Attributional style and self-esteem as a function of social anxiety

A review of the literature suggests that although the cognitive constructs of attributional style from learned helplessness, self-esteem and social anxiety have been associated in various combinations, only limited research exists which has attempted to link all three variables. This study proposed to find a functional relationship between them. One hundred and eight Central Missouri State University students took the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ), the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS), and the Social Avoidance and Distress (SAD) Scale. Results supported correlational hypotheses between SAD Scale scores and four ASQ Scales measuring internal, stable and global causality for good events, and unstable explanatory style for bad events. Similarly, these identical ASQ scales were significantly predicted by TSCS and SAD Scale scores better than one predictor alone. Hypotheses involving correlations between attributional style and self-esteem or self-esteem and social anxiety were not supported. Also, combining attributional style and self-esteem to predict social anxiety was not found to be significantly better than one variable.