AFFECTIVE RESPONSES TO EXTERNALLY AND PERSONALLY CONTROLLABLE ATTRIBUTIONS

The purpose of this study was to examine the relations between the ext ernal control and personal control dimensions of the revised Causal Di mension Scale (CDSII; McAuley, Duncan, & Russell, 1992) and affective responses to a negative event. Employing a scenario methodology, subje cts (N = 100) were asked to make attributions for and record intensity of affective responses to a negative event that was personally uncont rollable and externally controllable. We hypothesized that externally controllable attributions should be implicated in the generation of af fective responses such as anger, whereas self-related (i.e., personall y controllable) attributions would be more strongly related to guilt-r elated affects. Correlational and hierarchical multiple-regression ana lyses supported the hypotheses. Moreover, the correlation between the external control and personal control dimensions was only moderate (r = .44). This contrasts with other studies that have shown these dimens ions to be very highly related and distinct, perhaps only at the conce ptual level. The results are discussed with respect to the role played by both control dimensions in the generation of affective responses a nd the clear distinction between the two dimensions in situations that truly are externally controlled.