An attributional approach to counseling was investigated in two separate studies. In Experiment 1 the theoretical basis for the use of attributional interpretations was tested by giving individuals who had just received a negative social evaluation no information or information that stressed one of four types of causes: internal/controllable, internal/uncontrollable, external/controllable, and external/uncontrollable. Results indicated that stressing internal/ controllable causes produced more

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... ositive affective reactions and performance evaluations among internal locus of control respondents, whereas e\-\ ternals were more variable in their responses. Experiment 2 assessed the generalizability of these findings by administering causal counseling to individuals who identified themselves as interpersonally anxious. Utilizing a quasicounseling design, participants were exposed to one of two interpretations emphasizing internal control or coping. The results of Experiment 2 confirmed initial conclusions that the effectiveness of causal counseling may depend on the individual's locus of control.