Explanatory style and coping with controllable events by student-athletes

Abstract The present study investigated the relationship between explanatory style and the appraisal and coping of 66 major college football players with respect to stressful but controllable events in the academic and the athletic domains. A path analysis showed that for controllable events, a “pessimistic” explanatory style-in which bad events are attributed to internal, stable, and global causes-predicted appraisals of adequate resources to cope with demands, which in turn predicted increased attempts to cope.

[1]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[2]  C. Peterson,et al.  Explanatory style and academic performance among university freshman. , 1987 .

[3]  C. Peterson,et al.  Health and Optimism , 1991 .

[4]  C. Peterson,et al.  Pessimistic explanatory style and response to illness. , 1990, Behaviour research and therapy.

[5]  M. Seligman,et al.  Pessimistic explanatory style is a risk factor for physical illness: a thirty-five-year longitudinal study. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[6]  S. Folkman,et al.  Appraisal, coping, health status, and psychological symptoms. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[7]  Christopher Peterson,et al.  The Meaning and Measurement of Explanatory Style , 1991 .

[8]  M. Lieberman,et al.  The stress process. , 1981, Journal of health and social behavior.

[9]  S. Kobasa,et al.  Stressful life events, personality, and health: an inquiry into hardiness. , 1979, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[10]  W. Katon,et al.  Appraised changeability of a stressor as a modifier of the relationship between coping and depression: a test of the hypothesis of fit. , 1990, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[11]  Martin E. P. Seligman,et al.  Explanatory style as a predictor of productivity and quitting among life insurance sales agents. , 1986 .

[12]  P. Sweeney,et al.  Attributional style in depression: a meta-analytic review. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[13]  M. Seligman,et al.  Learned helplessness in humans: critique and reformulation. , 1978, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[14]  K. Matthews,et al.  Psychological perspectives on the type A behavior pattern. , 1982, Psychological bulletin.

[15]  C Peterson,et al.  Causal explanations as a risk factor for depression: theory and evidence. , 1984, Psychological review.

[16]  M. Seligman,et al.  Explanatory Style as a Mechanism of Disappointing Athletic Performance , 1990 .

[17]  S. Folkman,et al.  Dynamics of a stressful encounter: cognitive appraisal, coping, and encounter outcomes. , 1986, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.