Examined effects of parental behaviors and accuracy of perception of parents' socialization goals on value transmission between parents and children in 82 families. Found strongest predictor of parent-child value congruence to be accuracy of children's perceptions of parents' socialization values. Attributions of values between parents and…

Mothers (n=82) rated dimension of causal attributions for hypothetical situations involving either themselves or their children. Mothers who reported higher levels of depressed mood were more likely to attribute their own negative experiences to internal, controllable, global, and stable factors, and their child's negative experiences to causes…

Notes that coinciding with recent growth of professional interest in relationship counseling has been emergence of important research on cognitive processes of persons in close relationships. Reviews selected findings from this literature which illuminates attributional, self-evaluation, and self-verification processes of participants in close…

Presents research on mothers' reactions to films of children's disobedience. A chronic influence was child-rearing ideology. A temporary influence was affect induced during testing. Attributions and reactions were more negative for immediate than for delayed obedience. Happy mothers reported more negative attributions and reactions than did…

Randomly selected national sample of school psychologists (n=98) completed questionnaire concerning reasons for successful and unsuccessful consultation outcomes. Results suggest that teaching experience of school psychologists may have mediated attributions of causality in consultation. Respondents with teaching experience were less likely to…

Responses by 897 college undergraduates to vignettes describing physically abusive parent-child interactions revealed that aggressively provocative children (compared to nonprovocative children) were ascribed greater blame; male respondents were more likely than females to blame the child; and the child was blamed more when the abusive parent was…

Explored open-ended attributions for success and failure of relatively younger and older men in social and academic situations using between-subjects design. Findings from 109 college students showed that respondents were more likely to make attributions that combined age with other attributional categories than attributions solely to target's…

Preschoolers completed stories about fear, anger, sadness, happiness, and surprise by explaining why a protagonist felt a particular emotion or what the protagonist did when he felt the emotion. Children distinguished causes from consequences for most emotions. Accuracy was not increased when an emotion was specified by a facial expression rather…

Incarcerated male murderers manifested consistent changes in attitudes toward treatment efficacy and their culpability as function of participating in 12-week anger management groups. Four qualitatively different stages were evident during treatment as prisoners' resistive responses were actively encouraged: initial apathy, emerging interest in…

Mothers attributed their children's outcomes to either child-rearing practices, genetics, or environment. It was predicted that mothers of only children and gifted children would attribute more importance to child rearing than would mothers of multiple children and special education children. Predictions were supported across academic, social, and…

A study of 64 mothers and their 3- to 8-year-old children examined mothers' attributions, affect, and proposed behavioral responses regarding 2 forms of noncompliant behavior, direct defiance and passive noncompliance. Findings indicated that mothers regarded children's direct defiance as more intentional and dispositional than passive…

Investigated age differences from early childhood to adulthood in the capacity to understand--in a psychologically meaningful way--traits in stories wherein main characters perform actions based on a positive, negative, or incidental motive that result in an emotional consequence for another character. Found that even 5- to 6-year-olds made trait…

Discusses problems with performance evaluations in academic libraries and examines attribution theory, a sociopsychological theory which helps explain how biases may arise in the performance-evaluation process and may be responsible for producing serious and unrecognized inequities. Considers fairness in performance evaluation and differential…

Describes general components of attribution theory as it applies to social motivation and behavior in children. Reviews research on the subject and its application in context of best practices, cognitive behavioral model of social-skills training. Details use of attributional assessment, modeling, and coaching/reframing for each phase of training.…

Focuses on children's perceptions of the causes, signs, and aftermath of conflict, as well as of fairness and gender differences. Reports the outcome of focus group interviews with second graders through high school students. Describes students responses and uses them to support the idea of peer mediation programs. (DSK)