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Unemployment distress, reasons for job loss and causal attributions for unemployment in young people
Author(s) -
Winefield Anthony H.,
Tiggemann Marika,
Winefield Helen R.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
journal of occupational and organizational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 2044-8325
pISSN - 0963-1798
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8325.1992.tb00499.x
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , unemployment , dismissal , distress , social psychology , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , economics , political science , law , economic growth
This paper reports analyses from a study of school leavers in which emotional reactions to unemployment were examined in relation to the reasons given for being unemployed. Young people who had left full‐time jobs through dismissal were no worse off than those who had left for other reasons. However, those who gave external causal attributions for their unemployment displayed higher self‐esteem and less hopelessness than those who gave internal causal attributions. On the other hand, the stability of causal attributions was not associated with hopelessness. The results arc discussed in relation to Weiner's (1985) attributional theory of achievement motivation and emotion.