Self-behavior focus of attention as a determinant of children's and adults' attributions to stories with negative outcomes

Abstract

This study explored characteristics of attributions made to negative outcome stories by fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-graders as well as college students. All subjects read six stories representing three stories for each of two levels (self-focus and behavior-focus) of a within-subjects factor, Focus of Attention. Dependent measures included both spontaneous attributions and structured evaluations on the dimensions of causality, responsibility, blame, and deservingness. Analyses of the spontaneous attributions indicated that Self attributions were more frequently given than either Behavior or External attributions to both self- and behavior-focus stories. The experimental manipulation of internal focus produced matching attributions only in the self manipulation. Analyses of the structured evaluations indicated that subjects used Cause and Responsibility interchangeably but only eighth-graders and college students differentiated Cause/Responsibility from both Blame and Deservingness. Cause/Responsibility was also shown to have more salience in the behavior-than self-focus stories. It is suggested that a verbal focus on behavior has limited effects in producing defensive, self-distanced attributions but may heighten evaluations of Cause/Responsibility. In addition, behavior-focus seems to have little effect on the development of the psychologically more complex evaluations of blame and deservingness.