A DEVELOPMENTAL-STUDY OF SCHOOL PERFORMANCE EXPLANATIONS OF 6 TO 11-YEAR-OLDS - CAUSAL DIFFERENTIATION AND INTERNALITY NORM

Children's explanations of their performances are characterized by an increase of internal explanations over external ones. Originally consi dered a manifestation of cognitive development, this change has more r ecently been considered as an appropriation of a social norm. Two inve stigations are presented analyzing development of causal explanations of success and failure in mathematics and drawing. In the first study, two measures of causal attribution al-e compared in order to show tha t the use of unipolar scales is more suitable for illustrating differe nces in causal factors progressively operated by children. The hypothe sis of the appropriation of a norm of internality is investigated in t he second study. Results do not confirm this hypothesis and further, t hey cannot be interpreted sorely in terms of cognitive development. Th ey are discussed in the frame of a theory of socio-cognitive developme nt.