BLAMING OTHERS FOR THREATENING EVENTS

Despite inconsistent findings, studies of how people adapt to threatening events continue to focus on the impact of self-blame. We review 25 published studies that have reported, usually as an incidental finding, the adaptational impact of blaming others for threatening events. Blaming others for one's misfortune is associated with impairments in emotional well-being and physical health Five potential explanations for this relation are examined. Three are derived from a psychoanalytic perspective that views blaming others as a developmental diathesis. The other two-learned helplessness and excuse theory-come from the social psychology literature. We demonstrate that none of these theories explain the observed pattern of findings and that the evidence to date poses some genuine challenges to psychodynamic and social psychological theories of adaptation to life crises We then present a model that differentiates situational factors and personal characteristics influencing the occasion for blaming others from intrapersonal and interpersonal factors that make such blaming maladaptive. A conceptual and empirical shift in focus from self-blame to other-blame may yield heuristic benefits.