Abstract

Explanatory style is a cognitive personality variable reflecting the way that people habitually explain the causes of bad events. Explanatory style spans three dimensions—internality versus externality, stability versus instability, and globality versus specificity. Although explanatory style has an impressive array of correlates, including depression, achievement, and physical well-being, questions have recently been raised concerning its meaning and measurement. This article identifies and discusses these questions, concluding that explanatory style is a useful construct that deserves further theoretical and empirical attention.