... the individual differences criticism, Abramson introduced attributional styles into the theory of learned helplessness 4 basic premises: Expected aversiveness (expecting that highly aversive outcomes are probable) Expected uncontrollability (expecting that you will be unable to control situations) Attributional style (maladaptive, so negative events are attributed to having internal, stable or global characteristics) internal (cf external) bad events caused by self rather than external sources stable (cf unstable) the source of a bad event is stable & will therefore happen again, rather than being a one off global (cf specific): the repercussions of a bad event are far reaching Severity of symptoms (the more certain an aversive state of affairs is, the greater the resultant cognitive and motivational deficits) it is a basic theory - it needs a richer framework and it needs to explain how structures and processes are organized. Seligman doesn't even attempt this. it ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now