Explanatory styles and negative affect

Abstract

The negative explanatory style refers to the relatively stable tendency to explain negative events by internal, stable, and global causes. This style has been widely related to clinical depression or depres-sive symptoms. Some studies have also shown an association with anxiety and other negative emo-tions. The first goal of the present work was to study the relationships between negative explanatory style, negative affect and symptoms of anxiety and depression. As expected, the results showed that when negative affect was controlled, the association between this explanatory style and symptoms of anxiety and depression disappeared, whereas when symptoms of anxiety and depression were con-trolled the relation between the explanatory style and negative affect was maintained. It is concluded that negative explanatory style is not specific to depression, but it constitutes a cognitive style associ-ated with psychological distress.