Causal attributions, real life-events and personality characteristics:a preliminary study

The learned-helplessness model has been given much attention recently. In this article some issues are briefly reviewed, the main purpose of this study was, however, to determine the relationship between causal attributions and personality characteristics, symptoms and feelings of well-being. Although causal attribution style is considered a trait-like concept, this can not be substantiated by the results of the current study. It is concluded that a refinement of the learned-helplessness model and its assessment methods is necessary to test the role of causal attribution in psychological functioning more adequatel