The role of attributional style in the development of depression in college females with pathological eating practices

Abstract

In this experiment, participants were randomly assigned to receive either stressful false feedback or non-stressful false feedback following a weight-related fictional test. Participants were assessed on eating disorder measures to determine their degree of eating pathology. Those with a higher degree of eating pathology reported more body dissatisfaction and higher levels of clinical depression. In addition they made more depressogenic attributions and became more depressed, anxious, and hostile following stressful false feedback