Page 39 - Thrive Manual

Attending to Distress 39 NAME:________________________ PSY
Inaccuracies in attribution lead to misplaced blame and blinds individuals to other potential causes. Aspects of your physical pain and/or psychological distress may be due these four distortions. Please provide an example of each where this is true for you and an example where this may effect your functioning in a negative manner (pain/distress generators).
1. Covariation (relating) - If a behavior or object is always present when another behavior or object is present they correlate, they do not cause each other to exist. An individual leaves their apartment or house at the same time each day to take a walk in the park. If a neighbor leaves at the exact same time each day to go to work, neither is causing the other to leave. They happen to have similar schedules.
True:_________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Pain or distress generating:______________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________
2. Extremity (intensity) - the more extreme the effect of a behavior, the more likely we are to make internal attributions. If an individual becomes angry and starts an argument that sends others running, they are more likely to consider themselves to be an angry person, not someone who is experiencing the emotion of anger.
True:_________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ Pain or distress generating:_______________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________
3. Discounting (dismissing) - the more you know about environmental conditions surrounding a behavior, the less likely you are to make internal attributions. If an individual knows that their doctor is typically busy and has difficulty scheduling appointments, they are less likely to blame themselves when scheduling difficulties occur.
ATTRIBUTIONS HOMEWORK