It seems that Linda attributes her failures to internal causes (i.e. Incompetence or a lack of ability) while her successes might be attributed to external causes (i.e. Good luck) (Baron et al. 2009). This is known as a self-defeating pattern, which is generally considered as being the opposite of how people with out depression attribute things (Baron et al. 2009). This cycle of negative self-concept is a part of what feeds Linda’s depression. If she were to learn how to change her attributional style by adopting a self-serving bias, she could stop feeding her depression. A self-serving bias is where individuals attribute positive outcomes to internal causes, and negative outcomes to external causes. This would allow Linda to change her attributions and take credit for her successes, and stop blaming herself for failures that everyone makes. Generally, these are typical targets of depression therapy. Thus, using a self-serving bias could prevent a negative attribution from feeding Linda’s depression. In addition, self-handicapping is a method that individuals use to protect themselves from their failure. By finding or creating impediments to prevent themselves from doing well, they externalize the source of their failure, if they do well it is in spite of optimal conditions (Jones and Berglas …show more content…
Helping Linda to understand that her depression may stem from genetic cause, a changed perception of self, and altered attribution tendencies could help her work to eliminate her depression. Each of these has an impact on how she feels about her incompetence, but by gaining knowledge in these areas she can stop blaming herself for mistakes that everybody makes. In Linda’s case, it would be beneficial to do research on how changing point of view can directly help in depression in order to see if this kind of therapy would lower self esteem, or help with attribution. This would lead to a better understanding of how the perception of self changes in