Attributional patterns in depression and euthymia.
The aim of this research was to examine broadly how experiences of success and failure are reflected in the self-evaluations of depressed and nondepressed individuals. In a study contrasting depressed with nondepressed students and in a second study contrasting depressed patients with schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects, attributions were obtained for positive and negative outcomes in a story rating task and in a behavioral task. The major findings were that across both tasks and both studies, euthymic subjects evidenced a marked bias to evaluate control, responsibility, and outcome intensity as greater for positive than for negative events. Depressed subjects failed to evidence or manifested to a lesser extent this type of cognitive distortion. Depressed patients did evidence, however, an inverse, "self-punitive" bias, primarily in attributing greater responsibility to themselves for negative than for positive outcomes.
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Sackeim
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Wegner
D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003071:Cognition; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012649:Self Concept; D012718:Set, Psychology