Effects of attributions for success on the alleviation of learned helplessness and depression.

The effects of attributions for success on the alleviation of mood and performance deficits of clinically depressed inpatients were investigated. Depressed patients were randomly assigned to either an acutely depressed group or an improved depressed group that was exposed to a learned helplessness induction procedure. All subjects received 80% positive feedback on a task allegedly measuring social intelligence. Concurrently, subjects were exposed to experimental manipulations designed to induce attributions of this experience to one of four types of causes (internal-general, internal-specific, external-general, external-specific). Following this task, subjects' mood, expectancies, and anagram performance were assessed. Results indicated that helpless and depressed subjects who received the internal attribution manipulations reported less depressed mood than subjects in the external attribution conditions. Similarly, subjects in the general attribution conditions performed better and reported higher expectancies for success on the anagrams than subjects in the specific attribution conditions. These results are interpreted as supportive of an attribution theory model of learned helplessness and depression.