Attributional style and its relation to other personality dispositions

Background. People vary greatly with respect to the way they explain negati ve events (personal failures), and this variation in attributional style se ems to be related to various personality traits and also academic performan ce. For example, the theory of learned helplessness regards a pessimistic a ttributional style as an important determinant in the development of depres sion. Aim. The primary purpose of the present study was to compare attributions f ar positive and negative events with respect to correlations with seven per sonality dispositions. The comparisons concern the three attributional dime nsions internality, stability and globality, as well as their combination. The hypothesis was that attributions for positive events are differently co rrelated with the seven personality dispositions than are attributions for negative events. Sample. 166 advanced teacher students (132 females and 34 males). Method. On the basis of an inventory the students were given scores on the attributional variables (related to imagined positive and negative academic events), global and academic self-esteem, motive to seek success, motive t o avoid failure, self-efficacy, defensiveness, and depression. Results. The hypothesis was confirmed. Attributions for positive events cor related differently with the seven personality dispositions than attributio ns for negative events. Also, factor analysis of the attributional dimensio ns indicated that attributions for positive events measured quite different components than attributions for positive events. Conclusion. The general conclusion is that both event kinds should be consi dered when using attributional style for predicting or explaining personali ty and behavioural variables.