ABSTRACT
This chapter considers some of the existing research that led to think seriously about the possible relationship between personality and attributional style. To be specific, high self-esteem subjects were apparently attributing their failure to external causes, whereas low self-esteem subjects were attributing their failure to some internal deficiency. Highly confident subjects attributed success more internally and failure more externally than did subjects low in confidence. Similarly, G. Fitch found evidence that high self-esteem subjects attributed failure more to external causes than did low self-esteem subjects. A number of studies provide evidence of sex differences in performance and attribution. The self-esteem level and attributional style of clinically depressed patients appear to be essentially similar to those of the normal but low self-esteem subjects who were studied in research. The data from the clinical literature on depression and from own studies of attributional style indicate that both groups evidence negative self-evaluation and a general bias toward self-blame.
