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F D Fincham

Publications and source records attributed to F D Fincham.

32 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
PubMed1990

Attributions in marriage: review and critique.

The prevailing behavioral account of marriage must be expanded to include covert processes. This article therefore examines the attributions or explanations that spouses make for marital events. A review indicates that dissatisfied spouses, compared with satisfied spouses, make attributions for the partner's behavior that cast it in a negative light. Experimental, clinical outcome, and longitudinal data suggest further that attributions may influence marital satisfaction. Rival hypotheses for these findings are examined. Because continued empirical development in this domain depends on conceptual progress, a framework is presented that integrates attributions, behavior, and marital satisfaction. This framework points to several topics that require systematic study, and specific hypotheses are offered for research on these topics. It is concluded that the promising start made toward understanding marital attributions holds considerable potential for enriching behavioral conceptions of marriage.

Cognition↗
PubMed1990

Marital conflict and children's adjustment: a cognitive-contextual framework.

Marital problems have been related to numerous indexes of maladjustment in children. Although several parameters of this association have been identified, the process by which exposure to interparental conflict gives rise to adjustment problems in children is largely unexplored. Research on the link between marital conflict and child maladjustment therefore is critically evaluated, and a framework is presented that organizes existing studies and suggests directions for future research on processes that may account for the association. According to the framework, the impact of marital conflict is mediated by children's understanding of the conflict, which is shaped by contextual, cognitive, and developmental factors. The implications of the framework for children's adjustment are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1989

Marital distress, depression, and attributions: is the marital distress-attribution association an artifact of depression?

We examined whether the association between marital distress and attributions is an artifact of depression. Study 1 showed that the attributions of 40 wives recruited from the community accounted for variance in their marital satisfaction after the effects of depression had been taken into account. Study 2 compared the attributions of 20 clinically depressed and maritally distressed wives (respondents to an advertisement offering therapy for depression and marital problems), 20 nondepressed but distressed wives (clients seeking marital therapy at a clinic), and a control group of 20 nondepressed and nondistressed wives (respondents to an advertisement for participants in a research project). The first two groups did not differ in attributions, but the attributions of both groups differed from those of the control group. Both studies therefore suggest that the association between attributions and marital satisfaction is not due to depression.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Learned helplessness, test anxiety, and academic achievement: a longitudinal analysis.

The stability of individual differences in test anxiety and learned helplessness over a 2-year period and their relation to concurrent and future school achievement were examined. Several issues regarding the assessment of learned helplessness are also addressed. 82 children were administered measures of test anxiety and helplessness in the third grade and again in the fifth grade. Teachers also provided reports of learned helpless and mastery-oriented behaviors at these 2 grade levels. It was found that: (a) both self-report and teacher-report measures of helplessness were stable over the 2-year period; (b) helplessness in the third grade was related to achievement test scores in the fifth grade; and (c) teacher reports may be a viable means of identifying helplessness. These findings are discussed in terms of cognitive developmental changes in children's understanding of effort and ability, and their implications for the assessment of learned helplessness are outlined.

Achievement↗
PubMed1988

Individual difference variables in close relationships: a contextual model of marriage as an integrative framework.

We examined and refined a contextual model of marriage (Bradbury & Fincham, 1987) in order to organize the associations between individual difference variables and satisfaction in close relationships. Seventy-eight spouses were administered instruments assessing marital satisfaction and individual differences in femininity, masculinity, dysfunctional relationship beliefs, and causal and responsibility attributions for marital difficulties. As predicted, higher levels of satisfaction were related to femininity and to partner's femininity, and lower levels of satisfaction were related to dysfunctional beliefs and less benign attributions. More important, two competing hypotheses relating to the contextual model were tested. A model in which the transitory, or proximal, context (e.g., responsibility attributions for specific relationship events) mediates the relation between the stable, or distal, context (e.g., general beliefs about relationships) and satisfaction was refuted. Support was obtained, however, for a model in which proximal and distal variables both account for unique variance in marital satisfaction. The usefulness of distinguishing between transitory and stable variables and the implications of the contextual model for organizing research on close relationships are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed1988

The impact of attributions in marriage: empirical and conceptual foundations.

Although a reliable association between attributions and concurrent marital satisfaction has been documented, the dominant role assigned to attributions in cognitively oriented accounts of marital dysfunction lacks a firm empirical foundation. To redress this imbalance, the major ideas guiding theoretical analyses of attributions in marriage are identified, namely, that attributions (a) initiate or maintain marital dissatisfaction and (b) mediate the behaviour exchanges characteristic of distressed and non-distressed marriages. Four studies are reported that provide initial support for these hypotheses. In view of these findings, the distinction between private and communicated attributions underlying this research is used to guide the development of an integrative framework relating attributions, behaviour and marital satisfaction. The relevance of this framework for future research and for marital therapy is discussed.

Communication↗
PubMed1988

Limited mental capacities and perceived control in attribution of responsibility.

Two studies were conducted to examine the impact of a child's psychological disturbance on adults' judgements of causation, blame and punishment for action outcomes portrayed across Heider's levels. The effect of these levels on perceived control and the utility of perceived control in predicting judgements were also investigated. It was found that: (a) the psychological status of the child affected responses for a subset of Heider's levels but did not alter the pattern of responses across levels; and (b) responses were not affected by the existence of a psychological disorder per se but instead appeared to reflect inferences regarding the capacities influenced by the disorder. In addition, perceived control (c) increased across Heider's levels and (d) was more useful than previously investigated subjective probabilities in accounting for variance in perceived cause, blame and punishment. The probability of the act in the situation portrayed also accounted for a unique portion of the variance in the judgements made. The robustness of Heider's levels and a quantitative approach to his criteria are discussed. Finally, suggestions regarding the assessment of capacities necessary for being held accountable for one's actions are outlined.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1987

Attribution processes in distressed and nondistressed couples: 4. Self-partner attribution differences.

The importance of the self-other distinction for understanding the relation between attributions and marital satisfaction is examined in two studies. In Study 1, causal attributions for naturally occurring behavior by the self and spouse were investigated. Study 2 examined both causal and responsibility attributions for hypothetical behaviors. In both studies, the attributions of spouses seeking therapy were investigated in relation to those of happily married persons in the community. The results showed that self-other attribution differences varied as a function of marital distress. Nondistressed spouses showed a positive attribution bias by making more benign attributions for partner behavior as opposed to self-behavior, whereas distressed spouses showed a negative attribution bias by making less benign attributions for partner behavior than for self-behavior. These findings suggest that self-attributions may, in part, determine the impact of attributions for spouse behavior on marital satisfaction. The clinical relevance of the results and their implications for research on actor-observer attribution differences are outlined.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1987

The role of attributions in the development of dating relationships.

In this study, we examine the role of attributions in the context of dating relationships. A large sample completed a questionnaire comprising structured ratings and a free-response relationship description. As expected, cognitive or attributional activity was more frequent within relationships when they were in the early stages, when important choice points or changes were occurring, and when the relationships were perceived as unstable. Also as predicted, subjects who reported higher relationship happiness, commitment, and love for their partners tended to describe the relationship in more interpersonal terms, to rate the causal inputs of the partners as equal, and to attribute lower external attributions for relationship maintenance. Finally, some evidence was obtained that attributions for relationship maintenance are causally related to relationship happiness over a 2-month period. The results are discussed in terms of the relationship between cognitive processing and the development of dating relationships.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Cognitive processes and conflict in close relationships: an attribution-efficacy model.

A recently proposed model of cognitive processes underlying conflict in close relationships (Doherty, 1978, 1981a, 1981b) is revised and tested in two studies. Central to the original model are the causal attributions made for conflict and the perceived efficacy or ability to resolve conflict. The model is revised to incorporate judgments of responsibility and to provide a closer link to self-efficacy theory. The first study examines attributions and efficacy expectations in mother-child relationships. As anticipated, only weak evidence was obtained for predictions retained from the original model, high-lighting the relationship-specific nature of cognitive processes for conflict in families. A second study examines husband-wife relationships and provides evidence for the usefulness of an attribution-efficacy model for marital conflict. The attributional component of the model received greater support than that pertaining to efficacy expectations. In both studies, support was obtained for the proposal that the relation between conflict dimensions (e.g., blame) and causal dimensions is mediated by judgments of responsibility. The significance of the revisions to Doherty's model for understanding conflict in close relationships is discussed, and several avenues for further research are outlined.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Attributional style and learned helplessness: relationship to the use of causal schemata and depressive symptoms in children.

The attributional style associated with learned helplessness in children is examined in terms of its stability over a six-month period; impact on causal schemata used by children; and association with depressive symptoms. Seventy-three fifth grade children provided attributions for success and failure and were divided into learned helpless and mastery-oriented groups on the basis of the attributions typically associated with these response patterns. The attributional styles were relatively stable, influenced responses to stimuli used to investigate the use of causal schemata and were related to depressive symptoms. These results are discussed in terms of research on learned helplessness in children and several research questions are identified.

Aptitude↗
PubMed1987

The impact of attributions in marriage: a longitudinal analysis.

In this study, we investigate the longitudinal relation between attributions for relationship events and marital satisfaction. Thirty-four couples were assessed at two points separated by approximately 12 months. Causal and responsibility attributions for marital difficulties and negative spouse behaviors were strongly related to concurrent marital satisfaction. For wives, later marital satisfaction was predicted by both causal and responsibility attributions after the effects of earlier satisfaction were removed. For husbands, attributions did not predict later marital satisfaction. Marital satisfaction did not predict later attributions for either husbands or wives. Marital satisfaction and the two types of attributions were related to concurrent unrealistic relationship expectations, but these expectations did not predict later marital satisfaction. The results are discussed in terms of a possible causal relation between attributions and marital satisfaction.

Adult↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Interparental conflict and child adjustment: testing the mediational role of appraisals in the cognitive-contextual framework.

Children's appraisals of interparental conflict consistently have been associated with adjustment problems, but the processes that give rise to this association are not well understood. This paper proposes that appraisals of threat and self-blame mediate the association between children's reports of interparental conflict and internalizing problems, and tests this mediational hypothesis in two samples of children, one drawn from the community (317 ten- to fourteen-year-olds) and the other from battered women's shelters (145 ten- to twelve-year-olds). Results indicate that perceived threat mediates the association between interparental conflict and internalizing problems for boys and girls in both samples, and self-blame mediates this association for boys in both samples and girls in the shelter sample. Perceived threat and self-blame do not mediate links with externalizing problems, and there is no evidence of a moderating effect of appraisals on the association between conflict and child adjustment. Implications for understanding the mechanism by which exposure to interparental conflict could lead to child maladjustment are discussed.

Adaptation, Psychological↗