Harris, B. (1977). Developmental differences in the attribution of responsibility. Developmental Psychology, 13(3), 257-265.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.13.3.257
Investigated possible developmental differences in attributions of responsibility and causality for an interpersonal event. The procedure involved 240 male and female students from Grades 1, 3, 6, 8, and 65 college students watching videotaped scenes of a young female actress breaking a chair. Each S saw one scene from a set of 5 scenes, designed to represent F. Heider's (1958) levels of increasingly internal causation. After viewing the videotaped scene, each S was asked to make attributions of causality and "naughtiness" to the chair breaker. It was predicted that overall, Ss' attributions would show effects for Ss' grade, the level of the videotaped event, and the interaction of these 2 factors. These 3 effects were significant for the measure of causality, while for the measure of moral attribution, the 2 main effects were significant and the interaction approached significance (p < .09). In addition, the pattern of the data was consistent with predictions based on Heider's theory of social attribution. These results are also discussed in relation to J. Piaget's (1932) theory of moral development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)