Causal Attribution of Mood in the Climacterium

Abstract

This study looked at the sources of attribution used by pre- and post-menopausal women to explain mood. A booklet was administered to two groups of forty women each, one group aged forty to forty-five and the other group aged fifty-two to fifty-seven. The booklet contained a diary written by a middle-aged woman, and three independent variables (menopausal status, family situation, and mood) were varied in eight different versions of the story. The participants were required to rate the degree to which menopausal symptoms, environment, and age were likely causes of the woman's mood. The results suggest that the older group of women place more importance on the environment as a source of attribution; both groups give weight to age, but the younger group uses age continually, whereas the older group uses it when family behavior does not explain mood. Both groups rated menopausal symptoms as a salient source of attribution when the woman's mood was negative.