Current Issues in Attribution Theory and Research

Harvey, John H.; Weary, Gifford

doi:10.1146/annurev.ps.35.020184.002235

Cited by 255 publications

(93 citation statements)

References 118 publications

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“…In particular, self-attributions are critically involved in self-esteem regulation: To maintain self-esteem, individuals take credit for success and externalize blame for failure (Greenwald, 1980;Harvey & Weary, 1984). Thus, self-attributions influence and are influenced by self-evaluative processes and consequently play a central role in the generation of self-conscious emotions.…”

Section: Internality Attributions: Did the Event Occur Because Of Sommentioning

confidence: 99%

TARGET ARTICLE: "Putting the Self Into Self-Conscious Emotions: A Theoretical Model"

Tracy¹,

Robins²

2004

Psychological Inquiry

1,143

1,201

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Self -conscious emotions (e.g., shame, pride) are fundamentally important to a wide range of psychological processes, yet they have received relatively little attention compared to other, more "basic" emotions (e.g., sadness, joy) . This article outlines the unique features that distinguish self-conscious from basic emotions and then explains why generally accepted models of basic emotions do not adequately capture the self-conscious emotion process. The authors present a new model of self-conscious emotions, specify a set of predictions derived from the model, and apply the model to narcissistic self-esteem regulation. Finally, the authors discuss the model's broader implications for future research on self and emotion.Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman, experiences such profound shame from failing to achieve the American dream that he commits suicide by the final act of the play. In William Shakespeare's Macbeth, Lady Macbeth is so overwhelmed by guilt after murdering her king, she hallucinates spots of blood on her hands and takes her own life. Oedipus, the tragic hero of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex, is plunged into epic shame when he realizes that he killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus refrains from suicide but stabs out his eyes so he will never have to look himself, or others, in the face again. And in Ovid's Metamorphoses, the infamous Narcissus is so consumed by pride that he chooses eternal self-reflection over the possibility of a meaningful romantic relationship.As these four stories illustrate, self-conscious emotions, such as shame, guilt, and pride, play a central role in motivating and regulating people's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (Campos, 1995;. Self-conscious emotions drive people to work hard in achievement and task domains (Stipek, 1995;Weiner, 1985), and to behave in moral, socially appropriate ways in their social interactions and intimate relationships (Baumeister, Stillwell, & Heatherton, 1994;Leith & Baumeister, 1998;Retzinger, 1987). Most people spend a great deal of time avoiding social approbation, a strong elicitor of shame and embarrassment. We worry about losing social status in the eyes of others and, as Goffman (1955) noted, our every social act is influenced by even the slight chance of public shame or loss of face. In fact, according to the Cooley-Scheff Conjecture, we are "virtually always in a state of either pride or shame" (Scheff, 1988, p. 399).Researchers have linked self-conscious emotions to a wide variety of outcomes. Guilt, for example, has been found to be centrally involved in reparative and prosocial behaviors such as empathy, altruism, and caregiving (e.g., Batson, 1987;Baumeister et al., 1994;Tangney & Dearing, 2002). Shame has been shown to mediate the negative emotional and physical health consequences of social stigma; victims of physical abuse (Feiring, Taska, & Lewis, 2002) and HIV-positive men (Kemeny, 2002) suffer poorer emotional and physical health if they feel ashamed of their stigma. Shame is also assoc...

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Section: Internality Attributions: Did the Event Occur Because Of Sommentioning

confidence: 99%

TARGET ARTICLE: "Putting the Self Into Self-Conscious Emotions: A Theoretical Model"

Tracy¹,

Robins²

2004

Psychological Inquiry

1,143

1,201

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“…Psychologists have frequently argued that causal beliefs affect behavior (see reviews by Harvey & Weary, 1984;Heider, 1958;Kelley, 1973;Kelley & Michela, 1980;Kelly, 1955). One approach taken by researchers studying causal explanations is to ask if individuals differ in their habitual style of explaining the events that befall them (e.g., Ickes & Layden, 1978;Peterson & Seligman, 1984).…”

Section: Explanatory S T Y L Ementioning

confidence: 99%

Pessimistic explanatory style in the historical record: CAVing LBJ, presidential candidates, and East versus West Berlin.

Zullow

Oettingen²,

Peterson

et al. 1988

American Psychologist

111

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Can pessimism and its consequences be measured across historical periods and cultures? One tool for measuring pessimism is the habitual way people explain the events that befall them, their "explanatory style" as found in archival documents. One way to measure the consequences of pessimism is to observe the symptoms of learned helplessness--passivity, poor achievement, and depressive signs--as they are found in the historical record. With these tools we can try both to test theories of explanatory style and to predict real-world behavior over historical periods and across cultures. In this article, we first present the theoretical background and describe our tools. In doing so, we detail a new method, the content analysis of verbatim explanations (CAVE), which allows blind, reliable ratings of archival material for explanatory style. Then we present three brief examples: President Johnson and the Vietnam War, prediction of who will win modern presidential elections, and pessimism in East and West Berlin. Our story begins with explanatory style and its relation to learned helplessness. Explanatory S t y l ePsychologists have frequently argued that causal beliefs affect behavior (see reviews by Harvey & Weary, 1984;Heider, 1958;Kelley, 1973;Kelley & Michela, 1980;Kelly, 1955). One approach taken by researchers studying causal explanations is to ask if individuals differ in their habitual style of explaining the events that befall them (e.g., Ickes & Layden, 1978;Peterson & Seligman, 1984). If so, then explanatory style becomes an individual difference of consequence. All the behaviors and outcomes affected by particular explanations may be influenced by explanatory style, which helps to determine the actual causal explanations offered in particular situations.The reformulation of the learned helplessness model accords central status to causal explanations and explanatory style (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978; see also Miller &Norman, 1979, andRoth, 1980). The reformulated model proposes that causal beliefs affect the nature of helplessness following bad events (Abramson et al., 1978). As such, they predict a potent psychological state, one that may underlie failure (Dweck & Reppucci, 1973;Peterson & Barrett, 1987), depression , illness and disease (Peterson, Seligman, & Vaillant, 1988;Schmale, 1972), and even death (Jemmott & Locke, 1984).According to the reformulation, one critical factor that contributes to where and when the symptoms of helplessness will occur is the particular causal explanation made by the individual for bad events. When failure occurs, a person asks why it happened. Certain answers to this question lead to pervasive helplessness, whereas others do not. Three dimensions of causal explanation are claimed relevant. First, causal explanations may refer to factors that are stable across time or unstable. The more enduring the cause, the more long-lasting the helplessness following bad events. Second, causal explanations may refer to global factors present in a variety of domains or to spec...

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“…It is very improbable for anyone to discuss interpersonal relationships without knowing about attribution studies (Weiner, 2015). In explaining the behavior of others and their own behavior, people are said to spontaneously attribute the causes of what they see around to internal or external factors involved (Harvey & Weary, 1984;Heider, 1958).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introducing Emotioncy as an Invisible Force Controlling Causal Decisions: A Case of Attribution Theory

Pishghadam¹,

Abbasnejad²

2017

Polish Psychological Bulletin

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Current Issues in Attribution Theory and Research

Cited by 255 publications

References 118 publications

TARGET ARTICLE: "Putting the Self Into Self-Conscious Emotions: A Theoretical Model"

TARGET ARTICLE: "Putting the Self Into Self-Conscious Emotions: A Theoretical Model"

Pessimistic explanatory style in the historical record: CAVing LBJ, presidential candidates, and East versus West Berlin.

Introducing Emotioncy as an Invisible Force Controlling Causal Decisions: A Case of Attribution Theory

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