Coding causal beliefs in natural discourse

Abstract

Evidence converges from a wide range of contexts to suggest that the causal beliefs held by an individual, or predominant in a group of individuals, are of considerable practical significance and theoretical interest. A good system for analysing naturally occurring expressions of causal belief would provide the possibility of testing and exploring this supposition without having to rely on possibly artificial questionnaire responses. A rationale for such a system is described and a study of the reliability of the coding procedure is reported. It has proved possible to formulate definitions of the five major dimensions identified in the attribution literature so that, while they are not all orthogonal, each provides unique information. The coding system is shown to have adequate reliability, and to generate substantial quantities of data. The findings from these data are generally in accordance with those obtained using more traditional methodologies, and provide substantive information about the subject population. The method is proposed as an effective technique for empirical investigations of the forms, stability and significance of naturally expressed causal beliefs.

Attributions for Relatives' Behavior and Perceived Criticism: Studies With Community Participants and Patients With Anxiety Disorders

“…The Leeds Attributional Coding System (LACS; Stratton et al, 1986; Stratton, Munton, Hanks, Heard, & Davidson, 1988) was used to extract and code attributional statements made by patients during the problem discussion with their primary relative. An attributional statement is defined as a statement that expresses, explicitly or implicitly, a causal belief about an event .…”

Families» Accounts of the Causal Processes in Food Choice

“…These attributional dimensions are derived from the attributional literature but are designed to eliminate the ambiguities present in other definitions (Stratton et al, 1986;Stratton, 1997). The dimensions are interpreted in relation to the person(s), object(s) or event(s) present in the causes and outcome of the attribution.…”

Child Development and Marital Relations

“…The most extensively documented coding system is the Leeds Attribution Coding System (LACS; Stratton, Munton, Hanks, Heard, & Davidson, 1988) that has been used in a variety of familial and nonfamilial contexts (e.g., Silvester, Bentovim, Stratton, & Hanks, 1995;Stratton et al, 1986). Another example of such measures in the marital literature is provided by Holtzworth-Munroe and Jacobson (1985,1988), and Bradbury and Fincham (1988) discuss methodological and conceptual issues involved in coding spontaneous attributions.…”

“…The similarity of findings across measures of specific cognitive variables (e.g., Fincham & Beach, 1988;Sabourin, Lussier, & Wright, 1991), and documentation of the association using observer-coded attributions obtained from marital conversations (e.g., Holtzworth-Munroe & Jacobson, 1988; Stratton et al, 1986)' speak to the possibility that the association simply reflects method variance. Similarly, several theoretically relevant third variables do not account for the attribution-marital quality association, including clinically diagnosed depression (Fincham, Beach, & Bradbury, 1989), negative affectivity (e.g., Karney, Bradbury, Fincham, & Sullivan, 1994), marital violence (Fincham, Bradbury, Arias, Byrne, & Karney, 1997), and demographic variables, depressive symptoms, and anger (Senchak & Leonard, 1993).…”