The relation between stable/unstable attribution and learned helplessness

This study assessed the effects of stable/unstable attributions on subsequent task performance. In Expt 1, subjects were exposed to no‐feedback, solvable or unsolvable problems in which they received instructions encouraging them to attribute the outcome to stable or unstable causes. In Expt 2, subjects were divided according to their attributional style for bad events into stable, non‐defined and unstable attributors and were exposed to no‐feedback or unsolvable problems. Both experiments assessed subjects' performance in a subsequent solvable task. It was found that exposure to unsolvable problems worsened subsequent performance only for those subjects who attributed failure to stable causes. An attribution of failure to unstable causes prevented the detrimental effects of unsolvable problems on performance. The role of stability attributions is discussed in terms of Abramson, Seligman & Teasdale's reformulation of learned helplessness. 1988 The British Psychological Society