204 CHAPTER 6
implications of stressful life events. Researchers assess this type of rumination by
asking participants to agree or disagree with statements about what they “generally
do when feeling down, sad, or depressed.” Examples of such statements include:- “Think about how the stressful event was all your fault”
- “Think about what the occurrence of the stressor means about you”
- “Think about how things like this always happen to you” (Robinson & Alloy, 2003).
To investigate the relationship between stress-reactive rumination and other cog-
nitive vulnerabilities to depression (such as dysfunctional thoughts about oneself),
researchers followed fi rst-year college students who were not depressed at the time
the study began (Robinson & Alloy, 2003). The investigators found that participants
whoboth had a cognitive vulnerability for depression and engaged in stress-reactive
rumination were, by senior year, more likely than participants who had only one or
neither of these risk factors to (1) have experienced a depressive episode, (2) have
had more depressive episodes, and (3) have had episodes of longer duration.Attributional Style
When something bad happens, to what do you attribute the cause
of the unfortunate turn of events? In general, people who consis-
tently attribute negative events to their own qualities—called an
internal attributional style—are more likely to become depressed.
In one study, mothers-to-be who had an internal attributional
style were more likely to be depressed 3 months after childbirth
than were mothers-to-be who had an external attributional style—
blaming negative events on qualities of others or on the environ-
ment (Peterson & Seligman, 1984). Similarly, college students who
tended to blame themselves, rather than external factors for nega-
tive events, were more likely than those who did not to become
depressed after receiving a bad grade (Metalsky et al., 1993).
Three particular aspects of attributions are related to depres-
sion: whether the attributions are internal or external, stable (en-
during causes) or unstable (local, transient causes), and global (general, overall
causes) or specifi c (particular, precise causes) (see Table 6.6). Individuals who tend
to attribute negative events to internal, global, and stable factors were most likely to
become depressed when negative events occurred. This depressive attributional style,
along with dysfunctional thoughts, is associated with being vulnerable to depression
(Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978). People who think this way make negative
predictions about the future, for example: “Even if I fi nd another boyfriend, he’ll dump
me too” (Abramson et al., 1999).Prison inmates who tended to attribute events to
internal causes when they began to serve their
sentences were more likely than other prisoners
to become depressed after months of incarcera-
tion (Peterson & Seligman, 1984).Charles Ommanney/Getty Images
Internal (versus external), global (versus
specifi c), and stable (versus unstable)
attributions for negative events are
associated with a cognitive vulnerability
for depression (Abramson, Seligman, &
Teasdale, 1978).Example attribution: “He broke up with me because... ”Internal (personal) External (environmental)Stable Unstable Stable UnstableGlobal I am inherently
unlovable.I was going
through a rough
period then.He is a jerk. He acted impulsively.Specifi c I am not fl exible
enough about
letting people take
a couple of days to
respond to e-mails
that I send.I wasn’t very
fl exible about his
being late every
time we arranged
to get together last
month.He is incapable of
being on time.He didn’t like that I
was so annoyed when
he was consistently
late last week.Table 6.6 • Types of Attributions