Explanatory Style - Personalization

Your Explanatory Style is the positive or negative twist you give to occurrences. How you normally interpret the cause of the events in your life. It demonstrates your level of optimism or pessimism. Personalization is one of 3 dimensions of this. The other two dimensions are: Permanence - is this a one time happening or is this the way it always is? and Pervasiveness -does this happen in all areas of life or is it specific to this one area or person? If you are habitually negative in any of these dimensions you can be subject to bouts of depression. The more dimensions that are negative the more likely you are to be depressed.

The Personalization dimension of Explanatory style refers to wether your belief is that the cause is internal or external. That is, specific to you or is something outside of you: "It's all my fault. I'm stupid" vs. "That was bad luck." or "She's smart."

If your explanatory style is or leans toward personalizing events you tend to take the blame or credit for things, even when you shouldn't. Of course the worst is when you almost always take the blame for bad things, but rarely take the credit for good things.

Personalization is closely tied to your self esteem and self concept. If you think well of yourself, you can take responsibility without taking the blame.

The danger of having your personalization style as external for bad events, which is generally considered a good thing, is that you might fall into the trap of never taking responsibility for your actions. It's always something or someone else's fault, never your own. This is the only aspect of Explanatory Style that has a danger with too much of a good thing.

Depressed people often blame themselves first. Taking on more responsibility than they should. This personalization dimension of explanatory style must be balanced as no other dimension needs. You don't want to promote depression or arrogance.

Here's a chart to illustrate the differences for the different type of events. I've highlighted in green the more positive way of explaining the cause of the event.

Event	Internal	External
Threw a good party	I was a good host. I invited the right mix of people	I was lucky everyone got along. My friends know how to have a good time.
got sick	I have a poor immune system I'm not careful enough around others.	The flu is going around. Tom gave me the flu.
Losing at cards	I am lousy at cards. I can't keep track of everything I should.	The cards just didn't fall my way. She got all the luck.
Wining at cards	I really played those cards right. I worked well with my partner.	My partner was good. I was lucky.
Cheating on your diet	I have no will power I have the worst luck.	My friends weren't very considerate of my diet in pushing me to have that dessert.
Getting refused for a date	I must have bad breath or something. I'm too fat for anyone to want to be with.	I must have caught her at a bad time. She doesn't know what she's missing.

Explaining bad events with explanations that are internal, blaming it on something you did or an aspect of your person ("I didn't study") is good for taking necessary responsibility, but bad for your self esteem if you over do it ("I'm stupid"). But the external style, blaming it on something outside of yourself, ("The teacher made the test too hard." ) can keep you from making necessary changes, like studying harder or getting help. The other dimensions of Explanatory Style don't require such balance.

Optimism is required for overcoming adversity and pushing forward in life. Pessimism is required for realistic planning. Overall having an optimistic Style is the happier way to live.

As I said in my article Explanatory Style, your Style is closely linked to your Self Concept and therefore Self Esteem. Which is all part of your personal beliefs. Beliefs are VERY powerful and this is another aspect of this power.

Cognitive Behavior Therapy has been shown to be the most effective in combating depression and a negative explanatory style is one of the biggest contributors toward depression. Improve your Explanatory Style and you improve your life.

Read the articles on each of the dimensions then read about Changing Your Thoughts to become more optimistic.

Let me know what you think about this article by submitting a Comment. I'll post appropriate comments. Maybe your comment will help someone else.