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Explanatory Flexibility and Explanatory Style in Treatment-Seeking Patients with Axis I Psychopathology

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Abstract

Cognitive diathesis stress models of depression emphasize individual styles of attributing causal explanations to negative and positive events in life. The Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ) has traditionally been used to measure explanatory style, defined as an individual’s habitual way of assigning causes to negative events. Explanatory flexibility, rather than focusing on the content of one’s thoughts, emphasizes the extent to which individuals are able to make different attributions depending on the particular context of each event. The underlying notion is that individuals who are better able to adapt to the cues and demands of a stressful situation may be able to respond more effectively and are thereby less vulnerable to depression. Despite evidence attesting to its relevance to depression and anxiety disorders, explanatory flexibility has yet to be examined in a purely treatment-seeking sample of patients clinically diagnosed with Axis I psychopathology. The current study examined baseline levels of explanatory flexibility, along with explanatory style, in a sample of 171 treatment-seeking patients diagnosed with either major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), or at least one other Axis I disorder. Overall, the results replicate and extend past results indicating a distinction between explanatory flexibility and explanatory style. Furthermore, patients with MDD and GAD demonstrated lower levels of explanatory flexibility relative to patients with other Axis I disorders. Thus, explanatory flexibility may assist in our understanding of the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of emotional disorders, with particular relevance to MDD and GAD.

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Notes

  1. Analyses were also conducted using non-comorbid MDD and GAD groups (i.e., MDD without GAD and GAD without MDD). Overall findings remain consistent; MDD and GAD groups together demonstrated lower levels of explanatory flexibility, F(2, 127) = 4.61, p = .012, and were more pessimistic, F(2,127) = 4.66, p = .011, compared to psychiatric controls.

  2. In order to further explore the effect, we conducted the same analyses using the following 4 groups: pure MDD (n = 18), pure GAD (n = 16), comorbid GAD/MDD (n = 26), and controls (n = 46), with contrast weights of −1, −1, −2, and 4, respectively. Results support the contention that individuals with uncomplicated GAD or MDD as well as comorbid GAD and MDD evidence lower explanatory flexibility as compared to patients without GAD or MDD, t(102) = 2.71, p = .008, Cohen’s d = .26.

  3. The study findings remain consistent regardless of including patients with adjustment disorder in the psychiatric control group.

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Conflict of Interest

Ryan J. Lackner, Michael T. Moore, Julia R. Minerovic, and David M. Fresco declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Informed Consent

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Study procedures were approved by the Kent State University Institutional Review Board. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study at the time of enrollment.

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No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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  1. Michael T. Moore

    Present address: Gordon F. Derner Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies, Adelphi University, Garden City, NY, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Kent State University, 226 Kent Hall Annex, Kent, OH, 44242, USA

    Ryan J. Lackner, Julia R. Minerovic & David M. Fresco

  2. Department of Psychology, Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA

    Michael T. Moore

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  1. Ryan J. Lackner
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Correspondence to David M. Fresco.

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Lackner, R.J., Moore, M.T., Minerovic, J.R. et al. Explanatory Flexibility and Explanatory Style in Treatment-Seeking Patients with Axis I Psychopathology. Cogn Ther Res 39, 736–743 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9702-8

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