What are the three components of explanatory style?

Explanatory style consists of three dimensions: internal/external; stable/unstable and global/specific. Internal/external refers to whether or not a person believes that they have control or influence over events.

What is an explanatory style in psychology?

Grounded in scientific method, explanatory style is defined by psychologists Gregory McClell Buchanan and Martin EP Seligman as “our tendency to offer similar explanations for different events.” Psychologists use the term “explanatory style” today to describe how people explain the events of their lives.

What are the two main types of explanatory style?

We tend to rely on the same type of explanatory style to explain the occurrence of uncontrollable events in our lives. Typically, two explanatory styles are proposed: pessimistic and optimistic.

What is a specific explanatory style?

Explanatory style is a psychological attribute that indicates how people explain to themselves why they experience a particular event, either positive or negative.

How does explanatory style contribute to depression?

An optimistic explanatory style is associated with higher levels of motivation, achievement, and physical well-being and lower levels of depressive symptoms (Buchanan & Seligman, 1995).

What is negative attributional style?

You have a negative attributional style if you think a negative event has happened to you because of something inside you. Something internal. For example, “I failed the maths test because I am no good at maths”.

What are the health effects of explanatory style?

Thus, even in the long term, explanatory style is a significant predictor of health. The above studies show that a pessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for poor health in both the short and long term. Does pessimism also put one at risk for early death?

What is explanatory attribution?

Attributional style, sometimes known as explanatory style, refers to the ways in which people explain the cause of events within their lives. When people experience positive or negative events, they often wonder why the event occurred.

What is the explanatory style of optimism?

Conversely, optimistic explanatory styles are characterized by explanations for negative outcomes as being due to unstable, specific and external causes, while positive outcomes are perceived as due to stable, global and internal causes.

What are the health effects of an explanatory style?

Who invented explanatory style?

Martin Seligman and Explanatory Style One name you may have come across in your inexhaustible journey along the road of positive psychology is Dr. Martin Seligman.

What are the different attributional styles?

When people experience positive or negative events, they often wonder why the event occurred. In order to answer this question, people make causal attributions based upon three basic dimensions: internal-external, stable-unstable, and global-specific.

What are the three dimensions of exexplanatory style?

Explanatory style consists of three dimensions: internal/external; stable/unstable and global/specific. Internal/external refers to whether or not a person believes that they have control or influence over events.

How can I Change my explanatory style?

You will need to learn to recognize your own cognitive distortions and practice cognitive restructuring techniques to change those distortions. Doing so can lead to a change in explanatory styles from a negative explanatory style to a more positive one. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback!

What is explanatory style in psychology?

Psychologists use the term “explanatory style” to describe how people explain the events of their lives. When something happens, our explanatory style is part of how we process it, attach meaning to it, and assess it as a threat or a challenge in our lives. It’s part self-talk and part self-perception, and it affects stress levels in multiple ways.

What is internal/external dimension in psychology?

Internal/external refers to whether or not a person believes that they have control or influence over events. The stable/unstable dimension represents whether a person believes a repeated event will be the same or subject to change.