The discussion up to this point has focused on research in social cognition. In this chapter and the following one, the discussion broadens to aspects of social cognition in personality and abnormal psychology, areas which show important practical implications of the various issues. Critical analyses hold that self-perceptions and cognitions are often illusory, a view shared by discourse analysts and positivist (or behavioural) psychologists. In explaining these illusions, however, critical analyses attribute illusions to motivational factors, rather than the adventitious stimuli or information-processing errors emphasized in other accounts. The critical models also link illusions to relations between two parties, rather than the effect of merely one cognitive agency.

This chapter examines cognitive distortions and illusions produced in research on attribution, locus of control, and learned helplessness. The discussion first considers the information-processing versus motivation dispute, then offers a critical interpretation of illusions produced in studies dealing with attribution, locus of control, misattribution therapy, and learned helplessness. A brief final section examines attempts to demonstrate intentional action by inducing an internal locus control.

The information-processing versus motivation dispute

Several authors advance the idea that illusions are a function of motivation, in the form of people's attempts to raise their own self-esteem.