Cognitive Therapy and Research, VoL 15, No. 4, 1991, pp. 273-282
Dysphoria and Valence of Attributions for
Others' Behavior 1
Michael J. L. Sullivan 2
Dalhousie University
Michael Conway
Concordia University
Th& research examined the relation between dysphoria and the affective
valence of different types of attributions. Dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects
l&tened to descriptions of positive and negative social behaviors and were asked
to generate several possible causes for these behaviors. Attributions were coded
as dispositional, nondispositional, or situational, and were rated according to
affective valence. Compared to nondysphoric subjects, dysphoric subjects'
nondispositional and situational attributions were rated as more negative. The
affective valence of dispositional attributions did not differ as function of level
of dysphoria. Discussion focuses on how different social cognitive processes
may vary in their susceptibility to mood-congruence effects.
KEY WORDS: dysphoria; attributions; person perception.
It has b e e n suggested that depressed individuals negative cognitive
bias may b e m o r e p r o n o u n c e d for cognitions a b o u t the self as o p p o s e d to
cognitions a b o u t others (Beck, 1976; Kuiper, Derry, & M a c D o n a l d , 1981).
1This research was supported by grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada and from the Fonds pour la Formation de Chercheurs et l'Aide a la
Recherche du Quebec awarded to M. Conway. Portions of this paper were presented at the
1989 Meeting of The American Psychological Association, Atlanta. The authors thank T.
Arbuckle-Magg, J. D'Eon, D. Gilbert, S. Kassin, M. Lascelles, and A. Schwartzman for their
helpful suggestions and comments.
2Address all correspondence to M. J. L. Sullivan, Department of Psychology, Dalhousie
University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 4J1.
273
0147-5916/91/0800-0273506.50 © 1991 Plenum Publishing Corporation
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Sullivan and Conway
Current models of information processing in depression hold that
knowledge structures containing information about the self become activated during episodes of depression, thus rendering negative self-referent
cognitions more accessible to consciousness (Beck, 1976). Negative selfreferent cognitions are said to contrast with depressed individuals' comparatively positive view of others, ultimately reinforcing their negative
self-perceptions and maintaining depressive symptomatology (Kuiper et al.,
1981). In support of this position, research has been generally consistent
in demonstrating that depressed individuals show a negative bias in their
evaluations and recall of trait words when trait words are self-referent but
not when they are other-referent (Bargh & Tota, 1988; Derry & Kuiper,
1981; Greenberg & Alloy, 1989; Kuiper et al., 1981).
Research in other areas of social cognitive processing has not consistently supported the position that depressed individuals' negative bias
is restricted to cognitions about the self. While some research has shown
that depressed individuals are pessimistic in predicting outcomes for
themselves but not for others, it has also been shown that depressed individuals make pessimistic predictions for themselves as well as for others
(Alloy & Ahrens, 1987; Crocker, Alloy, & Tabachnik-Kayne, 1988;
Pietromonaco & Markus, 1985; Pyzczynski, Holt, & Greenberg, 1987).
In a recent study, depressed and nondepressed students were provided
with academic performance information about several hypothetical others
and were asked to predict future academic performance. Compared to
nondepressed subjects, depressed subjects made more pessimistic predictions for themselves and for others' outcomes, regardless of whether they
were provided with favorable or unfavorable information (Alloy &
Ahrens, 1987).
Findings showing that depressed individuals make pessimistic predictions for other's outcomes are not consistent with positions which hold
that depressives' negative cognitions are restricted to the self (Beck, 1976;
Kuiper et al., 1981). These findings, however, are consistent which are
affectively congruent with current mood, whether self-referent or unrelated to the self, are said to be more accessible to consciousness (Bower,
1981).
Due to substantive methodological variation across studies, it is difficult to specify the factors that may account for the discrepant findings
which have been reported. Studies examining depressed individuals' cognitions about others have varied with respect to the nature of the cognitions
being examined, as well as the nature of the target other. Target others
have included the average person, the typical undergraduate, specific
others, a best friend, or an acquaintance. Studies have also differed with
respect to the amount of information provided about the target other
Attribution Valence
275
(Bargh & Tota, 1988; Pietromonaco & Markus, 1985). It is possible that
the social knowledge structures which are activated to process social information may differ as a function of the target other or the type of cognition
being examined.
Mood-congruency effects on social cognition may be dependent on
the degree to which social judgments require input from social knowledge
structures. Some social judgments are based primarily on stimulus information and require minimal processing of social knowledge structures
(Bargh, 1984, 1989; Kassin & Baron, 1985). These judgments may be less
susceptible to the biasing effects of current mood. Judgments which require
more extensive processing of social knowledge structures may be more likely to be influenced by current mood. This position can be addressed in
terms of attributions for social behavior.
Numerous investigations have shown that individuals have a pervasive
tendency to make correspondent dispositional attributions for observed behaviour (Jones, 1979; Jones & Davis, 1965; Jones & Nisbett, 1972). Correspondence refers to the degree that a behavior and an actor's disposition
can be described by the same term (e.g., aggressive behavior, aggressive
disposition). Correspondent dispositional attributions can be drawn directly
from behavior, and, by definition, they are affectively congruent with the
valence of the behavior. The tendency to infer correspondent dispositional
causation for observed behavior has been demonstrated even under conditions where an actor's behavior is obviously constrained by situational
factors (Gilbert & Jones, 1986; Jones, 1979). Given the pervasiveness and
robustness of individuals' correspondent attributional bias, current mood
may not have a significant impact on the affective valence of subjects' dispositional attributions.
Compared to dispositional attributions, nondispositional or situational
attributions require more extensive input from social knowledge structures.
Situational or nondispositional attributions cannot be drawn directly from
behaviour (Higgins & Bryant, 1982; Kassin & Baron, 1985). When an observer makes reference to an actor's transient internal states (e.g., he was
in a bad mood) or to situational factors (e.g., he had a bad day), the observer must draw on acquired social knowledge structures for information
concerning factors which are likely to covary with a given behaviour (Read,
1987). Since situational and nondispositional attributions are not directly
tied to characteristics of the stimulus, the affective valence of these attributions may be more likely to be influenced by current mood.
The present research examined the relation between dysphoria and
the affective valence of different types of attributions. Dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects listened to descriptions of positive and negative social
behaviors and were asked to generate several possible causes for these be-
Sullivan and Conway
276
haviors. Previous research has shown that when subjects are asked to
produce several causes for behaviour, they are likely to generate a wide
range of attributions (Read, 1987). It was predicted that dysphoric subjects
would provide nondispositional and situational attributions that were more
negative than the nondispositional and situational attributions of nondysphoric subjects. The affective valence of dispositional attributions was
not expected to vary with level of dysphoria.
METHOD
One hundred and ten Concordia University undergraduates were
screened for level of dysphoria. Subjects were asked to complete the Beck
Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh,
1961), ostensibly as part of an unrelated study designed to collect normative
data. The BDI scores for the total sample ranged from 0 to 32 with a mean
of 8.6 (SD = 5.7). The BDI was readministered at the time of the experiment. Subjects who obtained scores of 6 or less on the BDI were classified
as nondysphoric and subjects who obtained scores of 10 or more on the
BDI were classified as dysphoric. Only the data for subjects classified as
dysphoric or nondysphoric at the time of recruitment and at the time of
testing were used in further analyses. This selection procedure yielded 15
nondysphoric (13 males, 2 females) and 15 dysphoric (10 males, 5 females)
subjects. The mean BDI scores for the nondysphoric and dysphoric samples
were 3.2 and 15.3, respectively. The mean age of the sample was 23.5 years
with a range of 19 to 30. The ratio of males to females reflects the relative
numbers of males and females who volunteered to participate.
Materials
Behavior Descriptions. Subjects listened to four audiotaped behaviour
descriptions. Four different interpersonal scenarios were used. The scenarios were presented either as positive or negative behaviors by varying
the behavioral outcome. The behaviors were described as being performed
by a male or female actor, and were narrated by a man or a woman. The
behavior descriptions thus varied along three dimensions: valence of the
behavior, gender of the actor, and gender of the narrator. The order of
presentation of the scenarios was determined using a latin square design
with the constraint that subjects were not presented with the positive and
negative versions of the same scenario. The behavior descriptions are
reprinted in Sullivan and Conway (1989).
Attribution Valence
277
Questionnaires. The BDI was used as a measure of dysphoria. This
instrument contains 21 items describing various symptoms of depression.
Subjects are asked to endorse statements describing how they have been
feeling during the past week. A subject's score is the sum of the item values
for the statements that he or she has endorsed.
Procedure
Subjects were told that the study concerned age differences in social
judgment. They listened to four audiotaped behaviour descriptions in small
groups ranging in size from two to six subjects. After each behavior description, subjects were asked to write down several possible causes for the
actor's behaviour. Subjects were given 3 min to write down their attributional responses for each behaviour. Finally, subjects completed the BDI.
They were then debriefed and paid $5 for their participation. During
debriefing, subjects were told that the study was concerned with the relation
between mood and attributions but they were not told that they had been
selected on the basis of their scores on the BDI.
Attributions. Subjects' attributions were coded by two judges who
were blind to experimental condition, into one of the following categories: (1) dispositional (stable internal factors such as traits), (2) nondispositional (transient internal states such as moods or motives), and
(3) situational (external factors). These causal categories generally correspond to the causal categories that have been adopted in previous research examining attributions for social behaviour (Anderson, 1983; Elig
& Frieze, 1974).
Percentage agreement values for the two judges were 88%, 80%, and
80%, respectively, for dispositional, nondispositional, and situational attributions. Attributions were also rated according to affective valence on a
7-point scale ranging from -3 (very negative) to +3 (very positive). Correlation coefficients for the ratings of the two judges were .94, .88, and .82,
respectively, for dispositional, nondispositional, and situational attributions.
Valence scores for dispositional, nondispositional, and situational attributions were obtained by averaging the valence ratings of attributions made
to each category.
RESULTS
The data were analyzed as a three-way mixed factorial with mood
condition (dysphoric, nondysphoric) as the between-groups factor, and
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Sullivan and Conway
behavior valence (positive, negative), and attribution type (dispositional,
nondispositional, situational) as the within-groups factors. Gender was not
included as a factor due to the small number of female subjects. Multiple
comparison were conducted using the Newman-Keuls procedure.
The total number of attributions provided did not vary significantly
as a function of mood condition or behavior valence, F < 1. Analyses of
the frequencies of the different types of attributions are reported elsewhere
(Sullivan & Conway, 1989, Study 3).
A significant main effect of mood condition was obtained for attribution valence, F(1, 28) = 10.7, p < .01. This main effect was qualified by
the predicted mood condition by attribution type interaction, F(2, 56) =
4.1, p < .05. The means for this analysis are presented in Table I.
Dysphoric subjects provided nondispositional and situational attributions
that were rated as significantly more negative than those provided by nondysphoric subjects, for both positive and negative behaviors. The affective
valence of dispositional attributions did not vary as a function of condition.
DISCUSSION
In the present study, the affective valence of subjects' nondispositional
and situational attributions was congruent with level of dysphoria. These
findings are consistent with the predictions of network theory suggesting
that the social knowledge structures that are activated as a function of dysphoria increase the accessibility of negative attributional information. The
findings are not consistent with models which hold that depressed and nondepressed individuals do not differ in their cognitions about others (Beck,
1976; Kuiper et al., 1981).
While mood-congruency effects have been discussed as a general
phenomenon, affecting a wide range of cognitive processes, the present
data suggest that there may be constraints to mood-congruency effects on
attributions. Dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects did not differ in the affective valence of their dispositional attributions. The valence of dispositional attributions, for both dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects, was
determined primarily by the valence of the target behavior.
These data are consistent with the position that mood-congruency effects in social cognition are dependent on the degree to which social judgments require input from social knowledge structures. Social judgments,
such as dispositional inferences, that can be based directly on stimulus characteristics may be resistant to the biasing effects of mood. Social judgments
that require input from social knowledge structures may be more susceptible to the biasing effects of mood.
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Attribution Valence
Table I. Valence of Attributions for Positive and Negative Behaviorsa
Condition
Attribution type
Behavior valence
Dysphoric
Nondysphoric
Dispositional
Positive
Negative
1.8
-1.8
1.6
-1.7
Nondispositional
Positive
Negative
.4
-1.6
1.3
-1.0
Situational
Positive
Negative
.l
-1.2
.8
-.5
aNote: Attribution valence scores ranged from -3 (very negative) to +3 (very
positive).
The position outlined above may provide a viable account of the discrepancies that have been reported in previous research concerning
depressives' cognitions about others. For example, the processing of trait
information about others may require less input from social knowledge
structures than making predictions about hypothetical outcomes. This may
explain why mood-congruency effects are more likely to be observed in the
latter than in the former. In addition, it may be possible to explain why
mood-congruency effects are most pronounced when stimuli are ambiguous
(Forgas & Bower, 1987). When stimulus characteristics are not well
defined, inferences will be more likely to be determined by input from social knowledge structures.
The results of the present study can be discussed in relation to models
of affect and effortful processing in social cognition. Sullivan and Conway
(1989) reported that subjects experiencing transient or chronic dysphoria
were more likely than nondysphoric subjects to make correspondent dispositional attributions for observed social behavior. This finding was interpreted as being the result of reduced effort expenditure associated with
negative mood. The interpretation was based on previous research suggesting that negative mood leads to low effort cognition, and that correspondent dispositional attributions require minimal cognitive effort (Ellis,
Thomas, & Rodriquez, 1984; Gilbert, Pelham, & Krull, 1988; Hasher &
Zacks, 1979; Winter & Uleman, 1984).
It is likely that both network theory and effort theory may need to
be considered in order to adequately account for the diversity and complexity of the effects of negative mood on cognition (cf. Ellis & Ashbrook,
1987). Network theory predicts that the valence of cognition will be congruent with current mood; effort theory predicts that individuals experiencing negative affect will be more likely to engage in low-effort cognition.
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Sullivan and Conway
While there is research to support both theories, more research is needed
to further elucidate how mood congruency and reduced effort interact to
impact on depressives' social cognitive processes (Blaney, 1986; Ellis &
Ashbrook, 1987).
Caution needs to be exercised in extending the current findings to
the depressed population. The subjects in this study were selected on the
basis of their scores on a self-report measure of depressive symptomatology,
not on the basis of a diagnosis of depression. While it is interesting to
speculate that the attributional processing differences observed between
dysphoric and nondysphoric subjects may underly the interpersonal deficits
observed in depression (e.g., Biglan, Hops, Sherman, Friedman, Arthur, &
Osteen, 1985; Gotlib & Asarnow, 1979), the current findings need to be
replicated in a clinically depressed population before strong statements can
be made.
To summarize, the findings of the current study indicate that different
types of social cognitions may be differentially susceptible to mood-congruency effects. The findings call for more attention to cognitive process
characteristics such as level of inference and effort requirements in research
examining mood-cognition relations. Similarly, stimulus factors concerning
the nature of the target person and the level of stimulus ambiguity will
also require more consideration.
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