Attributional Complexity, Depression, and Self-Esteem

among College Students

Syeda Ambreen FatimaAnila KamalAisha Zubair

National Institute of PsychologyQuaid-i-Azam University, Pakistan

Attributional Complexity• Attributions are causal statements formulated by individuals to

explain life events. • Causal judgments have been investigated in wide range of

contexts varying from person perception to self-perception, emotional reaction to success and failure (Brown, William, & Lees-Haley, 1994).

• Attributional theory specifies the cognitive, affective, and behavioral consequences of assigning particular causes of event (Weiner, 1986)

• Causal cognitions can be either simple or complex (Kelley, 1993).

• Simple causal structures exist when merely one cause produces only one effect

• Complex structures, either several causes or their interaction bring about one or several effects

Depression and Attributional Complexity• Rawlins and Heacock defined (1993) depression as “a

pathological mood disturbance characterized by a wide variety of feelings, attitudes, and beliefs, that a person has about self and world” (p. 133).

• Concurrent association between explanatory style and depression using demographically diverse samples and varied instruments (Goodwin & Guze, 1994).

• Interaction between explanatory style and negative life events (Barnhill & Myless, 2001).

• Pessimistic explanatory style may increase the risk of experiencing depressive deficits in response to bad events (Cutrona, 2003).

• Depressed and non-depressed individuals differ in their attributional style (Horter, 1993)

Self Esteem and Attributional Complexity• Self-esteem is a person’s global orientation towards the own

self (Brown, 1993) • People with high self esteem tends to use self serving

attributions (Schwartz, Kaslow, & Jennifer, 2000).• subjects high in self esteem used an ego-protective

attributional response and failure of an individual to use a self-protective attributional response may lead to lowered sense of self-esteem (Sterling, Yeisley-Hyness, Little, & Cater, 1991).

• Internal attributions for failure are posited to result in decreased self-esteem; unchanging attributions affect the perseverance of subsequent cognitive and motivational deficits (Peterson & Seligman, 2004)

Rationale• Studying attributional phenomena and its

correlates in Pakistan culture context is a bit difficult owing to within culture diversities

• Focused on the complex vs. simple dimension of attributional process

• Attributional process is strongly influenced by depression and self esteem

• Gender differences in attributional complexity

Hypotheses1. There will be an inverse relationship between

attributional complexity and self-esteem.

2. Attributional complexity will be positively associated with depression.

3. The higher the depression among college students, the lower will be their self-esteem.

4. Girls will reflect more attributional complexity, depression and low self esteem as compared to boys.

Method

Purposive sample of (N = 160) college students

Age range of 15 to 20 years (M = 17.56, SD =

1.38).

Different colleges of Lahore (n = 80), Rawalpindi

(n = 27), and Wah Cant (n = 53).

Boys (n = 80) and girls (n = 80)

Students of first year (Grade 11) to third year

(Grade 13) (science and humanities groups both).

MeasuresScale Title No. of

ItemsResponse Options Alpha

Attributional Complexity Scale (Fletcher, Danilovics, Fernandez, Peterson & Reeder,1986 translated Kausar, 2001)

28 items 7-point ratingSA (7) – SD (1)High score on subscales of complex explanation, internal explanation & past causes = more attributional complexity

.87

Self Esteem Scale (Rifai, 1999)

29 items 5-point ratingSA (5) – SD (1)High scores = high Self Esteem

.85

Siddiqui-Shah Depression Scale (Siddiqui, 1992)

36 items 5-point ratingAll the time (4) – Never (1)High scores = high Depression

.89

RESULTS

Self-Esteem

Attributional Complexity

Self Acceptance

Self Competence

Social & Physical

Acceptance

Academic Self

Competence

Total SES

Motivation .16* .16* .18* .18* .21*

Complex Explanation -.17* -.15* -.17* -.18* -.19*

Metacognition .19* .21* .20** .24** .26***

Internal Explanation -.15* -.17* -.20* -.17* -.29**

External Explanation .18* .19* .18* .20* .16*

Past Causes -.17* -.19* -.21* -.16* -.22*

Total AC -.16* -.07 -.24* -.17* -.35***

Table 1Correlation between Attributional Complexity and Self-Esteem (N = 160)

Attributional Complexity Depression

Motivation -.17*

Complex Explanation .22*

Meta-cognition -.19*

Internal Explanation .15*

External Explanation -.18*

Past Causes .22***

Total Attributional Complexity .25***

Table 2Correlations between Attributional Complexity and Depression (N = 160)

Self Esteem

Depression

Self-Acceptance -.32**

Self-Competence -.46**

Social and Physical Acceptance -.32**

Academic Self-Competence -.37**

Total Self Esteem -.58**

Table 3Correlation between Self-Esteem and Depression (N = 160)

Table 4Gender Differences on Attributional Complexity, Depression, and Self Esteem (N = 160)

Variables Boys(n = 80)

Girls(n = 80)

 

M SD M SD t pAttributional Complexity

127.50 12.16 132.50 10.56 3.36 .05

Self Esteem 108.31 9.33 102.23 10.41 4.26 .01

Depression 65.27 8.95 66.91 9.24 1.29 .40

Conclusion

• Attributional complexity has shown significant positive association with depression and negative correlation with self esteem

• Meta-cognition, motivation, and external explanation are positively associated with self-esteem and negatively related with depression

• Significant gender differences in attributional complexity and self esteem

Limitations and Suggestions

• Sample consisted of college students only; thereby inclusion of other segments of population would provide comparative perspective.

• Sample size may limit the generalizability of findings; hence inclusion of larger sample may enhance the generalizability of results.

• Inclusion of other demographic variables such as varying age groups, parental education, ethnic and sub cultural affiliations would enhance the diversity of the phenomena.

• Relation of attributional complexity with other related constructs like decision making styles, problem solving skills, and other higher order functions would offer in-depth insight in the construct.

Thank You !

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