Critically consider the importance of attributions in the development of depression.

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Gemma Fordham 291498

Critically consider the importance of attributions in the development of depression.

Everyday, people encounter events and situations that require an explanation. The attempt to attribute what factors gave rise to what outcome is central to explaining events, and to social cognition in general, and the extreme variation in the way people make attributions subsequently results in there being extreme differences within the individual. Depression is a state that could be caused by the way in which attributions are made by an individual and how explanations are made concerning life events and circumstances.

Seligman (1974) encompassed attributions and their relationship with depression within his theory of learned helplessness. He demonstrated this theory and how it relates to depression by trapping dogs in a cage where there was no escape from receiving unpleasant electric shocks and then placing them in a situation where they could escape if they wanted to. He found that due to the prior learning experience that outcomes are not contingent upon your own action, the dogs did not try and escape. He related these cognitive and motivational deficits to the relative lack of motivation and cognitive processes sometimes considered to be symptoms