Investigated the relation between kindergartners', second graders', and fourth graders' attributions of intentionality and inferences of disposition for story characters depicted as having intentionally or accidentally caused harm. (JMB)

Provides further support for the contention held by Thomas, Chess, and Korn (1982) that the concept of difficult temperament is not totally a construction of the parents. (MP)

Assesses the information used by 5- to 13-year-olds to make dispositional attributions. Children were shown a boy interacting with others harmfully. Results of trait adjective ratings and predictions of causal responsibility for subsequent property damage revealed that the use of frequency and covariation information differed with age. (Author/CB)

The theoretical and practical implications of viewing difficult temperament as a characteristic of the individual rather than as a social perception are discussed, with an emphasis on an interactionist view of developmental process. (Author/MP)

Educational research places emphasis on the fact that individuals who have experienced repeated failures may develop an attribution profile characterized by a bias towards primarily external causes. The aim of this study is to compare the attribution style of adolescents with Down's syndrome with that of normal children and adolescents matched for…

Used vignettes to investigate children's integration of information on behavior, body weight, and sex when forming peer impressions. Found that positively behaving peers were liked more and attributed more positive traits than negatively behaving peers. Also found that boys, but not girls, believed that peers would evaluate average weight,…

A meta-analysis of 97 studies published since 1950 that assessed sex differences in scores on objective and projective dependency tests indicated that women consistently obtained higher dependency scores on objective tests, and men obtained higher scores on projective tests. Findings are discussed in terms of sex role socialization. (SLD)

The psychology of emotion has been studied primarily from an intrapsychic perspective. A social psychological perspective of emotion can supplement this intrapsychic approach by examining three areas: (1) controlling the emotions of others; (2) controlling the thoughts of others through emotional expression; and (3) emotional congruence, or the…

This study replicates a previous study in order to reexamine the development of sex biases in middle childhood and adolescence. Four hundred public school students in grades 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 (200 of each sex) assigned desirable and undesirable traits to girls and boys. Twenty-nine traits (15 desirable and 14 undesirable) were selected from the…

Investigated potential differences between nonreferred children with and without callous-unemotional (CU) traits. Found that children with conduct problems, irrespective of CU trait presence, tended to have significant problems in emotional and behavioral regulation. CU traits, irrespective of conduct problem presence, related to a lack of…