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Attributions for Job Termination and Psychological Distress

Michael V. Miller

Division of Social and Policy Sciences, The University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas 78249; College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, The University of Texas at San Antonio, 6900 North Loop 1604 West, San Antonio, Texas 78249-0655.

Sue Keir Hoppe

Division of Sociology, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, Texas 78284.

The nature of job termination and causal attribution for termination were examined for their association with psychological distress among a sample of working-class men in San Antonio, Texas who had recently become unemployed. Laid-off workers were found to experience significantly lower levels of distress than fired workers, largely because the former overwhelmingly defined job loss as a function of the economy. The fired typically attributed job loss to unfair treatment by employers, and they, like the laid off who made similar attributions, indicated significant distress. Psychological reactivity was by far the highest among fired and laid-off workers who reported having been unjustly terminated because of personal shortcomings or deficiencies. Contrary to conventional thought, job loss self-blame was not found to be associated with high levels of distress.

Key Words: job termination • causal attribution • psychological distress

Human Relations, Vol. 47, No. 3, 307-327 (1994)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679404700304
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