Attributional Models of Depression, Loneliness, and Shyness

242 CRAIG A. ANDERSON AND LYNN H. ARNOULT
'1982) also report evidence that loneliness is a social-skills problem. In
dyadic interactions between new acquaintances, Jones (1982) found that
lonely people made more self-statements, asked fewer questions, responded
more slowly to their partner's statements, and changed the
topic of conversation more often than did nonlonely people. Possible
consequences of these behavioral patterns were suggested by the finding
that lonely people were perceived as less attractive than nonlonely
people.
Pilkonis (1977) has shown performance differences between shy and
nonshy people in opposite-sex interactions. Subjects reporting for an
experiment were seated next to an opposite-sex confederate for a 5-minute
waiting period. During that time, shy subjects took longer for their
first utterance, spoke less frequently, allowed more long silences to develop,
and were less willing to break silences than the nonshy subjects.
Lewinsohn (1974) provides a cogent discussion of the skill deficit-low
reinforcement position on depression. Several studies have demonstrated
such skills deficits in depressed people. Fisher-Beckfield and
McFall (1982) found incompetence (as measured by their Problem Inventory
for College Students) to be a concomitant of depression. Gotlib
and Asarnow (1979) found a negative relationship between interpersonal
problem-solving ability and depression in mildly and clinically depressed
college students. Lewinsohn, Mischel, Chaplin, and Barton
(1980) had depressed and nondepressed subjects participate in a social
interaction task. Observer ratings of the social interactions yielded effects
suggestive of social skills deficits in the depressed. Coyne (1976)
measured the responses of subjects who interacted with either depressed
or nondepressed target subjects. Subjects reported feeling more
depressed, anxious, and hostile and were more rejecting of the target
when the target was a depressed person. These results all suggest that
the behavior of depressed people might lead to less positively reinforcing
behavior from others.
However, one major problem with the skills approach is that it is often
difficult to know whether a person has failed because of a lack of ability,
a lack of motivation, or interfering anxiety. Such different interpretations
of the poor performances of depressed, lonely, and shy people
yield quite different implications for therapy. We will return to this point
later. In sum, though, it appears that at least part of the problems of
depressed, lonely, and shy people may be caused by their ineffective
behaviors. For some of these people, this may reflect real skill or ability
deficits.