Causal attributions during therapy I: Responsibility and blame

Abstract

The way that responsibility is attributed and blame is expressed and apportioned in families is a crucial but rather neglected issue for family therapy. A case is made for analysing causal attributions as a way to gain a better understanding of these processes. The Leeds Attributional Coding System (Stratton et al., 1988) was used to analyse all the attributions made early in therapy by eight families which included biological, step- and adoptive parents. Some 1799 attributions made by family members during ten therapy sessions were identified and their attributional dimensions recorded. Both parents and children used attributional patterns consistent with blaming the child and there was evidence of the occurrence of an 'attributional discrepancy', found previously in families of abuse, with more personal and controllable causes being applied to the child. Considering attributional dimensions in combination proved an effective way of identifying incidences of characterological blaming. Limited changes in the form of these attributions, by focusing on change in just one of the dimensions, could convert them into more benign and productive contributions to family conversations.