JUSTIFICATION OF CONTROL BELIEFS IN CHILD REN AND ADOLESCENTS

To 469 subjects of age 7 to 16 from primary and secondary schools in S witzerland we individually described ten possible tasks and asked for each of them whether they felt able to perform them successfully. Imme diately afterwards the subjects were asked why he or she thought so. T he justifications given by the subjects were reliably classified into ten categories. The observed frequencies varied with respect to tasks and to age (no interaction). Control-beliefs in social tasks as compar ed to non-social tasks were more often 'justified' with reference to a ctions strategies and to the control share of other participant person s. Referring to dipositions (self-schemata), to emotions or motives, a nd to rules increased with age, while referring to action strategies a nd to critical characteristics of the task decreased with age. Referen ces to autobiographical episodes was more frequent in case of belief i n having control over a given task than in case of belief in lacking c ontrol over a given task; the reverse was true for the reference to ta sk participants.