Attributional Style and Well-Being

Social psychologists explained that an individual differs in the nature of attributions that people
make to the negative events that they experience. Stangor, Jhangiani and Tarry (2015) claimed
that these attributions contribute on how they feel and react to these events. Negative events can
create distress in a person but having no effect to another. Others may see these negative events
as a challenge and will try harder to overcome the difficulty (Blascovich & Mendes, 2000).

The way individuals perceived threats is based on the type of attribution they make to them.
Attributional style refers to the type of attribution make to an event that happen to us. The
attributions can be on our characteristics (internal) or to a situation (external). There are
attributions we think permanent (stable) and others are expected to change over time (unstable).
Further, there are attributions that we feel to affect broader domains of life (global) and those
unique to a particular event (specific).

People tend to make pessimistic or negative attributions style to negative events that they
experienced. This tendency explains that negative happening are referred to internal, stable and
global qualities. As a result of negative attributions, the person in general experience sense of
hopelessness and despair (Metalsky, Joiner, Hardin, & Abramson, 1993) and extreme negative
attributional style (external, stable and global) for their behavior would experience learned
helplessness (Abramson, Seligman, & Teasdale, 1978; Seligman, 1975).

On the other hand, people who make positive attributions to ward negative events will persist
and their persistence will help them. These attributions effect their mental health (Vines &
Nixon, 2009). The link of attributional style and metal health defines people’s well-being. A shift
from negative to optimistic attribution would help an individual to cope up with the existing
situation.

http://www.opentextbooks.org.hk/ditatopic/16487
6 July, 2015 - 17:41
Available under Creative Commons-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Dr. Charles Stangor
Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani, Dr. Hammond Tarry
Unless otherwise noted, Principles of Social Psychology is (c) 2011 Charles Stangor. The textbook content
was produced by Charles Stangor and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, except for the following additions, which are (c)2014 Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani
and (c)2014 Dr. Hammond Tarry and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License.
Inmates
Pursuant to Mandela Rules laid by United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC,
2015) the Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) in the Philippines has adopted the terminology Persons
Deprived of Liberty (PDL) as replacement in the term “prisoners” providing a minimum
humanitarian treatment under the United Nations protocol. It is stipulated in the Mandela Rules
(2015) that the jail management must uplift the welfare of the PDL and provide applicable
services and facilities that will enhance their health and well-being.
According to The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners (2015) otherwise known as The Mandela Rules, Rule 2, item 2 requires the jail
management to take account of the needs, protect and promote the rights of the prisoners
particularly the vulnerable categories and those with special needs and they shall not be regarded
as discriminatory.
In the study of quality of life (QOL) perception of the inmates Obadiora (2018)
summarized the definition of QOL as the individual’s perception of their position in life in
reference to the culture and values system in relation to their goals, aspirations and concerns.
Similarly, it refers to the concept affected by the person’s physical health, psychological state,
beliefs, social relationships and their relationship to the environment (WHO, 1998; Kalonji,
Ngongo, Bunga, Albert & Giet, 2017).
Obadiora (2017) noted that the prison environments have negative effects on inmates
QOL. To further support the claims, Obadiora (2018) examined the QOL of the inmates and
revealed that prisoners have poor perception on physical health due to poor capacity for physical
activities. It was also noted the poor feelings of meaningful life resulting to anxiety and
depression accounted to low psychological well-being.
The poor psychological well-being observed among inmates also agrees is consistent
with the findings of Reiter et al., (2020) that incarcerated people had shown symptoms of
psychological distress. The symptoms such as anxiety and depression are prevalent on this
population along with the other symptoms associated with the solitary confinement.
Among the predictor of distress among inmates is the discrimination. In the study on the
perceived discrimination Thijs & Piscoi (2018) concluded that discrimination has harmful
psychological consequences and negative link has been established between the perceived
discrimination and psychological well-being (Schmitt et al., 2014 as cited by Thijs & Picoi,
2018). In the case of the inmates, perceived discrimination coming from the people around them
and their families affect their attribution. Perceived negative views from the others further
diminish their psychological well-being.
Moreover, findings of Shepherd et al., (2018) concluded that discrimination induced
distress. This is beyond the distress experienced brought by loss of significant others and or
disengagement in the society.
Contrary to the negative effect of discrimination, Thijs & Piscoi (2018) summarized the
findings of Crocker and Major (1989) that people have benefits in discrimination at it provides
and external attribution for negative personal experiences hence protecting their self-esteem in
attributing their lack of success in prejudices of others and not blaming the consequences on their
own personal shortcomings.
 Mental health problems are often observed among the incarcerated population and the
prevalence account a range of 45-65% for adult inmates (Ogloff et al., 2015). Raggio, Hoffman
& Kopak (2017) claimed that the higher rate and prevalence of mental health problems
demonstrate a persistent need to continue gather behavioral health data on jail population. They
also suggested that comprehensive mental health assessment is necessary due to high prevalence
range of personality and antisocial disorders.
Bayod et al., (2016) discussed the experiences of women in incarceration facilities. The
researchers concluded that women considered their rehabilitation as suffering often accompanied
by regrets. Female inmates had shared their sentiments on the loneliness felt due to separation
from their families. These experiences of women in the facility led to emotional disturbances and
later distress.

Baidawi, S., Trotter, C., & Flynn, C. (2016). Prison experiences and psychological distress
among older inmates. Journal of Gerontological Social Work.
doi:10.1080/01634372.2016.1197353

https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/11/18/19/prisoners-health-is-public-health-issue-too-manila-
conference

Self-construal was first coined by Markus and Kitayama (1991), self-construal research has
come to have a prominent position among psychological influential concepts, especially in terms
of self-related concepts and mechanisms, social cognition, close relationships, and cultural
psychology research (Cross & Hardin, 2011).

Cross & Hardin, (2011) stated that of the many elements that separate individualistic and
collectivist societies is self-construal. Three additional features defining individualistic and
collectivist societies were defined by Triandis (1995): (a) differences in target structure (in-group
focused vs. individual focused), (b) actions as a feature of social norm vs. individual attitudes,
and (c) an emphasis on the desires of in-group vs. social exchanges.

Trope and Liberman (2010) as cited by Lyu and Lai (2017) suggested in construal-level theory
(CLT) that the response of the person to an event depends on his or her conceptual construal of
the event: various positive stages have distinct degrees of abstraction. Events are understood on
the basis of the point of origin, that is, the individual's own (self) encounter that has actually
happened right now (at this moment in time) at the location where the person is situated (here).
Under these four dimensions, events that are more removed from the point of origin can be
construed by the person as being at a greater psychological distance and with a greater degree of
abstraction. Individuals will also spontaneously make choices compatible with their own
established level of construction.

Taylor and Brown (1988) and further elaborated by Wu aand Lin (2017) found that depressed
people appeared to judge themselves more negatively because of their poor self-esteem, and also
noted that this depressive inclination was shown even by non-depressed people. In addition,
Kruger (1999) showed that in environments where they interpret their absolute ability as poor,
people are more likely to exhibit pessimism bias than those where they perceive higher ability
levels. In summary, pessimism bias causes a person relative to those of others to hold more
negative expectations of their own possible outcomes.

In contrast to optimism bias, Wu aand Lin (2017) mentioned that pessimism bias is a cognitive
bias that explains the phenomenon in which people might assume that a positive outcome is
more likely to happen to others, while a negative outcome is more likely to happen to
themselves.

Smith et al., (2020) concluded that women see themselves as more interdependent in contexts
low in gender equity and more independent in contexts high on gender equity (p. 17). Self-
construal is subject to cultural change than personality traits. The cultural changes may alter the
sex-differences in self-construal due to possible secularization, expansion of education and
effects of social media. These factors of culture will either enhance or diminish sex differences.

Local Studies

Serrano (2020) concluded that the current situation of jails in Philippines is congested. She
claimed that the provisions set by the United Nations for the rights of the inmates including the
size of prison cells, ventilation and food preparation are violated. Considering the psychological
aspect of the PDL in the local jail, Serrano (2020) hypothesized that the low self-esteem and self-
control are factors in crime commission. She further explained that the high level of esteem and
control are deterrents for not committing crimes.

Contrary to the findings of Serrano (2020), Barolo and Vicente (2019) examined the effect of
prison’s life to the psychological aspect of inmates. It was concluded that experiences in the jail
led to the learning of adaptive behavior towards incarceration, self-reflection and renewal, faith
in God and positive outlook in life. Coping mechanisms of the PDL were observed through
alteration of their behavior and attitudes to conform on the demands and policies of the jail
management. Further, there are skills which are learned to cope up with the possible stress and
depression they may experience.

Similarly, Saplala (2004) concluded that the concept of self of the inmates are dependent on their
experiences inside the jail. Their concept about themselves in relation to others is considered to
be collective an in accordance to how they see other inmates.

De Guzman, Imperial, Javier and Kawasaki (2017) detailed the experiences of inmates in the
prison. The researchers discussed that experiences of PDL are classified into three phases
namely: sending up, sending off and sending in. In the first phase of experience, PDL experience
agitation as they feel that the new environment is considered unsafe and apprehensive. It is
considered to be denial stage on the part of the prisoner.
The second phase is the transition wherein, adjustment is evident and the prisoner is showing
optimism and readiness to accept his situation despite the diminishing family support. This
findings support the claims of Dhami et. Al (2007) that lack of visits from the family is
accounted for inmates getting accultured to the community and fellow prisoners.

The third phase is the sending in phase. It is a stage where inmates begins to revert to his normal
life and live his life to the fullest. It is considered the time where the sense of normalcy is
achieved by having positive outlook and becoming more confident in addressing problems. This
findings is further supported by the conclusion of Barolo and Vicente (2019) that inmates
developed positive outlook in life as results of their experiences in incarceration.

The emerged theory (de Guzman et, al. 2017) described the process of resiliency among Filipino
elderly in prison. This further suggests that jail management must render measures to encourage
PDL to express their feeling and sentiments throughout their imprisonment.

De Guzman et al., (2015) hypothesized the separation anxiety of elderly Filipino inmates. They
concluded that PDL upon entry to the prison experienced separation anxiety brought by the new
environment. This condition is brought by the uncertainty, the feeling of apprehension and
perceived violence in the prison. Further, other psychological issues are evident on the different
phases experienced by the elderly inmates such as rumination, grieving and avoidance as coping
mechanisms. However, as the last phase is reached, the acceptance on the situation and designing
future plans are evident.

Middle

The presented related literature and studies will serve as the bases in analyzing the context of the
problem. The discussion of the inmates’ condition will give the readers a glimpse of the current
situation of subject and how are their enduring experiences behind bars affect their psychological
well-being in general.

The presentation of the studies pertaining to the two variables – attribution style and self-
construal is giving details on the current existing literature that will guide in better understanding
of the proposed construct. It also gives importance on the relativity of studies so as the
presentation that there is no current studies that appears to be the same as this paper aims to
explore.

Synthesis

The current literature cited on this paper aims to explore the current literature and studies
related to the topic being explored. It is noted from the existing studies that the life of the persons
deprived of liberty (PDL) is considered a struggle and impacting their functioning particularly
their psychological well-being. Their experiences draw attention from different researchers to
further understand their plight. In the current study, the researcher aims to provide a new
understanding of the factors contributing to the mental health of this marginalized group
considering that the subjects will be taken from the local setting.
 The researcher seek to establish the intertwined of the two variable - attribution style and
self-construal as a predictor of the psychological well-being. It is then assumed that the PDLs are
engage in self-defeating behavior such as formulation of negative attribution, blaming and
helplessness which are considered to be detrimental on their mental health. Further, a deeper
understanding of the problem on how the present situation of the respondents contribute to the
development of possible self-defeating behavior.