El presente estudio evalúa el estilo atribucional y de autoobservación, con el fin de analizar la naturaleza defensiva del Síndrome del Impostor (SI) y el Pesimismo Defensivo (PD). Estos patrones de comportamiento se caracterizan por mantener unas bajas expectativas de resultado a pesar de una historia importante de éxitos. Realizamos una serie de análisis de regresión jerárquica destinados a explorar las asociaciones relativas entre el SI y el PD, por un lado, y el estilo atribucional y la autoobservación, por otro. Los resultados revelaron que el SI se caracteriza por un patrón atribucional consistente en una externalización de los éxitos, mientras que en el PD lo relevante es una incontrolabilidadde los fracasos; asimismo, el SI, pero no el PD, se asociaba con auto-observación protectora (vs. adquisitiva). En la discusión se comentan las implicaciones de estas tendencias atribucionales para la utilización de diferentes modos de protección contra los fracasos.
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