Background We examined whether staff attributions, emotions and helping behaviours in reaction to 'real' incidents of challenging behaviour (CB) exhibited by children with intellectual disabilities were different from reactions to 'vignettes'. We also examined whether these reactions are congruent with that predicted by attribution theory. Methods Using a repeated measures design, 60 staff working with children who have severe intellectual disabilities completed measures of cognition, emotion and helping behaviour in reaction to a 'real' incident of CB, and then completed the same measures in reaction to reading a 'vignette', that was matched to the 'real' incident of CB. There was a 2-week interval between the completion of measures in response to the 'real' incident of CB and the 'vignette'.Results Correlational support was found for Weiner's (1980) cognitive-emotional-action model of helping behaviour for measures completed in reaction to the 'real' incident of CB, regarding attributions of control only, but not for the 'vignette'. There were significant differences between the correlations detected using 'real' incidents of CB in comparison to 'vignettes'. Little evidence was found using both methods to support Weiner's (1979) model of achievement motivation. Conclusions The results suggest that the relationships between constructs investigated using 'vignettes' is different from that detected when using 'real' incidents of CB, which has implications for psychological research that has used 'vignettes'.