Association of Attributional Style for Negative and Positive Events and the Occurrence of Life Events with Depression and Anxiety

This study examined the relationship of attributional styles for negative and positive events with depression and anxiety. A sample of 239 college students underwent structured diagnostic interviews and completed self–report measures of attributional style and major life events at two time points separated by approximately four weeks. Using cross–sectional methodology, attributional styles for negative and positive events were compared across current diagnoses of unipolar depression and/or anxiety. A current mood disorder, when comorbid with an anxiety disorder, was associated with a tendency to see negative events as arising from internal, stable, and global causes. A depression diagnosis was distinguished from no depression diagnosis by the tendency to assign external, unstable, and specific causes for positive events. Using a prospective design, Time 1 attributional styles for negative and positive events were assessed as moderators of the relationships between negative and positive life events and levels of subsequent depression symptoms. The tendency to see negative events arising from internal, stable, and global causes and positive events arising from external, unstable, and specific causes, was associated with higher levels of clinician-assessed depression symptoms, particularly when confronted with negative life events or the absence of positive events. Findings indicate that attributional style for positive events contributes to our understanding of cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders.