Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology

, Volume 19, Issue 6, pp 645–657 | Cite as

Children's attributions for Peers' positive behaviors: Social status differences

  • Jan N. Hughes
  • M. S. Robinson
  • L. A. Moore
Article
Revised:

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate differences between aggressive-rejected and nonaggressive-cooperative boys in their attributions for peers'positive behaviors. In individual interviews, 27 aggressive-rejected and 27 nonaggressive-accepted boys were presented with 10 vignettes and a real-life situation in which a peer's action resulted in a favorable outcome for another peer or for the subject. Subjects' attributions for the peer's behavior were elicited with open-ended probes. Analysis of variance indicated that the groups did not differ in their tendency to infer positive intentions in the hypothetical story condition. In the real-life situation, aggressive-rejected boys were less likely to infer positive intentionality than were the nonaggressive-accepted boys. Boys' responses across the two conditions (hypothetical and real life) were moderately consistent.

Keywords

Status Difference Social Status Favorable Outcome Real Life Individual Interview 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Plenum Publishing Corporation 1991

Authors and Affiliations

  • Jan N. Hughes
    • 1
  • M. S. Robinson
    • 1
  • L. A. Moore
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of Educational PsychologyTexas A&M UniversityCollege Station

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