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Young children's causal attributions and performance expectations on skilled tasks
Author(s) -
Nesdale A. R.,
Pope S.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-835x.1985.tb00970.x
Subject(s) - attribution , psychology , task (project management) , developmental psychology , causality (physics) , social psychology , physics , management , quantum mechanics , economics
This study examined 4‐ and 7‐year‐old children's causal attributions of their successes and failures on skilled tasks and their performance expectations on subsequent tasks. The children either consistently succeeded (S‐S) or failed (F‐F), or experienced success followed by failure (S‐F) or failure followed by success (F‐S), on two tasks. The results indicated that both age groups perceived the ease or difficulty of the task as the main cause of their success or failure, respectively. In addition, expectations were systematically related to success and failure and appeared to be mediated by their causal attributions.