights on in neuroscience seminar. It is natural to feel that you are not smart enough to study neuroscience. However, it would be healthy if we move past the thought of “never being smart enough for neuroscience” and acknowledge that “maybe this time the topic was not for me”, which is a specific, unstable, and external attributional style. In this way, you are less likely to ruminate upon the C and have a healthier mental state.
Performance
As college students, many of us are stressed about our performance in schoolwork, in sports, and in work. According to researchers, attributional style may play a major role in influencing your performance. While some may believe that internal attribution may be a motivation for improvement, Peterson and Barrett (1987) actually found that students who use global, stable, and internal attributions achieve lower grades in their freshman year than those who use specific, unstable, and external attributions. The results are present even after considering their SAT scores and initial depression level (Peterson and Barrett, 1987). Similarly, athletes who have a more pessimistic (global, stable, and internal) attributional style have worse performance than those who have more optimistic ones (Seligman et al., 1990).
In other words, blaming yourself for failing a test or a match is not going to motivate you to work harder on the next one. Instead, it may cause you feel helpless and in turn may lead to a worse performance.
Neurocircuits
As the attributional style theory is a complex cognitive psychology theory, neuroscience research is limited around it. However, an intriguing neuroscience on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which was built around changing maladaptive schema including attributional style, looked into how CBT changes clients’ neurocircuits (Hanuka et al., 2022). Researchers found that clients undergoing CBT had an enhanced nucleus accumbens (NAcc) and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) activation in the face of reward. NAcc and sgACC are considered to be important brain region in the process of emotion and motivation processing. The enhanced activation in both regions signals that clients undergoing CBT are better at perceiving reward and generating positive affect in response.
This neuroscience research demonstrated that clients value the rewards more, feel more motivated to work towards them, and feel better after receiving them, after adopting a more adaptive attributional style. The result is coherent with the psychological influences of attributional style mentioned above, as research has demonstrated how pessimistic attributional styles may lead to learned helplessness, worse performance, and depression.
So although you may feel like it’s only rational and mature to take responsibility for your struggles, it is important to keep in mind not to blame everything on yourself forever. Sometimes bad things happen: the math tests could be numbered 13 and you don’t like that. Keep in mind that there are things outside of our control, and it would be healthy to let them go. In that way your may be happier, work more efficiently, and your brain’s sgACC and NAcc will be lightened more when you see that sweet A on your transcript.
References
Alloy LB, Peterson C, Abramson LY, Seligman ME (1984) Attributional style and the generality of learned helplessness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 46:681–687.
Hanuka S, Olson EA, Admon R, Webb CA, Killgore WDS, Rauch SL, Rosso IM, Pizzagalli DA (2022) Reduced anhedonia following internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression is mediated by enhanced reward circuit activation. Psychol Med:1–10.
Klein DC, Fencil-Morse E, Seligman ME (1976) Learned helplessness, depression, and the attribution of failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 33:508–516.
Metalsky GI, Abramson LY, Seligman MEP, Semmel A, Peterson C (1982) Attributional styles and life events in the classroom: Vulnerability and invulnerability to depressive mood reactions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 43:612–617.
Peterson C, Barrett LC (1987) Explanatory style and academic performance among university freshman. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 53:603–607.
Seligman ME, Abramson LY, Semmel A, von Baeyer C (1979) Depressive attributional style. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 88:242–247.
Seligman MEP, Nolen-Hoeksema S, Thornton N, Thornton KM (1990) Explanatory Style as a Mechanism of Disappointing Athletic Performance. Psychol Sci 1:143–146.
Stoltz RF, Galassi JP (1989) Internal attributions and types of depression in college students: The learned helplessness model revisited. Journal of Counseling Psychology 36:316–321.
Zorrilla EP, Redei E, Derubeis RJ (1994) Reduced Cytokine Levels and T-Cell Function in Healthy Males: Relation to Individual Differences in Subclinical Anxiety. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 8:293–312.
Author: Yuzhen Lin
Date: Nov, 26. 2022