Attribution Theory: A Fit with Substance Abuse Problems
- 1 January 1982
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in International Journal of the Addictions
- Vol. 17 (2) , 295-303
- https://doi.org/10.3109/10826088209071013
Abstract
How substance-abusing individuals early and late in treatment explain the problem behavior of other substance abusers is analyzed in attributional terms. Alcoholism was chosen as the problem of interest. Subjects were 42 male alcoholics newly enrolled in a treatment program, 41 male alcoholics nearing the completion of the program, and 46 male nonalcoholic controls. All subjects viewed a videotape interview with an actor who was identified as an alcoholic or not identified. As predicted, early-treatment alcoholics made greater situational attributions to the alcoholic and greater dispositional attributions to the nonalcoholic actor in comparison to the late-treatment alcoholics and controls. Early-treatment alcoholics, more than late-treatment alcoholics or controls, rated the actor labeled as alcoholic to be more similar to themselves. Discussion focuses on the applicability of attribution theory to problems of substance abuse.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- Characterological versus behavioral self-blame: Inquiries into depression and rape.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1979
- Control of Attributions about the Self Through Self-handicapping Strategies: The Appeal of Alcohol and the Role of UnderachievementPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1978
- Drug choice as a self-handicapping strategy in response to noncontingent success.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1978
- Attributions of blame and coping in the "real world": Severe accident victims react to their lot.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977
- Actor-observer differences in the perceptions of responsibility and freedom.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1975
- Behavior as seen by the actor and as seen by the observer.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1973
- The how and what of why: Some determinants and consequences of causal attribution.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1972
- Maintenance of self-attributed and drug-attributed behavior change.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1969
- The attribution of attitudesJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1967
- The disease concept of alcoholism.Published by American Psychological Association (APA) ,1960