The literature on self-blame and depression reveals two interrelated problems. First, although R. Janoff-Bulman's (1979) conceptualizations of self-blame are clear, empirical operationalization is difficult and has resulted in approaches that do not capture the richness of the constructs. Second, past research has produced inconsistent findings. A comprehensive literature review revealed that the inconsistencies are related to the method of assessing attributions. A correlational study designed to more accurately represent the self-blame conceptualization revealed that both behavioral and characterological self-blame contribute uniquely to depression and loneliness. Supplementary results regarding circumstantial attributions and regarding attributional styles for success were presented. Empirical issues regarding possible methodological refinements and effect size, as well as the value of categorical approaches to the study of attributional style were discussed.
The present study addressed aspects of Scheibe's (1979) description of the psychologist's modes of knowing another, specifically sagacity and acumen, as they applied to a videotaped clinical judgment task. The judgment task was patterned after classic research on the word-association lie-detection paradigm. Measures of empathy, understanding of defense mechanisms, and game strategy served as marker variables for the construct of acumen, whereas a task requiring alertness and attention served this purpose for the construct of sagacity. Sagacity also was inferred from correlations between performance on the judgment task and self-rated use of the most critical cue provided in the task. The judgment task was administered following an induction to create an empathic or a detached set. Success at the task correlated significantly in a positive direction with the measure of attention and with subjects' ratings of their use of word associations (but not other clues). Empathy and game strategy tended to relate inversely or nonsignificantly with the judgment task, and the two inductions produced virtually identical levels of performance on the task. The results are taken as evidence that the judgment task involves the mode of sagacity but not that of acumen.
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