THE INVESTIGATION OF NEGATIVE CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS AND THEIR RELATION WITH THE SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE CANCER PATIENTS: A TEST OF THE HELPLESSNESS THEOR
THE INVESTIGATION OF NEGATIVE CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS AND THEIR RELATION WITH THE SOCIAL SUPPORT FOR THE CANCER PATIENTS: A TEST OF THE HELPLESSNESS THEOR

Summary/Abstract: The paper addresses the issue of causal attributions in the evolution of depression. We suggest an investigation of the negative causal attributions and their relation with the social support, solitude, self-esteem and satisfaction with life, in the presence of psychiatric comorbidity for cancer patients. Several predictor variables were accounted for in a multifactor design in which the criterion variable was the level of depression. The study contributes to the enhancement and application of learned helplessness theory in psycho-oncology and offers an inside view of the psychopathological mechanisms involved during the onset of the illness. Along the study we prove that the negative attributional patterns are activated in advanced stages of the disease hypothetically due to the perception of the lack of control on the disease; there is the possibility that, at latent level, the cognitive schema of helplessness to have once existed and to be activated together with the evolution of the disease.

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