Title: “<i>Why</i>Is This Happening to Me?:” The Attributional Make-Up of Negative Emotions Experienced in Emotional Support Encounters
Abstract: Abstract Weiner's (Citation2000) attributional model of intrapersonal motivations suggests that attributions influence not only people's emotional experiences, but also their behavioral responses to the events that caused these emotions. The current study investigates the causal dimensions (i.e., stability, controllability, locus) of five emotions (i.e., sadness, helplessness, hurt, fear, anger) people commonly experience when they are distressed and in need of emotional support. Participants (N = 258) were asked to identify an upsetting event and subsequently talk about it with a confederate helper in a five-minute conversation. After the conversation, participants completed attribution and emotion indices scales. The events discussed were coded into nine categories (e.g., death of a relative, college performance/job problems, break-ups). Results suggested that the five emotions possess a unique attributional make-up and are uniquely tied to specific events that were discussed by participants. Implications of the results are discussed in the context of providing emotional support to people who experience distress. Keywords: AttributionsComfortingEmotional supportEmotions The author would like to thank the two reviewers for their helpful comments on a previous draft, Nathan Jagoda for his help in coding the data, as well as Jessica Immel, LeeAnn Price, Brendan MacFarlan, and Casey Moran for serving as confederates. Additional informationNotes on contributorsSusanne M. Jones Susanne M. Jones (Ph.D., Arizona State University, 2000) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Data for this study were collected as a part of a dissertation under the direction of Laura Guerrero. The experiment has been approved by the Institutional Review Board at Arizona State University.
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-11-06
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 3
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