DEVELOPMENTAL DIFFERENCES IN USE OF DISTINCTIVENESS, CONSENSUS, AND CONSISTENCY INFORMATION FOR MAKING CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS

Examined developmental differences in the use of distinctiveness, consensus, and consistency information for making causal attributions. 144 1st, 3rd and 6th graders and college students were presented with brief story pairs consisting of an act manifested by an agent toward a target person. Each story in a pair was accompanied by a different level of a particular type of information (e.g., high consensus for one and low consensus for the other). Ss were asked to make causal inferences about both the agents and the targets. Results reveal significant age-related differences in the ability to use each type of information. Young children's use of distinctiveness information yielded the predicted agent attributions significantly more often than it yielded the predicted target attributions, while the reverse was true for consensus information. Findings are interpreted in terms of causal principles: Information was used in the predicted manner at a younger age when a covariation principle was required than when a discounting principle was required. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1978 American Psychological Association.