Re-attribution Therapy to Treat Explanatory Biases in Vulnerable Families

One issue that appears frequently in child protection courts and family courts is that parents have difficulty explaining important incidents in ways that appear objective, where they take reasonable responsibility for their own actions. A psychological theory about attributions is presented that explains how people describe their successes and failures. The chapter applies principles from attribution theory to explanations given by parents in court to justify their parenting actions. The chapter goes on to present a re-attribution therapy that helps parents who use dysfunctional thinking styles to think more accurately and to accept responsibility for their actions and for the predictable outcomes of their actions.