Researchers find that partners in unhappy marriages make more...

• A. Casual Attributions
• B. Negative Responsibility Attributions
• C. Fantastic Attributions
• D. Unrealistically Positive Attributions

Answer: (B)

Distressed couples often interpret their partner’s actions by attributing negative outcomes to the partner’s own character, not to situational factors. This means they blame the partner for bad events or behaviors as something inherent and stable about who the person is, rather than something that could change with circumstances. That pattern—seeing the partner as responsible for negative events due to their underlying traits—fits the idea of negative responsibility attributions.

In contrast, other options don’t capture this pattern. General causal attributions aren’t specifically about assigning blame to the partner’s character for negative events, and attributing things in overly fantastic or unrealistically positive ways would reflect an overly favorable view, not the pessimistic attributions seen in unhappy marriages.