Children's Causal Ascriptions for Positive and Negative Interpersonal Outcomes

Abstract

This experiment assessed how children of high and low social status in the classroom attributed the causes of positive and negative interpersonal outcomes for themselves and others. 80 fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children ( n = 40 males and 40 females) were classified as high or low social status using a sociometric technique. Subjects were asked to attribute the causes of 24 written descriptions of positive and negative interpersonal outcomes. Children of high status tended to attribute the causes of positive outcomes internally and negative ones externally, while lows were more external for positive and internal for negative outcomes. Children of high status tended to view the causes of their own and another's behavior for positive outcomes congruently, whereas lows acted according to the Jones and Nisbett (1971) actor-observer bias. Implications were made for the cognitive correlates of social interaction.