Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Negative attributions”

Doctor of Philosophy
School of Family Studies and Human Services
Amber V. Vennum
Sexual desire is important to personal and relational well-being but inevitably declines over time in committed relationships. Individuals, further, commonly report times when they desire more or less sex than their partners (desire discrepancy) which is negatively associated with both relationship and sexual satisfaction. How partner’s make meaning out of (i.e., attributions about their partner’s lower desire for sex) and respond (pursue, withdraw or engage) to moments of discrepant desire is likely influenced by the extent to which partners are able to maintain a clear sense of self in the context of physical and emotional closeness (i.e., their level of differentiation), although this has yet to be tested. Through two studies, I explored the types of attributions and behaviors in response to desire discrepancies and how negative attributions and behaviors mediate the link between differentiation and sexual desire. Specifically in Study 1, I analyzed open-ended responses from 463 participants, using deductive content analysis to examine types of negative attributions and behaviors in response to moments of desire discrepancy. In Study 2, using the findings from Study 1, I developed items to quantitatively measure specific negative attributions and behaviors in response to desire discrepancies. Using a sample of 511 participants, I refined the factor structure of the Desire Discrepancy Attributions and Behaviors Scale and used a path analysis to examine how differentiation is associated with sexual desire both directly and indirectly through negative attributions, emotions, and behaviors (pursue-withdraw). Results indicated that an individual’s level of differentiation is positively associated with sexual desire and this link is significantly mediated by negative attributions and certain negative behaviors. The clinical implications and areas for future research based on the findings of this study are discussed.

Research on marital abuse indicates that abusive husbands attribute greater negative intent and responsibility to their partner's behavior and report greater anger arousal during conflictual situations with their partner than do nonabusive husbands (Dutton & Browning, 1988; Holtzworth-Munroe & Hutchinson, 1993). Research also shows that measures of anger arousal (e.g., blood pressure and heart rate) are significantly greater during situations of provocation or threat than neutral or nonprovocative situations (Smith & Allred, 1989). However, research has not attempted to measure abusive and nonabusive males' anger arousal and cognitive attributions to provocative and nonprovocative partner behavior in conflictual situations. Two studies examined attributional responses and one study examined anger arousal in high and low abusive dating males to highly provocative (e.g., girlfriend is flirting with another man) or minimally provocative (e.g., girlfriend wants to talk) partner behavior. A major hypothesis was that abusive males would attribute greater negative intent and responsibility as well as evidence greater blood pressure and heart rate reactivity to their partner's behavior in provocative but not in nonprovocative situations than would nonabusive males. In Study 1, six hypothetical vignettes (4 provocative and 2 nonprovocative) of dating situations were developed or modified from existing research (Holtzworth-Munroe & Hutchinson, 1993). Provocativeness of the situations was determined through pilot testing which showed that "provocative partner behavior"; yielded significantly greater attributions of negative intent and responsibility than did nonprovocative partner behavior. Undergraduate males (N = 106) were assessed for their levels of abusive relationship behaviors with the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS; Straus 1979), for their tendencies to abuse with the Propensity for Abuse Scale (PAS; Dutton, 1995b), and for their expression of anger with the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI; Spielberger, Johnson, Russell, Crane, Jacobs, & Worden, 1985). Participants then listened to audio-taped situations and completed negative intent and responsibility attribution questionnaires. Results indicated that high CTS, PAS, and STAXI males attributed greater responsibility and blame to partner behavior in provocative scenes, but not in nonprovocative scenes than did low CTS, PAS, and STAXI males (p < .05). Additionally, high CTS, PAS, and STAXI males attributed greater negative intent to partner behavior in both provocative and nonprovocative scenes than did low CTS, PAS, and STAXI males (p < .05). There were no interaction effects for attributions of negative intent and responsibility based on dispositional measures and scene provocativeness. In Study 2, undergraduate males (N = 107) were screened for abusive relationship behaviors with the CTS. Screening identified 37 males as High-Abusives (n=18) and Low-Abusives (n = 19). Participants selected in the screening phase were called back and fitted with a blood-pressure cuff which recorded blood pressure and heart rate before and after each of four scenes (2 provocative and 2 nonprovocative). Following presentation of the scenes, participants completed negative intent and responsibility attribution questionnaires. Results indicated that both High- and Low-Abusives evidenced significantly greater systolic blood pressure arousal during provocative as compared to nonprovocative scenes (p<.05). Similar to Study 1, results showed that High-Abusives attributed greater negative intent and responsibility to partner behavior than did Low-Abusives (p <.05). However, blood-pressure and heart rate reactivity of High- and Low-Abusives were not significantly discrepant. The results of Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that High-Abusives attributed greater negative intent and responsibility to partner behavior than did Low-Abusives. Study 2 also showed that provocative partner behavior produced greater increases in systolic blood pressure than nonprovocative partner behavior for both High- and Low-Abusives. Overall, these studies provided partial empirical support for the relationship between negative attributions and anger arousal to provocative partner behavior among abusive and nonabusive males. Limitations and future research directions will be discussed.
Master of Science

In this thesis I argue that negative attributions mediate between attachment insecurity and relationship outcomes. Using a sample of 59 couples the well-documented association between attachment insecurity and relationship satisfaction was replicated. I then tested whether this association was mediated by attributions for hypothetical behaviour for a real partner and a hypothetical potential partner. Attributions for real partner behaviour did mediate between insecure attachment and relationship satisfaction, but not attributions for a potential partner. It was further hypothesised that an association would exist between couple communication and attachment insecurity, which would be mediated by negative attributions. Couples completed two ten-minute problem-solving discussions and participated in a video-mediated recall process, providing a measure of attributions for real events with their current partner. Results supported the hypotheses for self-reported, but not observed, communication. It was concluded that the association between attachment and attributions does not represent a consistent cognitive processing bias, but rather a relationship-specific phenomena. Future research directions were proposed to investigate mediation from a long-term perspective and the therapeutic implications of these findings were discussed.

In this thesis I argue that negative attributions mediate between attachment insecurity and relationship outcomes. Using a sample of 59 couples the well-documented association between attachment insecurity and relationship satisfaction was replicated. I then tested whether this association was mediated by attributions for hypothetical behaviour for a real partner and a hypothetical potential partner. Attributions for real partner behaviour did mediate between insecure attachment and relationship satisfaction, but not attributions for a potential partner. It was further hypothesised that an association would exist between couple communication and attachment insecurity, which would be mediated by negative attributions. Couples completed two ten-minute problem-solving discussions and participated in a video-mediated recall process, providing a measure of attributions for real events with their current partner. Results supported the hypotheses for self-reported, but not observed, communication. It was concluded that the association between attachment and attributions does not represent a consistent cognitive processing bias, but rather a relationship-specific phenomena. Future research directions were proposed to investigate mediation from a long-term perspective and the therapeutic implications of these findings were discussed.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Psychology
Full Text

This study investigated the roles of negative affect and cardiovascular reactivity on the attributional responding of hostile males. College males were screened with the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale (Cook & Medley, 1954). High and low hostile males were assigned to an arousal inducing (serial subtraction by 7's) or a non-arousal inducing condition (serial subtraction by 1's). Cardiovascular reactivity and self-report of affect were measured to the serial subtraction task. After the task was completed, the participant listened to a vignette (provocative or neutral) which depicted an interpersonal situation. The participant answered questions about the scene to assess attributional responding. The arousal-inducing condition was associated with significantly greater changes in systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate and a higher level of self-reported negative affect than the non-arousal inducing condition. More negative attributions were reported for provocative than neutral scenes. Males in the arousal inducing condition made more negative attributions to neutral scenes than males in the non-arousal condition. There was no significant effect of arousal condition on the negative attributions to provocative scenes. Hostility did not influence the relationship between arousal condition and self-reported affect or arousal condition and attributional responding. This study showed that inducing cardiovascular reactivity prior to a neutral encounter with a partner can affect the males' perception of the potentially neutral encounter.
Master of Science

Negativity and Hedonic Relevance are examined as factors potentially influencing attributions associated with changes in the built environment. Ninety-nine male and female university students participated on a "survey" testing the extension of previous research identifying these variables as biasing perceivers toward asserting "person" as opposed to "situational" causation. As predicted, increased negativity resulted in significantly more inferences of negative dispositions to only implicitly involved actors. A significant interaction effect was also identified between negativity and gender, with males making more attributions of causality (blame) in response to a more negative event, as predicted for all subjects, and females making less. No new evidence for the role of Hedonic Relevance was identified due to failure of the associated manipulation. A greater focus on gender differences in future attribution research is recommended, as is a greater awareness among architects and planners of the psychological processes underlying the experience of environmental change.

When receiving a negative outcome (e.g., rejection in a job interview), people tend to attribute it to different causes. For members of stigmatised groups, discrimination is a plausible cause for a negative outcome. However, because discrimination has become relatively subtle (Ellemers & Barreto, 2015), members of stigmatised groups always live in an attributional ambiguity where they constantly wonder whether discrimination was the cause of the received negative outcome. Some researchers argue that this attributional ambiguity leads members of stigmatised groups to make attributions to discrimination. In doing so, individuals would protect themselves by discounting their own role in the negative outcome they received. In other words, in order to protect their sense of competence, members of stigmatised groups prefer to make attributions to discrimination rather than their lack of deservingness (i.e., attributions to lack of ability; Crocker & Major, 1989; Major, Kaiser, & McCoy, 2003). On the other hand, other researchers argue that making attributions to discrimination is not necessarily self-protective as perceived discrimination can have negative consequences for individuals. It has been suggested that attributional stability plays a key role in determining the extent to which attributions to discrimination and to lack of ability are perceived as a threat to individuals (Branscombe & Schmitt, & Harvey, 1999; Schmitt & Branscombe, 2002; Dweck & Leggett, 1988). In three studies, I examined the extent to which attributions to discrimination and to lack of ability are threatening/challenging as a function of stability of those attributions. Threat and challenge were measured both via self-reported data and cardiovascular markers. The results confirmed the role of attributional stability in perceived threat/challenge. In addition, in another study I examined whether attributional stability influences the extent to which attributions to discrimination and to lack of ability are made. However, the results of this study did not confirm my expectations, instead, participants consistently made more attributions to their lack of ability irrespective of information about attributional stability.

Thesis (M.S.) -- University of Maryland, College Park, 2008.
Thesis research directed by: Dept. of Family Studies. Title from t.p. of PDF. Includes bibliographical references. Published by UMI Dissertation Services, Ann Arbor, Mich. Also available in paper.

Many drivers in highly motorised countries believe that aggressive driving is increasing. While the prevalence of the behaviour is difficult to reliably identify, the consequences of on-road aggression can be severe, with extreme cases resulting in property damage, injury and even death. This research program was undertaken to explore the nature of aggressive driving from within the framework of relevant psychological theory in order to enhance our understanding of the behaviour and to inform the development of relevant interventions. To guide the research a provisional ‘working’ definition of aggressive driving was proposed encapsulating the recurrent characteristics of the behaviour cited in the literature. The definition was: “aggressive driving is any on-road behaviour adopted by a driver that is intended to cause physical or psychological harm to another road user and is associated with feelings of frustration, anger or threat”. Two main theoretical perspectives informed the program of research. The first was Shinar’s (1998) frustration-aggression model, which identifies both the person-related and situational characteristics that contribute to aggressive driving, as well as proposing that aggressive behaviours can serve either an ‘instrumental’ or ‘hostile’ function. The second main perspective was Anderson and Bushman’s (2002) General Aggression Model. In contrast to Shinar’s model, the General Aggression Model reflects a broader perspective on human aggression that facilitates a more comprehensive examination of the emotional and cognitive aspects of aggressive behaviour. Study One (n = 48) examined aggressive driving behaviour from the perspective of young drivers as an at-risk group and involved conducting six focus groups, with eight participants in each. Qualitative analyses identified multiple situational and person-related factors that contribute to on-road aggression. Consistent with human aggression theory, examination of self-reported experiences of aggressive driving identified key psychological elements and processes that are experienced during on-road aggression. Participants cited several emotions experienced during an on-road incident: annoyance, frustration, anger, threat and excitement. Findings also suggest that off-road generated stress may transfer to the on-road environment, at times having severe consequences including crash involvement. Young drivers also appeared quick to experience negative attributions about the other driver, some having additional thoughts of taking action. Additionally, the results showed little difference between males and females in the severity of behavioural responses they were prepared to adopt, although females appeared more likely to displace their negative emotions. Following the self-reported on-road incident, evidence was also found of a post-event influence, with females being more likely to experience ongoing emotional effects after the event. This finding was evidenced by ruminating thoughts or distraction from tasks. However, the impact of such a post-event influence on later behaviours or interpersonal interactions appears to be minimal. Study Two involved the quantitative analysis of n = 926 surveys completed by a wide age range of drivers from across Queensland. The study aimed to explore the relationships between the theoretical components of aggressive driving that were identified in the literature review, and refined based on the findings of Study One. Regression analyses were used to examine participant emotional, cognitive and behavioural responses to two differing on-road scenarios whilst exploring the proposed theoretical framework. A number of socio-demographic, state and trait person-related variables such as age, pre-study emotions, trait aggression and problem-solving style were found to predict the likelihood of a negative emotional response such as frustration, anger, perceived threat, negative attributions and the likelihood of adopting either an instrumental or hostile behaviour in response to Scenarios One and Two. Complex relationships were found to exist between the variables, however, they were interpretable based on the literature review findings. Factor analysis revealed evidence supporting Shinar’s (1998) dichotomous description of on-road aggressive behaviours as being instrumental or hostile. The second stage of Study Two used logistic regression to examine the factors that predicted the potentially hostile aggressive drivers (n = 88) within the sample. These drivers were those who indicated a preparedness to engage in direct acts of interpersonal aggression on the road. Young, male drivers 17–24 years of age were more likely to be classified as potentially hostile aggressive drivers. Young drivers (17–24 years) also scored significantly higher than other drivers on all subscales of the Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) and on the ‘negative problem orientation’ and ‘impulsive careless style’ subscales of the Social Problem Solving Inventory – Revised (D’Zurilla, Nezu & Maydeu-Olivares, 2002). The potentially hostile aggressive drivers were also significantly more likely to engage in speeding and drink/drug driving behaviour. With regard to the emotional, cognitive and behavioural variables examined, the potentially hostile aggressive driver group also scored significantly higher than the ‘other driver’ group on most variables examined in the proposed theoretical framework. The variables contained in the framework of aggressive driving reliably distinguished potentially hostile aggressive drivers from other drivers (Nagalkerke R2 = .39). Study Three used a case study approach to conduct an in-depth examination of the psychosocial characteristics of n = 10 (9 males and 1 female) self-confessed hostile aggressive drivers. The self-confessed hostile aggressive drivers were aged 24–55 years of age. A large proportion of these drivers reported a Year 10 education or better and average–above average incomes. As a group, the drivers reported committing a number of speeding and unlicensed driving offences in the past three years and extensive histories of violations outside of this period. Considerable evidence was also found of exposure to a range of developmental risk factors for aggression that may have contributed to the driver’s on-road expression of aggression. These drivers scored significantly higher on the Aggression Questionnaire subscales and Social Problem Solving Inventory Revised subscales, ‘negative problem orientation’ and ‘impulsive/careless style’, than the general sample of drivers included in Study Two. The hostile aggressive driver also scored significantly higher on the Barrett Impulsivity Scale – 11 (Patton, Stanford & Barratt, 1995) measure of impulsivity than a male ‘inmate’, or female ‘general psychiatric’ comparison group. Using the Carlson Psychological Survey (Carlson, 1982), the self-confessed hostile aggressive drivers scored equal or higher scores than the comparison group of incarcerated individuals on the subscale measures of chemical abuse, thought disturbance, anti-social tendencies and self-depreciation. Using the Carlson Psychological Survey personality profiles, seven participants were profiled ‘markedly anti-social’, two were profiled ‘negative-explosive’ and one was profiled as ‘self-centred’. Qualitative analysis of the ten case study self-reports of on-road hostile aggression revealed a similar range of on-road situational factors to those identified in the literature review and Study One. Six of the case studies reported off-road generated stress that they believed contributed to the episodes of aggressive driving they recalled. Intense ‘anger’ or ‘rage’ were most frequently used to describe the emotions experienced in response to the perceived provocation. Less frequently ‘excitement’ and ‘fear’ were cited as relevant emotions. Notably, five of the case studies experienced difficulty articulating their emotions, suggesting emotional difficulties. Consistent with Study Two, these drivers reported negative attributions and most had thoughts of aggressive actions they would like to take. Similarly, these drivers adopted both instrumental and hostile aggressive behaviours during the self-reported incident. Nine participants showed little or no remorse for their behaviour and these drivers also appeared to exhibit low levels of personal insight. Interestingly, few incidents were brought to the attention of the authorities. Further, examination of the person-related characteristics of these drivers indicated that they may be more likely to have come from difficult or dysfunctional backgrounds and to have a history of anti-social behaviours on and off the road. The research program has several key theoretical implications. While many of the findings supported Shinar’s (1998) frustration-aggression model, two key areas of difference emerged. Firstly, aggressive driving behaviour does not always appear to be frustration driven, but can also be driven by feelings of excitation (consistent with the tenets of the General Aggression Model). Secondly, while the findings supported a distinction being made between instrumental and hostile aggressive behaviours, the characteristics of these two types of behaviours require more examination. For example, Shinar (1998) proposes that a driver will adopt an instrumental aggressive behaviour when their progress is impeded if it allows them to achieve their immediate goals (e.g. reaching their destination as quickly as possible); whereas they will engage in hostile aggressive behaviour if their path to their goal is blocked. However, the current results question this assertion, since many of the hostile aggressive drivers studied appeared prepared to engage in hostile acts irrespective of whether their goal was blocked or not. In fact, their behaviour appeared to be characterised by a preparedness to abandon their immediate goals (even if for a short period of time) in order to express their aggression. The use of the General Aggression Model enabled an examination of the three components of the ‘present internal state’ comprising emotions, cognitions and arousal and how these influence the likelihood of a person responding aggressively to an on-road situation. This provided a detailed insight into both the cognitive and emotional aspects of aggressive driving that have important implications for the design of relevant countermeasures. For example, the findings highlighted the potential value of utilising Cognitive Behavioural Therapy with aggressive drivers, particularly the more hostile offenders. Similarly, educational efforts need to be mindful of the way that person-related factors appear to influence one’s perception of another driver’s behaviour as aggressive or benign. Those drivers with a predisposition for aggression were more likely to perceive aggression or ‘wrong doing’ in an ambiguous on-road situation and respond with instrumental and/or hostile behaviour, highlighting the importance of perceptual processes in aggressive driving behaviour.

Managing diversity in the workplace is a challenging task for supervisors. Supervisors must punish negative behavior consistently, regardless their employees’ demographic characteristics. Some research suggests that negative workplace behaviors committed by lower status group members (e.g., Black people or women) are attributed to more internal factors and penalized more severely compared to higher status group members (e.g., White people or men; Duncan, 1979; Bowles & Gelfand, 2009; Luksyte, et al., 2013). However, recent evidence of pro-Black biases in judgments (Mendes & Koslov, 2013; Zigerell, 2018), challenge the perspective that evaluators are intentionally biased against Black people. If individuals deliberately compensate for pro-White biases by demonstrating pro-Black behaviors as some researchers suggest (Axt, et al., 2016), the negative workplace behaviors of Black employees may be punished less severely than white employees regardless of their gender or the reasons for their transgressions. The present research examined interactions between attribution, employee gender, and employee race when predicting punishment of negative workplace behaviors. In two studies, participants took the role of a supervisor and read descriptions of employees who violated workplace rules. In Study 1 participants read eight descriptions of workplace rule violations, then responded to attribution, punishment type, punishment severity, seriousness of offense, and responsibility measures. In Study 2 participants read eight descriptions of workplace rule violations attributed to internal and external causes and responded to punishment severity, seriousness of offense, and responsibility measures. Race and gender of the employees committing each offense were randomized within each participant so that they each rated all eight combinations of race, gender, and attribution (Study 2). Study 1 found support for the pro-Black bias, participants made more internal attributions for negative behavior committed by women and White employees and punished their negative workplace behaviors more severely. Unlike Study 1, participants in Study 2 did not make punishment decisions based on employee gender or race. Instead, participants punished behaviors based on their causal explanations; behaviors explained with internal causes were punished more severely than behaviors explained with external causes. Focusing on attribution reduced the propensity to discriminate in favor or against employees based on their demographic characteristics. While race and gender can impact punishments for workplace rule violations, learning more information about causal factors may reduce the likelihood of biased decisions.

The purpose of this study was to explore the interaction of negative life events, attributional style and depression in three different outpatient groups. Secondarily, the study examined the relationship of various demographic variables to depression and attributional style. The subjects were 261 outpatients at Kaiser-Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco, California. They included both males and females, 20 to 75 years of age, from three departments: Psychiatry, Medicine and Adult Health. Patients who volunteered for the study were given packets consisting of a demographic data sheet and three questionnaires: the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, Short Form), the Life Experiences Survey (LES), and the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ). According to BDI and LES scores, subjects were divided into depressed and non-depressed groups and three levels of negative life change: high, moderate and low. The data were analyzed by a multivariate analysis of variance, followed by t-tests which compared the ASQ scores of depressed and non-depressed individuals at the high level of negative life change in each of the three outpatient groups. The results indicated that depressed and non-depressed Psychiatric outpatients, who had experienced high levels of recent negative life change, differed significantly in their attributional styles for hypothetically "bad" events on the ASQ. As hypothesized, the attributional styles of depressed Psychiatric outpatients were significantly more stable and global (and higher in composite total) than that of non-depressed Psychiatric outpatients. However, depressed and non-depressed Medical and Adult Health outpatients, who had experienced similarly high levels of recent negative life change, did not differ significantly in their attributional styles. Overall, the study lends support to the reformulated model of learned helplessness, but raises questions concerning the applicability of that model within particular clinical groups. It was recommended that future studies use formal diagnostic criteria in addition to the BDI, and that they employ prospective designs which follow "at risk" individuals over time.

Attributional style is hypothesised to causally contribute to depression vulnerability through influencing both emotional response and rumination following life events. Consistent with this hypothesis, Peters et al. (2011) found that training individuals towards a pessimistic attributional style, characterised by internal-stable attributions for negative events and external-unstable attributions for positive events, resulted in greater negative mood and emotional reactivity to perceived failure, relative to training a resilient attributional style characterized by the reverse pattern of attributions. To date, however, the relative contribution of the internal-external and stable-unstable dimensions, their interaction, and their application to positive or negative events upon influencing emotional response and, by theoretical extension, risk for depression, remains unresolved. To resolve this question, 80 participants received training manipulating attributional style along four dimensions (i.e., internal versus external attributions for negative events; internal versus external attributions for positive events; stable versus unstable attributions for negative events; stable versus unstable attributions for positive events) in a 24 orthogonal factorial design. Participants then completed a perceived failure induction task. Measures of emotion and state rumination were completed pre-manipulation, post- manipulation, and post-induction. The internality dimension for positive and, separately, negative events influenced both immediate emotional response and emotional reactivity. Stable attributions for negative events increased negative emotional response and moderated the effect of internal attributions for negative events: internal attributions to negative resulted in greater emotional reactivity relative to external attributions, but only in the context of stable attributions for negative events. Both internal and stable dimensions also had independent effects. These findings identifying the active components driving the effect of attributional style upon emotional reactivity suggest slight revisions and refinements to attribution models of depression vulnerability. Furthermore, it provides further evidence that attributional style can be modified and furthers understanding of how CBM-attribution training could be developed as a potential intervention for the treatment of depression.

The aim of this study was to examine differences between happy and unhappy people, with respect to individuals interpretations, their attributonal style and in what way the priming effect is related to their attributional style and well-being. The participants were 74 senior high school and 21 undergraduate college students. Participants were asked to read a short story, some words were in bold type, and thereafter for their subjective perception of the words in bold type loading and memory of them in a recognition list. Attributional style was operationalized with an own constructed instrument. The results show that happy individuals interpreted more words as positive than negative in comparission with unhappy individuals. No correlation between participants well-being and global or attributional style for negative events were found. Both groups showed a tendency to be more optimistic than pessimstic for positive events. No differences were found for either memory or priming of loaded words. In sum the results suggest that happy individuals tend to conceive the world more positive.

Sammanfattning

Syftet var att studera om personers attributioner skiljer sig åt mellan positiva och negativa prestationer. Dessutom undersöktes kön- och åldersaspekter, samt skillnader mellan icke-idrottare, motionärer, individuella och lagidrottare gällande attributionsstil och situationsspecifikt självförtroende. Vidare syftade arbetet till att studera samband mellan attributionsdimensionerna och situationsspecifikt självförtroende. Urvalet bestod av 115 försökspersoner i åldern 16 till 67 år. För att mäta attributioner användes Causal Dimension Scale – II (CDS-II; McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992) och för att mäta situationspsecifikt självförtroende användes General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE; Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995, ref. i Luszczynska, Scholz, & Schwarzer, 2005). Resultatet visade att positiva prestationer förklarades med inre och personligt kontrollerbara orsaker. Negativa prestationer förklarades med inre, instabila och personligt kontrollerbara orsaker. Icke-idrottare förklarade negativa prestationer med mer inre orsaker än motionärer och mer stabila orsaker än motionärer och individuella idrottare. Både positiva och negativa korrelationer uppvisades mellan attributionsdimensionerna och generellt situationsspecifikt självförtroende.

It has been reported that Asian people have negative views of mental illness, including beliefs that it is incurable and shameful. Asian people also tend to attribute causes of mental disorders to factors less susceptible to personal influence such as supernatural factors, and are likely to have an external health locus of control which reflects beliefs that health outcomes are a product of external factors such as luck. In the present study, each of the above constructs were compared between American and Asian students. In addition, the above constructs were used to predict self-report of utilization of various treatment modalities. Four inventories were developed to assess the above constructs and treatment preferences. Reliability and validity of the new measures were examined. Results revealed that Asian students were more likely than American students to identify psychological disorder as shameful and its sufferers as socially untrustworthy and dangerous. Asian students were also more likely to attribute the causes of psychological disorder to supernatural factors than American students, and were more likely to seek folk medicine remedies for psychological disorder than were American students were. Both American and Asian students endorsed family care as the most preferable treatment approach, followed by psychological intervention, medical intervention, folk medicine intervention, and no treatment. An internal mental health locus of control predicted participants' willingness to seek no treatment. Among Asian students, beliefs in the untrustworthiness of the mentally ill predicted their willingness to seek folk medicine treatment. Attribution of psychological disorder to supernatural causes predicted their unwillingness to seek medical treatment. Among American students, an internal mental health locus of control predicted participants' willingness to seek no treatment. Attribution of supernatural causes and an internal mental health locus of control predicted their willingness to seek folk medicine treatment. A belief that mentally ill people were untrustworthy predicted a preference for medical interventions.
Master of Science

Increasingly, celebrities appear not only as endorsers for products but are apparently engaged in entrepreneurial roles as initiators, owners and perhaps even managers in the ventures that market the products they promote. Despite being extensively referred to in popular media, scholars have been slow to recognise the importance of this new phenomenon. This thesis argues theoretically and shows empirically that celebrity entrepreneurs are more effective communicators than typical celebrity endorsers because of their increased engagement with ventures. I theorise that greater engagement increases the celebrity‘s emotional involvement as perceived by consumers. This is an endorser quality thus far neglected in the marketing communications literature. In turn, emotional involvement, much like the empirically established dimensions trustworthiness, expertise and attractiveness, should affect traditional outcome variables such as attitude towards the advertisement and brand. On the downside, increases in celebrity engagement may lead to relatively stronger and worsening changes in attitudes towards the brand if and when negative information about the celebrity is revealed. A series of eight experiments was conducted on 781 Swedish and Baltic students and 151 Swedish retirees. Though there were nuanced differences and additional complexities in each experiment, participants‘ reactions to advertisements containing a celebrity portrayed as a typical endorser or entrepreneur were recorded. The overall results of these experiments suggest that emotional involvement can be successfully operationalised as distinct from variables previously known to influence communication effectiveness. In addition, emotional involvement has positive effects on attitudes toward the advertisement and brand that are as strong as the predictors traditionally applied in the marketing communications literature. Moreover, the celebrity entrepreneur condition in the experimental manipulation consistently led to an increase in emotional involvement and to a lesser extent trustworthiness, but not expertise and attractiveness. Finally, negative celebrity information led to a change in participants‘ attitudes towards the brand which were more strongly negative for celebrity entrepreneurs than celebrity endorsers. In addition, the effect of negative celebrity information on a company‘s brand is worse when they support the celebrity rather than fire them. However, this effect did not appear to interact with the celebrity‘s purported engagement.

This investigation explored the relation between parents' attributions for their spouse's behaviour during negative parent-child interactions and parenting alliance. Specifically, it was hypothesized that lower levels of parenting alliance are associated with more negative causal attributions and greater attributions of responsibility and blame for negative spouse behaviour. The unique contribution of attributions to the prediction of parenting alliance was also examined. Thirty-seven mothers and 32 fathers of elementary-school-aged boys completed a questionnaire package including the Parenting Alliance Inventory (Abidin & Brunner, 1991). Attributions were assessed using written stimuli and ratings scales assessing dimensions along which causal and responsibility-blame attributions are formed. Analyses revealed no associations between causal attributions for spouse behaviour and parenting alliance. For mothers, one of three responsibility-blame attribution dimensions was associated with level of parenting alliance, and for fathers, two of three responsibility-blame attribution dimensions were associated with lower reports of parenting alliance. Attributions of responsibility-blame, but not causal attributions, were found to predict a marginal amount of variance in attributions above and beyond marital adjustment. The study also explored attributions parents made for spouse behaviour relative to attributions made for self behaviour. Along one causal and one responsibility-blame attribution dimension, a parent by target interaction effect was found, with fathers making more positive attributions for self behaviour than for spouse behaviour, and mothers making equal or more negative attributions for self behaviour than for spouse behaviour. Also, across mothers and fathers, parents made greater attributions of fault-blame for their own behaviour than for spouse behaviour.

Interpersonal violence has been identified as one of our nation’s most important public health concerns and has been empirically linked with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In order to better understand the relationship between PTSD and violence, we used Chemtob’s (1997) Survival Mode model to examine the role of two potentially important proximal factors linking PTSD to violence; cognitive attributions and negative affect. Congruent with theory and previous research, we hypothesized that PTSD would be related to aggression, and that cognitive attributions and negative affect would moderate the relationship between these variables. Undergraduate students (N = 628) completed an online screening study to assess PTSD symptomatology. Based on screening results, 99 participants were recruited and categorized as having elevated PTSD symptomatology (High-PTSD) or minimal symptomatology (Low-PTSD). Eligible participants completed questionnaires assessing trauma history, psychopathology, attitudes towards violence, and history of violent behavior. Participants then completed the Point Subtraction Aggression Paradigm (PSAP), a lab-based behavioral measure of aggression, in which participants competed against a confederate and had points subtracted on a pre-programmed interval schedule. After completing this task, participants completed measures assessing negative affect and attributions experienced during the PSAP procedure. Results demonstrate that High-PTSD participants engaged in significantly more aggressive responding on the PSAP than did Low-PTSD participants. Further, High- PTSD participants reported more negative affect than did low-PTSD participants, and a trend approaching significance suggested that High-PTSD participants tended to make more negative intent attributions regarding confederates’ behavior than did low-PTSD participants. Contrary to our hypotheses, findings revealed that negative affect and attributions were unrelated to aggressive responding and did not moderate the relationship between PTSD symptomatology and aggressive responding. It is possible that the retrospective reporting of negative affect and attributions limited the ability to detect moderation effects in the present study. Implications of the findings are discussed and future research is called for in order to better explicate the complex relationship between PTSD symptomatology and aggression.

碩士
輔仁大學
兒童與家庭學系碩士班
95
Abstract The main goals of the present study are to investigate the current situations of mothers’ belief of corporal punishment, attributions for children’s negative behavior and corporal punishment as well as the relationships among the above variables. The subjects of the present study are 601 mothers with children ages 3 to 6 selected from Taoyuan County. The results show that, first of all, mothers have middle level of belief of supporting corporal punishment, middle level of “internal factor” and “external factor” of attributions for children’s negative behavior. Mothers show low level of aspects of timing, intensity of corporal punishment, but have middle level of aspect of strength. In addition, mothers feel that children have middle level of response while being punished and corporal punishment have middle level of effect on children. Secondly, mothers’ belief of supporting corporal punishment is significantly correlated with aspects of timing, intensity, strength, responding and effect of corporal punishment. “External factor” of attribution for children’s negative behavior is not significantly correlated with aspects of timing, intensity, strength, responding and effect of corporal punishment. However, “internal factor” of attribution for children’s negative behavior is significantly correlated with aspects of strength and effect of corporal punishment. Finally, mothers’ supporting belief of corporal punishment has significant effects on aspects of timing, intensity, strength, responding and effect of corporal punishment, but attributions for children’s negative behavior have no significant effect on corporal punishment. Key words：corporal punishment, beliefs of corporal punishment, attributions for children’s negative behavior, preschoolers’ mothers

In line with the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation (VSA) model of marriage, this study examined the role of neuroticism, stressful life events, mutual problem solving and negative relationship attributions on marital quality and adjustment among a sample of newlywed couples in Addis Ababa. A quantitative cross-sectional study design involving a sample of 192 newlywed couples was employed. Data were analysed using correlation and multiple regression analysis methods. The PROCESS module in SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling was also used to test indirect effects and actor and partner effects, respectively. The results showed that for both wives’ and husbands’, neuroticism significantly predicted their own marital satisfaction but only husbands’ neuroticism significantly predicted their partners’ marital satisfaction. Stressful life events did not have a significant actor and partner effect for both wives’ and husbands’. Negative relationship attribution was found to be a significant predictor of actors as well as partners' marital satisfaction for both wives’ and husbands’ while only husbands’ mutual problem solving, not that of wives’, had a significant effect on their own marital satisfaction. Tests of indirect effects also showed that, for both wives’ and husbands’, neuroticism had a significant negative intrapersonal and interpersonal indirect effect on marital satisfaction through the mediation of both mutual problem solving and negative relationship attribution. Wives’ and husbands’ stressful life events had a significant negative intrapersonal and interpersonal indirect effect on marital satisfaction through the mediation of negative relationship attribution. Mutual problem solving only mediated a significant indirect effect of husbands’ stress on marital satisfaction at the intrapersonal level and wives’ stress on marital satisfaction at the interpersonal level. This research contributed to enhancing scientific knowledge that guides the design and implementation of policies, programs, and services to promote newlyweds’ marital quality and adjustment in the Ethiopian context. The research also made a theoretical contribution to the VSA model by indicating that adaptive processes play a varying mediational role for wives’ and husbands’ in the indirect effect of stress on marital satisfaction and by confirming that adaptive processes such as mutual problem solving and negative relationship attribution play a more prominent role in affecting marital quality and satisfaction than the other two components of the model, that is neuroticism and stressful life events.
Psychology

The study seeks to discover whether different cultural orientations will result in individuals making dispositional attribution or situational attribution regarding negative information about a celebrity endorser. Second, the study seeks to discover whether consumers in different cultures evaluate different types of negative celebrity information differently. Third, the study seeks to discover whether dispositional or situational attribution of the negative information about the celebrity endorser will produce different evaluations of the endorser and, subsequently, of the endorsed brand. Finally, the study seeks to discover whether the level of consumers’ identification with celebrities (low vs. high) will moderate the relationship between attribution and consequences. The study found that cultural orientation affects people’s attributional styles and dispositional attribution leads to more negative impacts on celebrity evaluation, brand evaluation, and purchase intention than situational attribution. It is found that Korean consumers reacted more negatively on other-oriented negative information than on self-oriented negative orientation. People with a low level of identification responded more negatively to the negative celebrity information than people with a high level of identification. Implications and suggestions for future research in this area are provided.
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碩士
國立成功大學
行為醫學研究所
101
The objective of this study was to investigate the attribution process to positive and negative children behavior for mothers of children with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) by two paradigms. The first paradigm involves multidimensional attribution of positive and negative behavior of children. The second paradigm concerns making attribution to identical children behavior basing on information, such as consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency. The results showed that mothers of typically developing children exhibited positive attribution styles or person attributions, whereas mothers of children with ADHD exhibited negative attribution styles. Mothers of children with ADHD tended to make person attributions to negative children behavior (e.g., inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity; HI), but concluded situational attributions to prosocial behaviors. Furthermore, mothers of children with ADHD strongly maintained that typical children should exhibit self-control over HI behavior, whereas mothers of typical children adopted a tolerant attitude and perceived children with ADHD as incapable of self-control. The results of this study can be used by future studies on the effects of intervention for children with ADHD or studies related to neurophysiology. Highlights: A multidimensional questionnaire and information-attribution questionnaires were administered to investigate (a) the positive attribution styles exhibited by mothers of typical children and these mothers’ tendencies to make person attributions to positive and negative children behavior and (b) the negative attribution styles exhibited by mothers of children with ADHD and these mothers’ tendencies to make situational attributions to prosocial behaviors.

碩士
東吳大學
企業管理學系
96
Service encounters often occur in the presence of multiple customers who share the servciescape with one another. It is evident that customers affect one another both indirectly, simply by being part of the same environment, and more directly, through specific interpersonal encounters (Martin, 1996). While there is some evidence that customer-to-customer interaction has a negative impact on customer satisfaction with the firm (e.g. Bitner et al., 1994; Groveand Fisk, 1997; Harris and Reynolds, 2003), none of these studies have focused specifically on answering why customers who are upset by other customers blame the firm rather than the specific misbehaving individuals, which in turn leads to customer dissatisfaction? The purpose of this study is to investigate this link, to predict what sort of causal attribution can lead to a firm’s assumed responsibility in case of other-customer failure. A 2 (controllability attribution: controllable vs. uncontrollable) × 2 (stability attribution: unstable vs. stable) × 2 (globality attribution: specific vs. global) between-subject factorial design was used to test our predictions. Subjects were exposed to a written scenario describing other-customer misbehavior in a restaurant. A restaurant context was chosen as appropriate for this study since real-life dysfunctional customer behavior is common in this industry (Harris and Reynolds, 2003). The results of this study show that: (1) Customers were less satisfied and less willing to repurchase, and were more likely to engaging in negative WOM, when they attributed the cause of other-customer failure to be more controllable than uncontrollable by the firm; (2) customers showed lower satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and higher negative WOM, when they attributed the cause of other-customer failure to be stable than unstable in the firm, and (3) globality attributions moderate the effects of controllability and stability attributions on customers’ service evaluations. That is, subjects in the specific condition reported lower satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and higher negative WOM, when they attributed the cause of other-customer failure to be controllable (stable) than uncontrollable (unstable) by the firm. Conversely, subjects in the global condition reported insignificant difference in the ratings of satisfaction, repurchase intentions, and negative WOM, whether the cause of other-customer failure be attributed as controllable (stable) or uncontrollable (unstable) to the firm.

碩士
國立彰化師範大學
人力資源管理研究所
99
Abstract Workplace incivility has been found to be harmful to organizations and individuals. However, researchers know little about the mental processes of incivility victims. Thus, present study tested negative reciprocity and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) as mediators. Further, even within the same uncivil situation, workers with different attributional style may lead to different responses and behaviors. Therefore, present study examined attributional style as a moderator of the relationships between perceptions of supervisors' workplace incivility and negative reciprocity, organization-based self-esteem, ultimately, withholding effort. The subjects of the study are common enterprise supervisors and subordinates who are selected by purposive sampling method. We collected 480 pair questionnaires and there are 218 valid samples in the end. We used confirmation factor analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis to test our hypotheses. After hypotheses testing, we figured out: (1) Negative reciprocity mediated a moderating effect of hostile attributional style on the relationship between perceptions of supervisors' workplace incivility and withholding effort. (2) Organization-based self-esteem mediated a moderating effect of pessimistic attributional style on the relationship between perceptions of supervisors' workplace incivility and withholding effort. The implications of this study were: (1) Do not neglect the impact from supervisors’ incivility behavior. (2) According to victims' attributional style, give them different kinds of help. (3) Punishment is not the only way to solve the problem about withholding effort.

碩士
國立臺灣大學
心理學研究所
100
The main purpose of this study is to examine whether negative out-group and positive in-group information both could activate in-group members’ cultural knowledge, and further influence their judgments to external-world information in the social context of low numerical distinctiveness. The past studies have proved that a specific group belonging to the majority or minority in an area affects the priming effect, and the minority group members would be more sensitive to in-group-related information. Contrarily, the issue which how to activate the majority group members’ in-group (cultural) knowledge schema is rarely to be paid attention. So, I hope that the current study could fulfill this research gap, and hypothesize that when perceiving outer threat or prejudice information, the majority group members’ in-group (cultural) knowledge schema would be activated, on the other hand, when perceiving positive in-group information would not have such effect. Two experiments are included, and the ethnic Chinese participants were recruited from Taiwan. The negative out-group information involved or not was manipulated, and attribution task and consumer behavioral intention were took as criterion variables in the experiment 1 and 2 respectively. The results confirmed the research hypothesis: the subject’ cultural schema was highly activated in the prejudiced group, however, the subjects in the positive in-group condition were not. The phenomenon was observed both in the attribution inclination and consumer behavioral intention, and gained acceptable effect size. Finally, the research limitations and future directions were discussed.

碩士
清雲科技大學
經營管理研究所
100
This study explored the relationship between the responsibility attribution and the moral emotions (shame, guilt) that employees reacted to the negative event of the company, as well as the moderate role of the image of organization and gender. Based on the virtual cases, we used scenarios to manipulate the image of organization and responsibility attribution. We used the “division of continuing education students” of Ching Yun University as our experiment target. Based on the analysis of 256 effective returned samples, the findings are as following: First of all, employees with internal attribution tend to be higher moral emotions than employees with external attribution in the organization. Secondly, in terms of the image of organization, the relationship between internal attribution and employees’ moral emotions the organization with high image is stronger than organization with low image. And in terms of gender, male employees tend to be stronger than female employees. Finally, the more shameful employees feel, the higher intention tends to quit job and the less organizational citizenship behavior. However, the guiltier employees feel, the less intention tends to quit job and the more organizational citizenship behavior. We also discuss the implication of management.

The present study analyzed the negative scale of the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), a popular measure of attributional style and correlate of depression (Peterson et al., 1982), using non-parametric item response modeling. This modeling technique was used to determine if items function differentially for males and females, through differential item functioning (DIF) analysis. Past studies of the ASQ have not used non-parametric item response theory (IRT) modeling in their analysis, nor have they determined whether or not items function differentially for males and females. On a methodological note, nonparametric IRT results were therefore compared with results obtained using classical test theory (CTT) statistics. Results indicated that the negative items of each of the three subscales of the ASQ, locus, stability, and globality were found to function well and discriminate best at the extremes. Further, no gender DIF was detected using either nonparametric IRT or CTT methods. Furthermore, conditional reliability was found to be more informative and powerful than a single reliability coefficient. Findings add to the existing literature supporting the theoretical model of the ASQ by utilizing previously unexplored statistical methodologies.

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada no ISPA – Instituto Universitário de Ciências Psicológicas, Sociais e da Vida, para obtenção do grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Clínica
O Pensamento Contrafactual é um tipo de pensamento espontâneo que nos permite procurar alternativas à nossa realidade, muitas vezes evidenciado através da expressão “e se…”, que ocorre frequentemente no dia-a-dia de qualquer sujeito (Byrne, 2016). Já em muitos estudos foi sugerido o impacto que certas variáveis como a posição do sujeito (ator vs. leitor) (Girotto e. al., 2007; Pighin et. al., 2011), ou o cenário/valência do resultado (sucesso/positivo vs. insucesso/negativo) (Roese & Olson, 1993a, 1993b) têm em diversas dimensões do PCF. Neste estudo acrescenta-se uma pergunta sobre este assunto: será que os sujeitos na posição de atores ou leitores têm pensamentos contrafactuais, perante um resultado positivo, idênticos aos que já se conhece perante um resultado negativo (Girotto e. al., 2007; Pighin et. al., 2011)? Assim, hipotetizou-se que, por um lado, deixaria de haver diferenças entre atores e leitores em cenário de sucesso, e, por outro, que o tipo de cenário teria apenas impacto em atores e não em leitores. Os resultados foram no sentido de ambas as hipóteses. Adicionalmente, foram propostas outras duas hipóteses: uma diz respeito à relação entre a valência de resultado e à estrutura do PCF (quanto aos atores, seria esperado que em cenário positivo fossem elaborados contrafactuais de estrutura subtrativa e em cenário negativo fossem elaborados contrafactuais de estrutura aditiva, não sendo esperadas diferenças entre os leitores); e outra diz respeito à relação entre a valência de resultado e o tipo de atribuição causal (interna vs, externa) (era esperado que, em grupos de atores, se atribuísse o sucesso a fatores internos e o insucesso a fatores externos, não se esperando diferenças entre os leitores). Os resultados relativos a estas últimas hipóteses não foram no sentido do esperado.
Counterfactual thought is a type of thought which allows us to search for mental alternatives to our present reality. It’s spontaneous and frequent in our everyday lives, and it is frequently expressed through a “what if…” conjunction (Byrne, 2016). There have been many studies in which it was suggested that variables such as role (actor vs reader) (Girotto e. al., 2007; Pighin et. al., 2011) or scenario/outcome valence (positive vs. negative) (Roese & Olson, 1993a, 1993b) have impact on certain dimensions of counterfactual though. In this study, we add up yet another question about this issue: do both actors and readers have the same counterfactual thoughts for both negative and positive scenarios? Thereby, we hypothesised that there would be no differences between roles on a positive scenario, and that the difference in scenario would only impact on actors but not on readers. The results went accordingly to the proposed hypotheses. Additionally, we proposed yet another two hypotheses regarding outcome valence and the structure of counterfactual thought (additive vs. subtractive) (within the actor groups, it was expected that on a positive scenario, subjects would elaborate more subtractive counterfactual thoughts and on a negative scenario, subjects would elaborate more additive counterfactual thoughts, not expecting any differences between the two groups of readers), and outcome valence and causal attribution (it was expected, within the actor groups, that success were attributed to internal elements and unsuccess attributed to external elements; within readers, there were no differences to be expected, no matter the outcome valence). The results concerning these last hypotheses didn’t go accordingly to that which we proposed.