Experience of Training

IntroductionPeople attribute events, particularly successes and failures, to causes, whether they are real or imagined. (Wong, 2001, 650) Such causal attributions may be classified in several dimensions, such as internality (due to oneself or to external factors), stability, pervasiveness, and controllability. (Weiner, 2005, 548) These dimensions can be used to measure, by questionnaire, or content analysis, an individual's characteristic attributional style, which correlates with susceptibility to clinical depression and physical illness, risk of relapse in depression, low motivation and poor achievement in education and athletics, job satisfaction, and sales performance. (Corr , 2005, 241) Individuals who typically attribute their failures to internal, stable, and global factors, and their successes to external, temporary, and specific causes, are most vulnerable to poor persistence, impaired performance, and depression. (Abramson, 1998, 50) Clinically, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) can modify attributional style, and can have beneficial effects in depression and other psychiatric disorders. (Hawton, 1999, Press)Unemployment is associated with personal, financial, and social restrictions, which can affect psychological health.

unemployment

Unemployment

English: CBT framework

The proportion of unemployed people who score above the cut-off point for "psychiatric caseness" on the general health questionnaire (GHQ) (Goldberg, 2002, Press) is typically 60%, compared with 20% among employed groups. (Warr, 2004, 4) Long-term unemployment typically brings further difficulties, such as psychological changes that can prevent re-employment. (Warr, 1998, 47) Reduced self-esteem, self-efficacy, and expectations of success all decrease the likelihood of a successful outcome in job-seeking, or may reduce the motivation to seek work at all. Many long-term unemployed people cease to believe in their ability to regain employment. (Eden, 2003, 353) The personal cost of unemployment can, therefore, be substantial. There are also, of course, substantial costs to society.

There is a clear need for interventions to assist unemployed people to reduce the negative psychological impacts of unemployment and to help...