What Is Attributional Style and How Does It Relate to Depression?

Attributional style describes the manner in which a person explains the cause of important life events.

Researchers and clinicians have identified various attributional styles that can explain how people understand and cope with life events, both positive and negative.

Though not always the case, depression is associated with a more pessimistic, or negative, attributional style. This means that a person with a pessimistic attributional style typically believes that negative events are generally:

1. Uncontrollable -- Nothing she does can affect an event's outcome
2. Global -- The results of the event apply to all aspects of life
3. Stable -- A negative event, or the effects of it, are permanent

For example, if a teen with a pessimistic attributional style receives a poor grade on a final exam, she may believe that she is not smart, not attractive, not liked by her peers, and will never graduate high school -- let alone get into the college that she has dreamed of. She believes that there is essentially nothing that she can do to improve her grades or life. She believes that she is a failure on many levels.

While a pessimistic attributional style has been noted in depressed patients of all ages, it is particularly common among depressed adolescents. It is also noted as a risk factor for the onset and recurrence of depression in children and adolescents, according to The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The association between depression and attributional style highlights how negative thinking can produce more negativity. It also confirms that treatment is especially important for depression in children and adolescents.

_Sources:

_{Boris Birmaher, MD, David Brent, MD, et al.Practice Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents With Depressive Disorders. The Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 46(11). November 2007. 1503-1526.}

_{Zinoviy Gutkovich, Richard F. Morrissey, Ricardo K. Espaillat, and Robert Dicker. Anhedonia and Pessimism in Hospitalized Depressed Adolescents. Depression Research and Treatment. 2011. 1-9.}