ATTRIBUTIONAL STYLE AND SELF-ESTEEM - THE PREDICTION OF EMOTIONAL DISTRESS FOLLOWING A MIDTERM EXAM

A midterm design was used to determine whether students' attributional style for negative achievement events interacts with self-esteem and a lower-than-expected exam grade to predict changes in measures of spe cific and nonspecific depression and anxiety. Participants were 141 st udents who completed baseline measures of attributional style and self -esteem, as well as affective measures on several occasions before and after receipt of midterm grades. A pessimistic attributional style fo r negative events interacted with self-esteem and outcome to predict r esidual changes in a combined measure of nonspecific distress and anxi ous arousal (marginal trend) but not a combined measure of specific de pressive symptoms. Unexpectedly, the greatest residual increases in di stress occurred among low-self-esteem pessimists who experienced a non failure outcome. These effects did not appear to be mediated by change s in hopelessness.