Attributions

Attributions:

Remembering that attributions are explanations we say to ourselves about events in our lives, in the case of setbacks we can explain them to ourselves using permanent, pervasive, and personal statements. Last week we looked at permanent explanations of setbacks and the effects they can have on us. Let’s now explore pervasive explanations of setbacks, and they effects they can have on us. To begin, it is important to first understand what is meant by pervasive. Pervasive means to have global effects. Where permanent statements effect us for a long time, pervasive affects us on many different levels, changing not just one aspect of ourselves, but several. In this sense we look at ourselves as a person differently, not just the part of ourselves that had a setback. When this happens, we can begin to incorporate the way we feel about the setback into our sense of identity, causing us to see ourselves as a failure. Identification of oneself as a failure often leads to behavior that supports this identity, and future failures. In this way, we continue to prove to ourselves that we are indeed, a failure. In the case of weight loss, this can be detrimental as we may allow one setback, such as a failure to lose weight to change the way we see ourselves, and lead to future weight loss setbacks. As this happens, we make a pattern out of beginning weight loss programs, and lacking follow through, leading to failure after failure. The more we see ourselves as a failure, the more we act like one. To overcome this, and be successful at weight loss, we have to begin to see setbacks as a normal part of the process, and not a direct assessment of ourselves as a person. After all, there are many other ways to determine your worth as a person, and in order to be successful at weight learning, learning to evaluate all of the good things that you do can be very helpful, when you have a weight loss setback! For more info go to ericviskovicz.com