The purpose of this study is to identify developmental trends in children's understanding of pity, anger, and guilt by examining changes in their reasoning about the causes of these emotions. Specifically, relationships between perceived controllability of negative events and these three emotions were examined. A total of 120 children between the…

A total of 141 children, aged 6 to 10 years, were read eight illustrated attribution problems involving play and non-play behaviors and were asked to infer information concerning the story character's intrinsic or extrinsic motivation for the behaviors. Children were grouped into three age levels (mean ages 5.9, 8.8 and 10.3 years) for analysis of…

Second and third graders' competence to integrate knowledge of their ability and effort, as they would function in the child's success on a reading task, was examined in terms of the constraints of the stages of the Genevan operativity model. (Author/PN)

Reviews research on the theory of internal-external (IE) control expectancies over the past 30 years. Relates the IE to the following current attributions and personal styles: (1) perceived control; (2) helplessness; and (3) optimism, particularly in regard to health. (FMW)

This document is a literature review discussing research on locus of control, particularly as it relates to early childhood education. Some measures of children's sense of locus of control are discussed, including the Optimism-Pessimism Test Instrument and the Stanford Preschool Internal-External Scale. A discussion of how an educator's sense of…

Discusses improvement in self-concept, self-management of behavior and learning, and reduction of emotional dependence for slow learners which resulted from feelings of personal control and effectiveness when using computer-assisted instruction. Guidelines for improving instructional software and current research investigating effects of computer…