Attributional Models of Mental Illness

8/12/2019 Attributional Models of Mental Illness

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Refers to our efforts to understand the causes behind othersbehavior and on some occasions, the causes behind ourbehavior too . (Baron,2005)

For gaining knowledge of others stable traits and dispositions

Framework for understanding how we make sense of oursocial world


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Fritz Heider (1958) : Nave Psychology

People observe, analyze and explainbehaviors with explanations

Two kinds of explanation:a) Internal Attribution: the cause of the given

behavior is given to individuals

characteristics (ability, mood, disposition)b) External Attribution: cause of the behavior isgiven to external causes (task, other people,luck)


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Your classmate gets late for an important class.

Internal attribution: She is sloppy and cannot keep time. She is just lazy.

External attribution: Her alarm clock did not ring.There was no water to take shower with.

She was not informed about the class.


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From Heiders standpoint, the perception of

personal causality plays an important role in

social life.

Not only does blame depend on the

perception of causality but reward does as

well .


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How we use information about others behaviors as basis for

inferring their stable dispositions

By focusing on certain types of information:

a) Freely chosen behaviorsb) Non-common effects:- effects that can be caused by one

specific factors but not by others

c) Actions that are low on social desirability.


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Principle of Co-variation: An effect is attributed to that condition

which is present when the effect is present and absent when

the effect is absent (1967)

Rule of Consensus: the extent to which other person reacts to asituation the same manner that the person we are

considering.

Rule of Consistency: the extent to which the person reacts to thestimulus in the same way on other occasions

Rule of Distinctiveness: the extent to which the person reacts to

in the same manner to other different occasions.


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Discounting : the tendency to attach less importance to onepotential cause of some behavior when other potentialcauses are also present.

Augmenting: the tendency to attach greater importance topotential causes of behavior if the behavior occurs despite

the presence of other, inhibitory causes


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Individuals, regulate their own behavior in order to attaindesired goals, adopt one of the two mechanisms:

a) Promotion focus: emphasize the presence or absence ofpositive outcomesb) Prevention focus: emphasize negative outcomes


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Correspondence Bias: the tendency to explain othersactions as stemming from dispositions even in the presence ofclear situational causes (Jones, 1979)Also known as Fundamental Attribution Error

Actor-Observer Effect : the tendency to attribute our ownbehavior to situational causes but the behaviors of others todispositional causes (Jones & Nisbett, 1971)

The Self-Serving Bias: the tendency to attribute our ownpositive outcomes to internal causes but negative ones toexternal factors .

Common in Individualistic societies than in Collectivist societies


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Unrealistic Optimism : form of defensive attribution in whichpeople think that positive events are more likely to happen tothem than to their peers and that negative events are less

likely to happen to them than to their peers.

Spotlight Effect : the belief that ones features and behaviorsare more salient to others than they generally are and thatothers are paying closer attention to ones appearance andbehaviors than they really are (Example, Bodily DysmorphicDisorder)


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Attribution and Depression:

Self-defeating patterns of attribution.

They attribute negative outcomes to lasting, internal causessuch as their traits or lack of abilities.

Attribute positive outcomes to temporary, external causessuch as good luck or special favors from others.

Perceive that they have little or no control over whathappens to them Learned Helplessness

Therapy focuses on changing these forms of attribution.


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Rape/ CSA and Attribution:

Victims hold themselves responsible for the eventand blame is focused on self rather than theperpetrator. (Fisher, 1986)

Rape/Date rapes, are attributed to the victimsthan to the perpetrators, e.g., the girl was wearingskimpy clothes, she was acting too friendly, sheshould have known not to walk alone at that time

of the night.


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Schizophrenia and Attribution:

Abnormal perceptions are attributed to external sources.

e.g. : hearing voices, God made me do this.

Delusions are excessively external, stable and globalattributions for negative events and excessively internal,stable and global attributions for positive events.

Also an element of expressed emotion


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OCD and Attribution:

Thought-Action-Fusion: likelihood of an event to happen toothers or self arises from global attribution of bad eventExtreme personal responsibility of the eventIsolated occurrence of negative events are also attributed tobe results of ones thoughts.

Somatization and Attribution:

Unexplained bodily symptoms and complaints are attributedto organic causes (Chaturvedi, 2001)


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Conduct Disorder and Attribution:

Negative outcomes are attributed to the fault of others and

so aggression is directed towards perceived cause ofoutcome.

Marital Discord and Attribution:

Spouses usually view negative behavior of their partners asenduring and global and positive behaviors as situationaland temporary. (Finchman et al., 1988)


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Prejudice and Attribution:

Social costsImplications in jobs settings, communityNegative impressionsAttribution theory gives a framework for explaining therelationship between stigmatizing attitudes and discriminating

behavior.These inferences lead to emotional reactions such as angerand pity that effect the likelihood of helping/punishingbehaviors.


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Attribution as Folk Theory of Mind:

Considers behavior explanations an integral part of peoples

folk ToM and assigns the concept of intentionality a centralrole as people reliably distinguish between intentional andunintentional human behaviors & use distinct modes ofexplanation for each type of behavior (Buss, 1978, Malle,1999)

Unintentional behaviors are explained by causes:Example :She cried because she was sad.He fell because the floor was slippery.Intentional behaviors are caused by reasons:Example :she quit her job because the pay was too low.


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Attribution as communication:

Innovative work by Hilton (1990) and Antaki (1994)suggests that attributions are not just cognitive processesbut rather communicative acts that obey the rules ofconversation; that is, behavior explanations are altered forimpression-management purposes (e.g., to appear rationalor fend off blame).

Explanations have an immediate impact on others'perceptions and evaluations of the explainer and the agentwhose behavior is being explained


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Gergen, J. K., Gergen, M. M. (1986): Social Psychology (2 nd Edition), Springer-Verlag New York Inc.Baron, R.A., Byrne, D. (2004) : Social Psychology (10 th Edition),Pearson Education Inc. London


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Attributional Models of Mental Illness