Abstract
Children's explanations of their performances are characterized by an increase of internal explanations over external ones. Originally considered a manifestation of cognitive development, this change has more recently been considered as an appropriation of a social norm. Two investigations are presented analyzing development of causal explanations of success and failure in mathematics and drawing. In the first study, two measures of causal attribution are compared in order to show that the use of unipolar scales is more suitable for illustrating differences in causal factors progressively operated by children. The hypothesis of the appropriation of a norm of internality is investigated in the second study. Results do not confirm this hypothesis and further, they cannot be interpreted solely in terms of cognitive development. They are discussed in the frame of a theory of socio-cognitive development.
Résumé
L'explication de la performance chez les enfants est caractérisée par une émergence de la causalité interne au détriment de la causalité externe. Interprété d'abord dans le cadre du développement cognitif, ce processus a été plus récemment analysé sous l'angle de l'acquisition d'une norme sociale. Les auteurs présentent deux études pour examiner l'évolution de l'explication causale de la réussite et de l'échec en mathématiques et en dessin. Dans la première, deux mesures de l'attribution causale sont comparées pour montrer que l'utilisation d'échelles unipolaires est la méthode la plus appropriée pour mettre en évidence la différenciation des facteurs causaux que les enfants opérent progressivement. L'hypothèse de l'acquisition d'une norme d'internalité est examinée dans la seconde étude. Les résultats ne valident pas cette hypothèse et ils ne peuvent être interprétés uniquement en termes de développement cognitif. Ils sont discutés selon la perspective théorique du développement socio-cognitif.
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Clémence, A., Aymard, C. & Roumagnac, P. A developmental study of school performance explanations of 6 to 11-year-olds: Causal differentiation and internality norm. Eur J Psychol Educ 11, 411–425 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173281
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03173281