Multidimensional unfolding of children's causal beliefs: One aspect of construct validation

Abstract

A two-dimensional assessment device of children’s causal beliefs was constructed on the basis of four perceived causes of success and failure consequences, given 12 situations, each describing circumstances for a consequence. The four perceived causes, ability (A), effort (E), task difficulty (T), and luck (L), were defined in terms of two a prior dimensions (i.e., internality and stability) according to Weiner’s (1974) theory of causal attribution. Four hundred and fifty-nine Grade 3, 4, 5, and 6 children were asked to make preference judgments over 72 paired comparisons. The data matrices thus obtained were subjected to a multidimensional preference scaling method based on a vector model (Carroll, 1972). The internal analysis recovered the two causal dimensions perceived by children as hypothesized by the model. This internal structural aspect of the construct validity was found to be accompanied by a moderately high test-retest reliability.