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This study investigates the antecedents and consequences of consumers' attribution styles in the evaluation of negative celebrity information. In its evaluation of negative celebrity information, this study examines the effects of consumers' different attribution styles, level of identification with a celebrity endorser, and level of brand commitment. To test its hypotheses, the study employs a 2 ×  2 ×  2 between-subject factorial design. The three factors are attribution style, level of identification with a celebrity endorser, and level of brand commitment. Conducted through the Internet, the experiment recruited a total of 229 students from a southwestern university in the USA. The study found that people making dispositional attributions judged the endorsed brand more negatively than those making situational attributions. Confronted with negative celebrity information, consumers who identified highly with the celebrity were likely to maintain a positive attitude toward a brand and continue purchasing it. In the same conditions, people with high brand commitment showed more positive brand evaluation as well as higher purchase intention than people with low brand commitment. The research findings contribute to a better understanding of the effects of negative celebrity information on consumer attitudes and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This meta-analysis examined the relation between attributional style and subsequent depressive symptoms. Results were based on 52 longitudinal studies comprising 57 samples involving 12,594 participants. A moderate correlation was found between depressogenic explanatory style of negative events and subsequent depressive symptoms. Controlling for prior depressive symptoms, the weighted mean effect of prior negative attributional style on subsequent depressive symptoms was small at β = .10. The relation between attributional style and subsequent depressive symptoms was not associated with moderators including publication status, attributional style measure, depression measure, delay between assessments, mean age, participant gender, and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Suicidal behavior, including suicide attempt, may result from maladaptive explanatory patterns for past negative life events, in which a person attributes the causes of stressors to internal, stable and global factors. Conversely, an optimistic explanatory style involves perceiving negative life events as external, transient and specific, and may be related to reduced suicide risk. We examined the association between attributional style and lifetime suicide attempts in 135 college students, covarying age, race and ethnicity. Participants provided informed consent and completed an online survey. An optimistic explanatory style was associated with reduced risk of suicide attempt; this effect persisted in a model controlling for hopelessness and depressive symptoms. The manner in which an individual interprets negative life events may buffer against suicidal behavior. Therapeutic strategies to promote an optimistic explanatory style may be successful in the prevention of suicide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To better understand the consistent elevated symptom reporting by Gulf War veterans; we compared Australian Gulf War veterans and military-comparison group on symptom attributional styles and the relationship with total number and grouping of somatic and psychological symptoms.Method: Postal questionnaires were completed by Australian Gulf War veterans (n=697) and military-comparison group (n=659) in 2000-2002 and 2011-2012. Data were collected on deployments, military-psychological stressors, symptom reporting, symptom factors and attributional style (normalising, psychologising, somatising, mixed-attribution).Results: Gulf War veterans did not differ in attributional style from comparison group (p>0.05); normalising was the predominant style. Groups were combined for analyses. Psychologisers reported the highest overall symptoms (mean(M)=10.95, standard deviation(SD)=9.15), the most psychophysiological (M=1.71, SD=2.82), cognitive (M=5.79, SD=5.09) and arthro-neuromuscular symptoms (M=1.53, SD=1.73). Psychologisers and somatisers reported significantly more symptoms across overall symptoms, all three symptom factors and psychological distress than normalisers. Normalisers consistently reported fewest overall symptoms (M=2.85, SD=4.49), psychophysiological (M=0.40, SD=0.98), cognitive (M=1.14, SD=2.22), and arthro-neuromuscular symptoms (M=0.72, SD=1.31). Persistent symptoms, rather than remitted, between baseline and follow-up were associated with increased rates of psychologising and mixed-attribution compared with normalising. For incident symptoms a similar pattern was observed, some symptoms also showed increased rates of somatising.Conclusions: In veterans, psychologising was associated with higher symptom reporting, whilst somatisers and mixed-attribution also demonstrated higher reporting than normalisers. Symptom persistence and incidence were associated with symptom attribution. The findings indicate that attributional style is associated with patterns of symptom reporting and highlights both past and present symptoms may influence attributional style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Cognitive models predict that vulnerability to major depressive disorder (MDD) is due to a bias to blame oneself for failure in a global way resulting in excessive self-blaming emotions, decreased self-worth, hopelessness and depressed mood. Clinical studies comparing the consistency and coherence of these symptoms in order to probe the predictions of the model are lacking. Methods 132 patients with remitted MDD and no relevant lifetime co-morbid axis- I disorders were assessed using a phenomenological psychopathology-based interview (AMDP) including novel items to assess moral emotions ( n =94 patients) and the structured clinical interview-I for DSM-IV-TR. Cluster analysis was employed to identify symptom coherence for the most severe episode. Results Feelings of inadequacy, depressed mood, and hopelessness emerged as the most closely co-occurring and consistent symptoms (≥90% of patients). Self-blaming emotions occurred in most patients (>80%) with self-disgust/contempt being more frequent than guilt, followed by shame. Anger or disgust towards others was experienced by only 26% of patients. 85% of patients reported feelings of inadequacy and self-blaming emotions as the most bothering symptoms compared with 10% being more distressed by negative emotions towards others. Limitations Symptom assessment was retrospective, but this is unlikely to have biased patients towards particular emotions relative to others. Conclusions As predicted, feelings of inadequacy and hopelessness were part of the core depressive syndrome, closely co-occurring with depressed mood. Self-blaming emotions were highly frequent and bothering but not restricted to guilt. This calls for a refined assessment of self-blaming emotions to improve the diagnosis and stratification of MDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Sleep and optimism are important psycho-biological and personality constructs, respectively. However, very little work has examined the causal relationship between them, and none has examined the potential mechanisms operating in the relationship. This study aimed to understand whether sleep quality was a cause or an effect of optimism, and whether depressive mood could explain the relationship.Method: Internet survey data were collected from 987 Chinese working adults (63.4% female, 92.4% full-time workers, 27.0% married, 90.2% Hong Kong residents, mean age=32.59 at three time-points, spanning about 19 months). Measures included a Chinese attributional style questionnaire, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale.Results: Cross-sectional analyses revealed moderate correlations among sleep quality, depressive mood, and optimism. Cross-lagged analyses showed a bidirectional causality between optimism and sleep. Path analysis demonstrated that depressive mood fully mediated the influence of optimism on sleep quality, and it partially mediated the influence of sleep quality on optimism.Conclusion: Optimism improves sleep. Poor sleep makes a pessimist. The effects of sleep quality on optimism could not be fully explained by depressive mood, highlighting the unique role of sleep on optimism. Understanding the mechanisms of the feedback loop of sleep quality, mood, and optimism may provide insights for clinical interventions for individuals presented with mood-related problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background One influential view is that vulnerability to major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with a proneness to experience negative emotions in general. In contrast, blame attribution theories emphasise the importance of blaming oneself rather than others for negative events. Our previous exploratory study provided support for the attributional hypothesis that patients with remitted MDD show no overall bias towards negative emotions, but a selective bias towards emotions entailing self-blame relative to emotions that entail blaming others. More specifically, we found a decreased proneness for contempt/disgust towards others relative to oneself (i.e. self-contempt bias). Here, we report a definitive test of the competing general negative versus specific attributional bias theories of MDD. Methods We compared a medication-free remitted MDD ( n = 101) and a control group ( n = 70) with no family or personal history of MDD on a previously validated experimental test of moral emotions. The task measures proneness to specific emotions associated with different types of self-blame (guilt, shame, self-contempt/disgust, self-indignation/anger) and blame of others (other-indignation/anger, other-contempt/disgust) whilst controlling for the intensity of unpleasantness. Results We confirmed the hypothesis that patients with MDD exhibit an increased self-contempt bias with a reduction in contempt/disgust towards others. Furthermore, they also showed a decreased proneness for indignation/anger towards others. Conclusions This corroborates the prediction that vulnerability to MDD is associated with an imbalance of specific self- and other-blaming emotions rather than a general increase in negative emotions. This has important implications for neurocognitive models and calls for novel focussed interventions to rebalance blame in MDD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study examined differences in children's and parents’ hope and negative attributional style as a function of children's attachment categorizations derived from children's family drawings in 77 triads of young elementary school age children ( mean age 6.70, range 6–7.5; SD = 53), mothers, and fathers in Israel. In addition, associations between scales in children's family drawings and children's and parents’ hope and negative attributional style were examined. Drawings were coded using Main and Kaplan's (1986) coding system. Both children's and parents’ hopes and attributional style were reflected in the children's drawings. Specifically, the scales reflecting attachment security, such as vitality and pride, were positively correlated with children's hopes and negatively correlated with children's and parents’ negative attributional style. By contrast, the scales reflecting attachment insecurity, such as emotional distance, anger, and pathology, were negatively correlated with participants’ positive attributional style and hope and positively correlated with negative attributional style. Surprisingly, role reversal was positively correlated with mothers’ hope and negatively with fathers’ negative attributional style. Finally, differences in children's hope and negative attributional style, in addition to mothers’ negative attributional style, were found as a function of children's attachment categorizations. The implications for theory and clinical interventions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Social-cognitive deficits have a significant impact on the community and vocational functioning of persons with schizophrenia. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to explore the relationship between social-cognitive abilities and vocational functioning in a Chinese population. METHOD: We recruited 30 outpatients with schizophrenia to participate. We administered the Chinese Social Cognition and Screening Questionnaire (C-SCSQ) to assess Theory of Mind (ToM), attributional bias, and neurocognition; the Facial Expression Identification Test (FEIT) to assess emotion perception (EP) ability, and the Chinese Work Personality Profile (CWPP) to assess work performance in a simulated work setting. RESULTS: ToM showed a significant negative correlation with attributional bias. The neurocognitive measure displayed a significant positive correlation with ToM and EP. The structural equation model was a good fit to the data (CFI=0.91, RMSEA=0.12), and showed that social-cognitive abilities had a significant impact (-0.41) on work performance. Of the four social-cognitive domains, ToM and paranoid attributional style (PAS) contributed significantly to variations in work performance. These results support the theory that social-cognitive abilities have an impact on work performance. ToM has a positive impact whereas PAS has an adverse effect. CONCLUSION: Persons with schizophrenia present specific deficits in their social-cognitive abilities, which have significant impact on their work performance and employability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bipolar spectrum disorders (BSDs) are often characterized by cognitive inflexibility and affective extremities, including “extreme” or polarized thoughts and beliefs, which have been shown to predict a more severe course of illness. However, little research has evaluated factors that may be associated with extreme cognitions, such as personality disorders, which are often characterized by extreme, inflexible beliefs and are also associated with poor illness course in BSDs. The present study evaluated associations among BSDs, personality disorder characteristics, and extreme cognitions (polarized responses made on measures of attributional style and dysfunctional attitudes), as well as links between extreme cognitions and the occurrence of mood episodes, among euthymic young adults with BSDs ( n = 83) and demographically matched healthy controls ( n = 89) followed prospectively for 3 years. The relationship between personality disorder characteristics and negative and positive extreme cognitions was stronger among BSD participants than among healthy controls, even after statistically accounting for general cognitive styles. Furthermore, extreme negative cognitions predicted the prospective onset of major depressive and hypomanic episodes. These results suggest that extreme cognitive styles are most common in individuals with BSDs and personality disorder characteristics, and they provide further evidence that extreme negative cognitions may confer risk for mood dysregulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction.A preliminary cognitive model of grandiose delusions has been put forward suggesting that persecutory and grandiose delusions shared distinct, yet overlapping psychological processes. This study aims to test this model and hypothesises that participants experiencing grandiose delusions may demonstrate a theory of mind (ToM) impairment and differences in attributional style compared to a control group. Methods.A cross-sectional design compared the performance of 18 individuals with grandiose delusions to a control group of 14 participants with depression. ToM was measured using a non-verbal joke appreciation task and a verbal stories task. Attributional style was measured using the internal, personal and situational attributions questionnaire. Results.Participants experiencing grandiose delusions performed significantly worse on both ToM tasks compared to controls. Furthermore, these participants provided significantly more atypical answers when explaining the joke behind the ToM cartoons. No differences for subjective funniness ratings or attributional style were found. Conclusions.This preliminary study indicated participants experiencing grandiose delusions have ToM impairments which may contribute to the maintenance of this symptom. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

• This study examined the relationship between perceived teacher fairness and sense of school belonging in Australian secondary students, and whether student attributional style mediated this relationship. • The current study makes a unique and important contribution to the field of classroom justice through its' examination of, for the first time, the role of student attributional style on the relationship between perceived teacher fairness and school belonging. • Current findings suggest maladaptive student attributional style is an important factor associated with lower levels of perceived teacher fairness and a sense of school belonging. Teacher fairness is a major concern for secondary students and significantly influences their sense of school belonging. This study investigated the relationship between Australian secondary students' perception of teacher fairness and school belonging, and the indirect effects of student attributional style on that relationship. A sample of 269 students was collected from online surveys, which used the Psychological Sense of School Membership, Teacher Justice Scale, and Adolescent Cognitive Style Questionnaire to measure the key variables. Correlational analysis (two-tailed) revealed a positive relationship between perceived teacher fairness and school belonging, r (269) = 0.47, p <.001, and a negative relationship between maladaptive student attributional style with perceived teacher fairness, r (269) = -0.18, p <.001, and school belonging, r (269) = -0.28, p <.001. Additionally, a multiple regression analysis found that the variability in both student attributional style and perceived teacher fairness jointly explained around 26% of the variability in school belonging. Moreover, student attributional style partly mediated the relationship between perceived teacher fairness and school belonging, with an estimated statistically significant indirect effect of 0.03 units and a dominant direct effect of 0.31 units. These results confirm perceived teacher fairness as an essential ingredient for a positive teacher-student relationship and sense of school belonging. Findings from this study provide implications for classroom justice research and highlight the potential for applying framing interventions to students' perceptions of teacher fairness to improve teacher-student relationships and enhance students' sense of school belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although prevalence rates of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has been established throughout adolescence, little is known about the progression of NSSI, and consequently, about the risk factors for youth NSSI engagement. This study aimed to describe the overall longitudinal course of NSSI and the latent trajectory classes of NSSI in a population-based sample of adolescents using multi-wave data. Moreover, this study examined whether sex, lifetime history of depression, rumination, and negative attributional style predicted the longitudinal course of NSSI and trajectory group membership. Participants were 617 Chinese adolescents in Grades 10 through 12 (51.4 % girls). NSSI was assessed across eight waves of data. History of depression, rumination, and negative attributional style were assessed at baseline. Latent growth curve modeling revealed that only lifetime depression predicted the longitudinal course of NSSI from Grades 10 to 12, with depressed adolescents showing greater and more stable NSSI engagement over time than non-depressed adolescents. Group-based trajectory modeling yielded three distinct trajectory classes of NSSI engagement: low (69.2 %), moderate (26.1 %), and chronic (4.7 %). Negative attributional style distinguished adolescents in the chronic vs. low and moderate NSSI trajectory classes. Sex, rumination, and lifetime depression predicted membership in the chronic and/or moderate vs. low NSSI trajectory class. NSSI trajectory classes, based on frequency of NSSI, exist and are differentiated by sex, depression history, rumination, and negative attributional style. This study suggests that during this period of adolescence NSSI may be a relatively stable behavior, especially for some adolescents. Negative attributional style may be a salient risk factor for chronic NSSI engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Theoretical models postulate an important role of attributional style (AS) in the formation and maintenance of persecutory delusions and other positive symptoms of schizophrenia. However, current research has gathered conflicting findings. In a cross-sectional design, patients with persistent positive symptoms of schizophrenia (n = 258) and healthy controls (n = 51) completed a revised version of the Internal, Personal and Situational Attributions Questionnaire (IPSAQ-R) and assessments of psychopathology. In comparison to controls, neither patients with schizophrenia in general nor patients with persecutory delusions (n = 142) in particular presented an externalizing and personalizing AS. Rather, both groups showed a “self-blaming” AS and attributed negative events more toward themselves. Persecutory delusions were independently predicted by a personalizing bias for negative events (beta = 0.197, P = .001) and by depression (beta = 0.152, P = .013), but only 5% of the variance in persecutory delusions could be explained. Cluster analysis of IPSAQ-R scores identified a “personalizing” (n = 70) and a “self-blaming” subgroup (n = 188), with the former showing slightly more pronounced persecutory delusions (P = .021). Results indicate that patients with schizophrenia and patients with persecutory delusions both mostly blamed themselves for negative events. Nevertheless, still a subgroup of patients could be identified who presented a more pronounced personalizing bias and more severe persecutory delusions. Thus, AS in patients with schizophrenia might be less stable but more determined by individual and situational characteristics that need further elucidation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

HIV, AIDS, STIs, and unwanted pregnancy continue to impact young adults in the U.S. at a disproportionate rate, particularly during the college years. Attributional style (i.e., locus of control) influences one’s HIV risk. Internal locus of control indicates a lower risk of HIV infection, whereas external locus of control signals an increased risk of becoming infected with HIV. A sample of 1,874 university students aged 16-54 years were surveyed to determine if sexually active males versus females with external, unstable, and specific causal attribution (i.e., external locus of control) engaged in safer sexual practices (e.g., condom use) and lesser alcohol and legal/illicit drug use. Results indicated that male students with an external attributional style engaged in a greater number of unsafe sexual behaviors (e.g., multiple partners) and higher amounts of alcohol and drug use than female students. Additionally, for both males and females, an internal attributional style was associated with greater drug use and a greater likelihood to engage in HIV-related risk behavior. Comprehensive sexual health and substance use education targeting college students should consider attributional style in relation to health promoting and protective behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights: [•] We used meta-analytic and scoping review techniques. [•] We targeted four domains of social cognition in anxiety disorders. [•] People with PTSD showed mentalizing and emotion recognition deficits. [•] Other anxiety disorders showed attributional biases. [•] We also identified several areas to further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research indicates that perceived parental control is a risk factor for anxiety in youth, but mechanisms underlying this connection remain under-examined. This study examined whether hopeless attributional style mediates this relationship, as well as whether this relationship is moderated by gender, in early adolescents (N = 116, ages 10-14). We assessed two hypotheses: (1) that hopeless attributional style would mediate the relationship between perceived maternal psychological control and anxiety symptoms across 1 year, and (2) that this pathway would be stronger for girls than for boys. This study used a three-wave, prospective longitudinal design. Hopelessness was a significant mediator; early adolescents who perceived high rates of maternal psychological control tended to develop a more hopeless attributional style, which in turn predicted increases in anxiety. This effect was not moderated by gender. We discuss implications for treating and preventing anxiety in youth, specifically the need for interventions to address children's hopeless attributions and perceptions of parents' behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between attributional style and destructive responses to job dissatisfaction among internal migrant workers in mainland China. Contrary to previous studies conducted in the West, we found that internality of bad events was negatively related to destructive responses to job dissatisfaction. Stability and globality were positively related to destructive responses to job dissatisfaction. We suggest that the concept of interdependent self-construal may explain the unique positive meaning of internality of bad events among Chinese migrant workers. The practical significance of the findings is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Accumulated evidence suggests that Social Cognition and Interaction Training (SCIT) is associated with improved performance in social cognition and social skills in patients diagnosed with psychotic disorders. The current study examined the clinical utility of SCIT in patients with schizophrenia in Chinese community settings. Adults with stable schizophrenia were recruited from local community health institutions, and were randomly assigned to SCIT group (n=22) or a waiting-list control group (n=17). The SCIT group received the SCIT intervention plus treatment-as-usual, whereas the waiting-list group received only treatment-as-usual during the period of the study. All patients were administered the Chinese versions of the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP), Face Emotion Identification Task (FEIT), Eyes task, and Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) at baseline of the SCIT treatment period and at follow-up, 6 months after completion of the 20-week treatment period. Patients in SCIT group showed a significant improvement in the domains of emotion perception, theory of mind, attributional style, and social functioning compared to those in waiting-list group. Findings indicate that SCIT is a feasible and promising method for improving social cognition and social functioning among Chinese outpatients with stable schizophrenia. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Background: Relatively little is known about psychological predictors of the onset of mania among individuals with bipolar disorder, particularly during episodes of depression. In the present study we investigated attributional style as a predictor of onset of hypomanic, manic or mixed episodes among bipolar adults receiving psychosocial treatment for depression. We hypothesized that “extreme” (i.e., excessively pessimistic or optimistic) attributions would predict a greater likelihood of developing an episode of mood elevation. Method: Outpatients with DSM-IV bipolar I or II disorder (N = 105) enrolled in the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD) were randomly allocated to one of three types of intensive psychotherapy for depression or a brief psychoeducational intervention. Patients completed a measure of attributional style at baseline and were followed prospectively for up to one year. All analyses were by intent to treat. Results: Logistic regressions and Cox proportional hazards models indicated that extreme (both positively- and negatively-valenced) attributions predicted a higher likelihood of (and shorter time until) transition from depression to a (hypo)manic or mixed episode (ps < .04), independent of the effects of manic or depressive symptom severity at baseline. Extreme attributions were also retrospectively associated with more lifetime episodes of (hypo)mania and depression (ps < .05). Conclusions: Evaluating extreme attributions may help clinicians to identify patients who are at risk for experiencing a more severe course of bipolar illness, and who may benefit from treatments that introduce greater cognitive flexibility. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]