Attributional Style
Hi,
This week’s email is about common ways in which people interpret events in their lives.
Here are the key practical points you should know (mainly from my related article about learned helplessness):
Our attributional style represents the way we interpret and explain events we experience.
An internal style means viewing yourself as the main cause of events, while an external style means viewing other things (like circumstances) as the main causes of events.
A global style means viewing events as affecting a wide range of domains, while a specific style means viewing events as affecting only a narrow domain.
A stable style means viewing events as having long-lasting effects, while an unstable style means viewing events as having only short-term effects.
Having a pessimistic outlook means that you generally view negative events as internal, global, and stable, while having an optimistic outlook means that you generally view negative events as external, specific, and unstable (and vice versa for positive events).
Understanding this can help you understand your own attributional style, so you can better ground it in reality as needed. If you tend toward pessimism, this might mean making sure you don’t blame yourself for things that weren’t your fault. If you tend toward optimism, on the other hand, this could mean making sure that you recognize cases where bad outcomes occurred because of mistakes you made, so you can learn how to avoid making them again.
As always, I’m happy to hear your thoughts.
Have a great week,
Itamar