[6][5] This structure explains the fact that individuals often differ in their emotional and stress responses when they are presented with similar situations.
[2][8] Coping behaviors constitute the moderating factor between events and circumstances on one hand and psychological outcomes, like well-being or mental disorders, on the other.
A classification of self-blame into characterological and behavioral types has been proposed to distinguish whether individuals are putting blame on changeable or unchangeable causes.
This division, first proposed by Janoff-Bulman,[1] defines behavioral self-blame (BSB) as causal attribution of an event's occurrence to specific, controllable actions that the individual took.
Characterological self-blame (CSB), on the other hand, is attribution of blame to factors of the self that are uncontrollable and stable over time (e.g. “I am the type of person that gets taken advantage of”).
[13] These factors closely correspond to CSB and BSB definitions, and so the study provides some theoretical support that individuals assign self-blame differently to unchoosable characteristics and choices they have made.
[10][15] CSB mediated the relationship between bullying victimization and anxiety, loneliness, and low-self worth in middle-school students, while BSB had no positive or negative effect on well-being.
[1] One study of Ullman and colleagues[12] found no effect of CSB to predict PTSD or depressive symptoms from sexual abuse.
Parents of children killed by sudden infant death syndrome showed no predictive relationship of BSB or CSB and future distress.
Studies that conflate the terms of self-blame tend to find negative psychological impacts;[8][17][18][19] the notable exception is the seminal Bulman & Wortman study[20] of accident paralysis victims, which noted the adaptive effect of self-blame to improve victims’ recovery.
[1] Self-blame might lead to an increase in perceived control and a decrease in the belief of random chance, which would motivate other coping strategies in turn.
[15][22] On the other hand, CSB could still be a maladaptive form of coping because uncontrollable characteristics (e.g. gender, personality) are responsible for negative events[8] Research on perceived control as a mediator of the relationship between self-blame, non-self-blame coping strategies, and well-being outcomes has shown mixed results.
[12] Individuals that blame powerful groups in society for occurrence of sexual assault showed negative effects on perceived control and psychological well-being[17] The hopelessness theory of depression proposes that depression is caused by two variables: attribution of negative events to stable and global causes, and other cognitive factors like low self-esteem (Krith, 2014).
CSB attributions seem likely to cause helplessness, since individuals believe they are powerless to control the characteristics that lead to negative events.
Dweck[23] noted that individuals that believe outcomes are uncontrollable are more likely to be debilitated by setbacks, procrastinate or avoid stressors, and show greater stress responses.
In short, theorists believe that the type of cause to which events are attributed is a central factor of effectiveness of blame.
[22] Exploratory neuroscientific evidence has found a distinct sign of connectivity abnormality associated with general self-blame.
Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine brain regions and connections associated with self-blame.
Counterfactual thinking involves the consideration of alternative possibilities that could have occurred, like how a stressful event or loss could have been avoided.
[17] A study by Frazier, Mortensen, & Steward[21] emphasizes the importance of the time-frame in which an individual perceives himself or herself to have control.
Concretely, resources include psychological well-being, systems of social support, intellectual ability, resilience, and more.
Empirically, both CSB and BSB have been found to concurrently associate with continuation in an abusive relationship and with major depressive disorder.
[13][15] These findings suggest that individuals who lack social support, are undergoing high levels of stress, or have impaired cognitive abilities due to mental disorder might practice self-blame because it is a coping mechanism that requires little investment of resources (citation).
[22] Meaning-making models describe coping as strategies that extract some knowledge or fortitude from the occurrence of a negative event.
Meaning-making theorists are distinct from other theories on self-blame by their emphasis on beliefs of the individual before stress occurs.
Alternately, the individual might blame him- or herself in order not perceive others as threatening or aggressive; self-blame has been shown to correlate with benign attributions made by victims of catcalling, for example.
[6] Positive reappraisal, or trying to reevaluate situations to focus on helpful or fulfilling aspects, seems to be an especially effective coping strategy that is endorsed by CBT.
However, behavioral self-blame may correlate with or motivate problem-focused coping by giving the individual a sense that negative events are avoidable in the future.
[16] Behavioral self-blame may come from a false belief in control, and this could lead individuals to try their hand at unsolvable problems, like staying in an abusive relationship.
Of particular relevance to self-blame is the importance to use measures that distinguish between CSB and BSB, which differ in their prevalence, attributions they make on controllability of the future, and their associated outcomes.