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The Attributional Style Questionnaire

Article in Cognitive Therapy and Research · January 1982

DOI: 10.1037/t04243-000

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Cognitive Therapy and Research, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1982,pp. 287-300

The Attributional Style Questionnaire1

Christopher Peterson and Amy Semmel
University of Pennsylvania
Carl yon Baeyer
University of Saskatchewan
Lyn Y. Abramson and Gerald I. Metalsky
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Martin E. P. Seligman 2
University of Pennsylvania

O f current interest are the causal attributions offered by depressives f o r the

good and bad events in their lives. One important attributional account o f
depression is the reformulated learned helplessness model, which proposes
that depressive symptoms are associated with an attributional style in which
uncontrollable bad events are attributed to internal (versus external),
stable (versus unstable), and global (versus specific) causes. We describe
the A ttributional Style Questionnaire, which measures individual
differences in the use o f these attributional dimensions. We report means,
reliabilities, intercorrelations, and test-retest stabilities f o r a sample o f 130
undergraduates. Evidence f o r the questionnaire's validity is discussed. The
Attributional Style Questionnaire promises to be a reliable and valid
instrument.

'This work was supported by PHS grant MH-19604 to M. Seligman, NSF grant BNS76-
22943 to the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and Social Sciences
and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant 463-80-0003 to C. von Baeyer. C.
Peterson is now at Virgina Polytechnic Institute and State University. A Semmel is at the
University of Texas, and L. Abramson and G. Metalsky are at the University of
Wisconsin.
2Address all correspondence to M. E. P. Seligman, Psychology Department, University of
Pennsylvania, 3813-15 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.

287
0147-5916/82/0900-0287503.00/0 © 1982 Plenum Publishing Corporation
 288 Peterson, Semmel, von Baeyer, Abramson, Metaisky, and Seligman

Depression has recently been conceptualized as a cognitive disorder (Beck,

1967, 1976); in particular, a number of theorists have further suggested
that depressive symptoms might be profitably understood by taking into
account the causal attributions offered by depressives for the good and bad
events in their lives (e.g., Abramson & Sackeim, 1977; Abramson,
Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978; Golin, Sweeney, & Shaeffer, 1981; Gong-Guy
& Hammen, 1980; Harvey, 1981; Ickes & Leyden, 1978; Janoff-Bulman,
1979; Klein, Fencil-Morse, & Seligman, 1976; Kuiper, 1978; Miller &
Norman, 1981; Peterson, 1979; Peterson, Schwartz, & Seligman, 1981;
Rizley, 1978; Seligman, Abramson, Semmel, &von Baeyer, 1979; Wortman
& Dintzer, 1978). All of these attributional theories of depression propose
that depressives and nondepressives differ in their causal judgments and
that these differences are closely linked to the presence and extent of
depressive symptomatology. Some theories hypothesize that a particular
style of making attributions is a demonstrable risk factor for subsequent
depression (e.g., Golin et al., 1981).
One of the most important attributional accounts of depression is the
reformulated learned helplessness model (Abramson et al., 1978).
According to this model, depression is the result of experience with
uncontrollable aversive events. However, the nature of the depression
following uncontrollable events is governed by the causal attributions the
individual makes for them. If they are seen as caused by something about
the person (internal attributions), as opposed to something about the
situation (external attributions), then the resulting depression is
hypothesized to involve loss of self-esteem. If the uncontrollable events are
attributed to nontransient factors (stable attributions), in contrast to
transient ones (unstable attributions), then the depressive symptoms are
expected to be long-lasting. Finally, if the uncontrollable events are
attributed to causes present in a variety of situations (global attributions),
as opposed to more circumscribed causes (specific attributions), then the
ensuing depression is proposed to be pervasive.
Thus, the reformulated learned helplessness model holds that
attributing uncontrollable bad events to internal, stable, and global factors
leads to depression. To the extent that individuals show characteristic
attributional tendencies, it is appropriate to speak of an attributional style.
The present paper describes a measure of attributional styles. This
instrument yields scores for individual differences in the tendencies to
attribute the causes of bad and good events to internal (versus external),
stable (versus unstable), and global (versus specific) factors. We describe
this Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), its instructions, items, and
scoring, and present such data as item and scale means and standard
deviations, scale intercorrelations and reliabilities, and test-retest stabilities.
Attributional Style Questionnaire 289

Some suggestions for the questionnaire's use are also made. Finally, we
present validity evidence for the ASQ.

METHOD

Development of the Questionnaire

Several considerations led to the format employed. We wanted

questions that would measure the degree to which subjects used the
attributional dimensions of internality, stability, and globality as defined
by Abramson et al. (1978). However, it seemed a poor idea to provide the
subjects with possible causes, e.g., ability, effort, luck, task difficulty, and
so on, that we believed to correspond to the dimensions of concern, since
such an operationalization has in the past proven to be problematical. First,
there is no guarantee that an attribution regarded by an attribution theorist
as, for example, unstable is so regarded by all subjects; some may believe
that low effort is a stable characteristic of the individual, while others may
perceive it as unstable. Second, Abramson et al. (1978) argued that ability,
effort, luck, and task difficulty are theoretically orthogonal to the global-
specific distinction. Falbo and Beck (1979) have shown that causal
attributions assumed by Weiner (1974) and other attribution theorists to
operationalize internal-external and stable-unstable neither occur
preponderantly in the free responses of subjects nor cluster as expected?
On the other hand, Ross's (1977) observation that the coding of causal
attributions into abstract categories depends more on the (theoretically
irrelevant) grammatical form of the attribution than on its actual meaning
argues against the use of completely open-ended questions. Elig and Frieze
(1979) reported that open-ended attributional measures are not as reliable as
fixed-format procedures. Thus, a reasonable compromise, which we
employed, was to ask subjects to generate a cause themselves for each of
a number of events and then to rate the cause along 7-point scales
corresponding to the internality, stability, and globality dimensions. The
format does not constrain or create the causal attributions made by the

3Weiner (1980) recently argued that specific attributions and their dimensional representa-
tions have distinguishable (although related) effects on subsequent affect and behavior.
Because the concern here is with attributional style, only the dimensional ratings are of
interest. However, Weiner's (1980) argument is well taken, and the possibility that the
specific attributions offered by depressives clarify their symptomatology in ways above and
beyond thai provided by consideration of the internality, stability, and globality ratings is
likely (cf. Peterson et al., 1981).
290 Peterson, Semmel, von Baeyer, Abramson, Metaisky, and Seligman

subject but at the same time allows simple and objective quantification o f
responses.

Administration

The questionnaire is group-administered, with the following directions

appearing on the first page of the test booklet:

Please try to vividly imagine yourself in the situations that follow. If such a situation
happened to you, what would you feel would have caused it? While events m a y
have m a n y causes, we want you to pick only o n e - t h e major cause if this event
happened to you. Please write this cause in the blank provided after each event.
Next we want you to answer some questions about the cause and a final question
about the situation. To summarize, we want you to:
1. Read each situation and vividly imagine it happening to you.
2. Decide what you feel would be the major cause of the situation if it happened
to you.
3. Write one cause in the blank provided.
4. Answer three questions about the cause.
5. Answer one question about the situation.
6. Go on to the next situation.

Following these instructions are 12 different hypothetical events. Half

are good events, while half are bad events? Additionally, half the events
are interpersonal/affiliative, while the other half are achievement-related.
This latter distinction was made to build cross-situational generality into
the measure of this "style," as well as to allow for the possibility that
attributional style for affiliative events is different from attributional style
for achievement events.
A preliminary version of the scale was pilot-tested in a sample of 145
introductory psychology students at the University of Pennsylvania.
Item analysis revealed that 3 of the 12 events produced low variance in
ratings and low item-total correlations, due to a tendency of most subjects
to rate these items near the middle of each scale. These three event

4These designations were confirmed by asking a sample of undergraduates at the University

of Pennsylvania to rate the events along several semantic differential scales tapping
evaluation. The "good" events were clearly perceived as more desirable than the "bad"
events. Although depressive s y m p t o m s as assessed with the Beck Depression Inventory
(Beck, 1967) influenced these ratings, the distinction between "good" and "bad" events
was consistently maintained regardless of the extent o f symptomatology.
5Judges were able to distinguish the affilitative events from the achievement events, but it
is acknowledged t h a t there is not always a precise demarcation between such classes of
events, or at least between those used here. Thus, the failure of our subjects to respond
differentially to affiliative and achievement items (see below) is not surprising. For a
discussion of domain-specific attributional measures, see Lefcourt (1979).
Attributional Style Questionnaire 291

Table I. Hypothetical Events of the Attributionat Style Questionnaire

Outcome Goal area Events a
Good Achievement (3) You become very rich.
(10) You apply for a position that you
want very badly (e.g., important job,
graduate school admission) and you
get it.
(12) You get a raise.
Good Affiliation (1) You meet a friend who compliments
you on your appearance.
(6) You do a project that is highly
praised.
(9) Your spouse (boyfriend/girl friend)
has been treating you more lovingly.
Bad Achievement (2) You have been looking for a job un-
successfully for some time.
(5) You give an important talk in front
of a group and the audience reacts
negatively.
(8) You can't get all the work done that
others expect of you.
Bad Affiliation (4) A friend comes to you with a
problem and you don't try to help.
(7) You meet a friend who acts hostilely
toward you.
(11) You go out on a date and it goes
badly.
~Numbers in parentheses refer to the order o f the events in the actual
questionnaire.

descriptions were rewritten to produce the version of the scale that is

reported h e r e ? The twelve event descriptions are shown in Table I, along
with their designations as good or bad and affiliation or achievement.
Following each event are parallel questions. First, the subject is asked
to "write down the o n e major cause" of the event. Then the subject is asked
to rate the c a u s e along the three attributional dimensions. Also, the subject
is asked to rate the importance of the situation described.7 The wording of

6The version of the questionnaire appearing in this paper is available on request from
M. E. P. Seligman, University of Pennsylvania, 3813-15 Walnut Street, Psychology Depart-
ment, Philadelphia, P A 19104.
7The importance ratings were included in light of the possibility that the proposed
relationship of attributional style and depression would occur only for important events,
or more strongly for important events than for unimportant events. However, analyses of
the present data revealed that the importance variable did not consistently mediate the
attribution-depression correlation (cf. Gong-Guy & Hammen, 1980).
 292 Peterson, Semmel, yon Baeyer, Abramson, Metalsky, and Seligman

the v a r i o u s questions reflects the specific event to be explained, b u t the

following example illustrates the n a t u r e o f these questions:

You have been looking for a job unsuccessfully for some time.
1. Write down the one major cause
2. Is the cause of your unsuccessful job search due to something about you or
to something about other people or circumstances? (circle one number)
Totally due to
other people Totally due
or circumstances 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 to me
3. In the future when looking for a job, will this cause again be present? (circle one
number)
Will never again Will always
be present 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 be present
4. Is the cause something that just influences looking for a job or does it also in-
fluenceother areas of your life? (circleone number)
Influencesjust Influences
this particular all situations
situation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 in my life
5. How important would this situation be if it happened to you? (circle one number)
Not at all Extremely
important 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 important

Scoring

The three attributional dimension rating scales associated with each event
description are scored in the directions of increasing internality, stability, and
globality. Composite scores are created simply by s u m m i n g the appropriate
items a n d dividing the s u m b y the n u m b e r of items in the composite. 8
The construction of the scale allows for the derivation of 20 different
subscales based on different composites of items. At the finest level of analysis,
one can derive 12 subscales based on three items each (e.g., rated stability of the
attributions for the three good-outcome achievement-related events).
Collapsing across the achievement-affiliation distinction, one can obtain six
subscales based on six items each (e.g., rated stability of the attributions for the
six good-outcome events). Finally, one can combine the internality, stability,
and globality scales into two composite attributional style scores, one for good
and one for bad events, based on 18 items each.

8This scoring procedure has the effect of according each item equal status, since (as
will be seen) they tended to have comparable means and standard deviations. However,
other researchers are cautioned against summing items when they are greatly discrepant with
regard to means and/or standard deviations, since this unweighted procedure would
give some items more weight than others in the composite. In the case of such discrepancies,
it is recommended that the items be normalized (i.e., subtract the item mean for the
sample from the item score and divide by the item standard deviation for the sample),
Attributional Style Questionnaire 293

Subjects

The questionnaire was completed during class by 130 undergraduates (50

males, 80 females) enrolled in an abnormal psychology course at the State
University of New York at Stony Brook. Five weeks later, the questionnaire
was again completed by 100 of these students.

RESULTS

Sex Differences. When the analyses reported below were computed

separately for males and females, no differences were found. Thus, the data
were pooled across this distinction.
Means and Standard Deviations. Table II presents the item and scale
means and standard deviations. As can be seen, these values were more
comparable within the bad items and within the good items than they were
between bad and good items. Good events tended to be explained more
internally, stably, and globally than bad events (p's < .0001), hardly a
surprising finding (cf. Weiner, 1974), at least in a mostly nondepressed
population.

Table II. Item and Scale Means and Standard Deviations: Under-
graduate Sample (N = 130)
Item means (standard deviations)
Event (see Table I) Internality Stability Globatity
Rich 4.30(2.04) 4.62(1.89) 5.15(1.84)
Position 5.67(1.26) 5.71 (.99) 5.40(1.25)
Raise 5.93(1.06) 5.49(1.08) 5.43(1.37)
Compliment 5.39(1.33) 5.05(1.07) 4.76(1.59)
Praise 5.31(1.59) 5.78 (.93) 5.03(1.51)
Loving 4.94(1.39) 5.49(1.01) 4.89(1.68)
Dimensions for 5.26 (.79) 5.36 (.68) 5.11 (.80)
good events
Composite style for 5.25 (.62)
good events
Unsuccessful 4.31(1.71) 4.27(1.41) 3.31(1.91)
Negative talk 4.57(1.64) 4.11 (1.24) 3.86(1.69)
Can't finish work 4.57(1.63) 4.67(1.16) 4.49(1.47)
Friend's problem 4.41(1.88) 3.51(1.37) 3.98(1.90)
Hostility 3.80(1.63) 3.87(1.19) 3.53(1.72)
Bad date 4.06(1.13) 4.39(1.10) 4.05(1.59)
Dimensions for 4.29 (.84) 4.14 (.71) 3.87(1.07)
bad events
Composite style for 4.12 (.64)
bad events
294 Peterson, Semmel, von Baeyer, Abramson, Metalsky, and Seligman

Table III. Dimension Reliabilities and Intercorrelations (N = 130)

Dimension 1 2 3 4 5 6
Good
1. Internality (.50) b
2. Stability .62 a (.58)
3. Globality .38 a .59 a (.44)
Bad
4. Internality .11 .01 - .03 (.46)
5. Stability -.17 -.07 .03 .18" (.59)
6. Globality -.15 .04 .24 a .28" .45 ~ (.69)
~p < .05.
~Figures in parentheses are reliabilities estimated by Cronbach's (1951)
coefficient alpha.

Internal Consistency. The internal reliability of each subscale was

estimated using Cronbach's (1951) coefficient alpha. Respectable alpha
coefficients of .75 and .72 were obtained for the composite attributional style
scales for good events and bad events, respectively. These scales were based on
18 ratings each.
The six-item subscales reflecting separate attributional dimensions
achieved a mean reliability of .54 (range from .44 to .69); the exact coefficients
are reported in Table III. At the finest level of analysis, three-item subscales
were derived. These subscales did not attain sufficient reliability to make them
useful in future'research (mean alpha = .38; range .21 to .53).
Consistency Across Goal Areas (achievement-affiliation). Ratings of
internality, stability, and gtobality for achievement events were significantly
correlated with the respective ratings for affiliation events (separately for good
and bad outcomes). These correlations had a mean of .37 and a range from
.23 to .59 (all p's < .05). The corr.elations match or exceed the reliabilities
of the respective subscales. Thus, there is no evidence for the discriminability
of achievement from affiliative goal areas. While this failure to distinguish
achievement from affiliation items may be a fault of the scale, it may well
reflect an actual failure of discrimination by the subjects. Particularly in an
American college sample, affiliation may be viewed in economic and achieve-
ment terms, and attributions about affiliation may overlap greatly with
attributions about achievement.
We counsel the researcher not to bother making a distinction between
these items unless there is a specific interest in comparing correlations of
achievement and affiliation subscales to external criteria that distinctly pertain
to each of these goal areas. If only one type of external criterion is used,
prediction from the ASQ is likely to be improved by using the composites
collapsed across goal areas rather than the separate subscales.
Attributional Style Questionnaire 295

Consistency Across Outcomes (good-bad). We have found that

composite attributional style scores based on all of the items for bad events and
on all of the items for good events are more strongly related to depression than
are the individual attributional dimensions (Seligman et al., 1979). Moreover,
these attributional style composites are unrelated to each other, with a correla-
tion of .02 in the present sample. Separate correlations for each attributional
dimension appear in Table III. The lack of correlation between corresponding
ratings for good and bad events underscores the importance of dividing the
data along these lines. High internality for good events does not necessarily
imply high internality for bad events, and conceptions that confound the
two (e.g., Rotter, 1966) are not maximizing the power of the concept.
Intercorrelations of Dimensions (internal-stable-global). In Table III,
the intercorrelations of the individual attributional dimensions are
presented, together with their reliabilities, means, and standard deviations.
For the good events, the individual attributional dimensions were intercor-
related at a level near that of their reliabilities, suggesting that the present
questionnaire did not succeed in distinguishing them. The distinctiveness
of the three dimensions was more adequate for the bad events.
Why is there less discrimination among internality, stability, and
globality for good events? Perhaps people make fewer distinctions among
good events since they may not spend as much time ruminating over them as
they do over bad events, and may attend more to the causes of bad
events (cf. Langer, 1978; Peirce, 1955, pp. 9-12; Ryle, 1949).
If a researcher expects differential relationships between these
dimensions and some other variable, as, for example, the helplessness
reformulation does in according the internality dimension the role of
determining self-esteem, or stability for bad events the role of determining
time course of helplessness effects, then the dimensions should be separately
employed. Otherwise, though, the researcher should use the composite

Table IV. Test-Retest Correlations (N = 100)

r

Attributional dimension for good events

Internality .58"
Stability .65 ~
Globality .59"
Composite .70 a
Attributional dimension for bad events
Internality .64"
Stability .69 a
Globality .57 ~
Composite .64 a
°19 < .001.
296 Peterson, Semmei, von Baeyer, Abramson, Metaisky, and Seligman

scores, particularly for good events. The use of fewer subscales possessing
higher reliability will also facilitate data analysis.
Stability. Table IV summarizes the 5-week test-retest correlations
of the attributional dimensions and the composites. These are respectably
high, as we had hoped since the scores are hypothesized to represent a
"style." It is worth observing that not all measures of putative cognitive
"styles" prove to be so reliable, either internally or across time (cf.
Goldstein & Blackman, 1978; Streufert & Streufert, 1978), so this finding
should be underscored. 9

DISCUSSION

The present paper has reviewed some of the psychometric properties

of the Attributional Style Questionnaire. Compared to other scales in their
initial stages of development, this questionnaire seems satisfactory in terms
of the internal consistency and stability of its composites. The discrimina-
tion between the individual dimensions was not particularly precise,
especially for good events. We have speculated that this may reflect the
rough-grained nature of actual attributions about good events.
We are now engaged in alternative means of assessing attributional
style, so that the method variance associated with such assessments can
be estimated. In addition to this multimethod approach, we are at-
tempting to assess the degree to which attributional style is actually a
style. Work in personality research and attitude measurement implies that
some people have consistent styles, while other people are inconsistent.
We are also exploring the relationship of this scale to other conceptually
related scales.
In closing, we wish to discuss briefly some data bearing on the
validity of the ASQ. A number of lines of evidence, described by Peterson
and Seligman (Note 1), show that the ASQ yields scores that are related
as expected to a variety of other variables.
1. As predicted by the learned helplessness reformulation, a style in
which internal, stable, and global attributions are offered for bad events
is associated with depressive symptoms in college students, adults, out-
patients, and inpatients; to a lesser degree, the opposite style for attributing
good events is also associated with depression (Seligman et al., 1979).
In these studies, depressive symptoms have been variously measured by self-
report questionnaires and by formal diagnosis. The individual dimensions

~In the present sample, attrition between the two testing sessions was 23070. However, it
is unlikely that this attrition influenced the results, since in another sample of under-
graduates, with attrition of 4.5% over a 6-week interval, test-retest stabilities were
comparable.
 Attributional Style Questionnaire 297

(and of course the composites) are consistently correlated with the extent of
depressive symptomatology. Yet to be investigated in a depressed
population are the specific roles assigned the individual attributional
dimensions by the helplessness reformulation.
2. In a cross-lagged panel design, Golin et al. (1981) found that ASQ
scores predict which college students would develop depressive symptoms
1 month later.
3. Similarly, we have found that ASQ scores are associated with the
development of depressive symptoms following poor performance by
college students on a midterm examination. This finding has been replicated
several times.
4. In several studies, we have shown that ASQ scores correlate
positively with actual attributions made by subjects for specific events, such
as rejection in a dating situation, poor performance at laboratory tasks,
and the occurrence of stressful life events.
5. When "naturally" occurring attributions are extracted from therapy
transcripts and rated blindly along our three attributional dimensions,
high correlations with the therapist's ratings of depression are observed.
6. When subjects in a learned helplessness laboratory paradigm
(e.g., Hiroto & Seligman, 1975) are divided into high and low groups
based on stability scores for bad events, only those in the high group
showed helplessness deficits 3 days after experience with uncontrollable
events. This finding remains even when internality and globality scores are
used as covariates. Thus, the specific role hypothesized for the stability
dimension is supported in a helplessness paradigm.
7. Similarly, when learned helplessness laboratory subjects are divided
into high and low groups based on globality scores for bad events,
only those in the high group showed helplessness deficits at a task highly
dissimilar to the pretreatment task. Again, this finding remains even when
the other ASQ scores are held constant.
Overall, then, we conclude that the ASQ has considerable construct,
criterion, and content validity. Its reliability is satisfactory. Further work is
needed that addresses the reliability and validity of the individual
dimensions. On the whole, the Attributional Style Questionnaire promises
to be a useful means for assessing habitual tendencies in the attributions
of causes.

R E F E R E N C E NOTE

I. Peterson, C., & Seligman, M. E. P. Helplessness and attributional style in depression.

Paper presented at the Heidelberg Symposium on the Development of Metacognition,
July 15, 1980.
298 Peterson, Semmel, von Baeyer, Abramson, Metalsky, and Seligman

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