"Arts, Faculty of"@en . "Psychology, Department of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Maas, Elizabeth"@en . "2010-02-15T23:12:26Z"@en . "1976"@en . "Doctor of Philosophy - PhD"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "Ninety children from grades 2, 4 and 6 responded to a multiple choice Mental Health Concepts Questionnaire and to interview questions concerning characters in cartoon strips who displayed mentally retarded, crippled, neurotic, and autistic behaviour. All children were administered the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). Questionnaire special response scales and interview comprehension scores were analysed by 3-level 1-way ANOVAs; comprehension scores were also analysed by 1-way repeated measures ANOVAs; Qualitative interview data were coded and then analysed by ANOVAs of proportions. Favorability data for each character were analysed by a.3-way between-within ANOVA. Pearson correlations revealed significant relationships among total questionnaire scores, comprehension scores and PPVT scores at all grade levels. Six questionnaire special response scales suggested several patterns. Grade 2 children tended to associate mental health concepts with medical terms and to believe conditions could change with effort more than higher grades did. With age, children were less likely to perceive behaviour as attention-seeking and more likely to associate behaviour with familial factors. Grade 4 children associated retardation and mental illness with inability to change more than children in the other grades did. Increasingly with age, children associated terms which include the word \"mental\" with retardation. Interviews elicited responses to questions on etiology, control and change for the four behaviours. Children shifted from believing that behaviours were self-induced to perceiving behaviours as reflections of environmental influences. Grade 2 children believed the characters would outgrow their behaviours or could change their behaviours through effort. Grade 4 children, more than children in the other grades, tended to cite the role of environmentally-initiated help in facilitating change. Effort, self-reflection and environmental reinforcement were major channels of change suggested by grade 6 children. Autistic and neurotic characters were rated less favorably than the crippled or retarded characters. Results were considered within a social-cognitive developmental frame-work. Grade differences reflected the young child's cognitive decentering and increasing exposure to social attitudes. By grade 6, many children have adopted prevalent adult attitudes toward emotionally disturbed behaviour."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/20219?expand=metadata"@en . "CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF EMOTIONALLY, MENTALLY, AND PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED BEHAVIOURS AND RELATED MENTAL HEALTH CONCEPTS: A DEVELOPMENTAL STUDY by ELIZABETH MAAS B.A., University of C a l i f o r n i a , 1971 M.A., Swarthmore College, 1973 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY i n the Department of Psychology We accept t h i s thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA June, 1976 of s i x c h i l d r e n i n e a c h o f g r a d e s 1 , 2 , 4 , 6 , and 7 . A l l c h i l d r e n were l i v i n g i n a n e i g h b o u r h o o d o f l o w - c o s t h o u s i n g on t h e U n i v e r s i t y o f B r i t i s h C o l u m b i a endowment l a n d s , and a l l c h i l d r e n h a d p a r e n t a l p e r m i s s i o n t o answer t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e . C h i l d r e n i n t h e u p p e r t h r e e g r a d e s were a b l e t o r e s p o n d t o t he q u e s t i o n n a i r e on t h e i r own; t he e x p e r i m e n t e r (E) r e a d t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e t o each c h i l d i n g r a d e s 1 and 2 i n d i v i d u a l l y . A l l i t e m s on t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e were e i t h e r d e f i n i t i o n s o r c o n c e r n e d w i t h t h e e t i o l o g y o r t r e a t m e n t o f m e n t a l d i s o r d e r s . Any i t e m w h i c h was e i t h e r c o r r e c t l y o r i n c o r r e c t l y answe red by a l l c h i l d -r e n i n t h e p r e - p i l o t g roup was d i s c a r d e d and s e v e r a l i t e m s were r ewo rded b e c a u s e c h i l d r e n had f o u n d them c o n f u s i n g . A 5 7 - i t e m m u l t i p l e - c h o i c e q u e s t i o n n a i r e ( A p p e n d i x C) was t h e n d e v i s e d composed o f t h r e e k i n d s o f q u e s t i o n s : (1) d e -f i n i t i o n s o f m e n t a l h e a l t h l a b e l s (25 i t e m s ) , f o r e x a m p l e , \"What does i n s a n e mean?\" o r \"What i s a p s y c h o l o g i s t ? \" ; (2) a s p e c t s o f m e n t a l h e a l t h d i s o r d e r s s u c h as e t i o l o g y and t r e a t m e n t (16 i t e m s ) , f o r e x a m p l e , \"How do most p e o p l e become m e n t a l l y i l l ? \" o r \" I f y o u knew someone who was m e n t a l l y r e t a r d e d and y o u w a n t e d to h e l p h i m , who w o u l d you send h i m t o ? \" ; (3) e x p l a n a t i o n s o f u n -l a b e l e d n e u r o t i c o r p s y c h o t i c b e h a v i o u r (16 i t e m s ) , f o r e x a m p l e , \" A g i r l f e e l s t h a t e v e r y b o d y h a t e s h e r and wan t s t o h u r t h e r , e v e n t h o u g h t h i s i s no t t r u e . Why does she f e e l t h a t w a y ? \" A p i l o t g roup o f s i x t e e n g rade 2 c h i l d r e n , t h i r t y - t w o g rade 4 c h i l d r e n , and s i x t e e n g r a d e 6 c h i l d r e n r e s p o n d e d t o t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e . E i g h t o f t h e 17 children from each grade level were students at Immaculate Conception School. The remaining children were obtained from a ride pool and babysitting l i s t in a neighbourhood heavily populated with children. The experimenter contacted parents individually to obtain permission for children to respond to the questionnaire. None of these children, nor any of the pre-pilot children, par-ticipated further i n any part of the study with the exception of eight grade 2 children who read the cartoon strips to determine whether the vocabulary and behaviours were comprehensible to them. An item analysis of these results provided data for the selection of the items for the f i n a l questionnaire. . The grade 4 children's responses were the basis for the item analysis, while the grade 2 and grade 6 children's responses were used to determine the presence of floor or ceiling effects respectively. The 37 items selected ranged in correlation with the total score from .20 to .87 with a mean of .48. Rel i a b i l i t y of the Final Questionnaire. The f i n a l 37 item questionnaire (Appendix D) consisted of 16 items of definitions of mental health diagnostic labels, 11 items concerned with aspects of behaviour disorders, and 10 items describing disturbed behaviours. Two professors of c l i n i c a l psychology and 12 graduate students of c l i n i c a l psychology answered the questionnaire to en-sure that the answers designated \"correct\" were agreed upon by a group of \"experts\". On 35 of the items, a l l respondents agreed 100%. On one item (9), two graduate students disagreed with the other 12 respondents, and on one item (31), six students' answers disagreed with the answers of the majority. The latter item was discarded. Two grade 2 teachers read the questionnaire to ensure that a l l words, except the diagnostic labels themselves, were known to grade 2 children. 18 The questionnaire was assessed for internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. As presented i n Table 1, the r e l i a b i l i t i e s , especially for grade 2, were low and may have been the result of a number of factors. F i r s t , a major problem in designing this instrument concerned the age range for which i t was to be used. This necessitated including items covering a greater range of d i f f i c u l t y than i s desirable whiichnp^roib'ablyslowefedetKepreliability, es- : peciall-y- MrsgEddehtwG^-G&il'clK^nT\u00E2\u0080\u00A2' Two additional conditions contributed to the low r e l i a b i l i t i e s : the short length of the test and the lack of control over the individual child's incentive or effort. Although a longer pi l o t test might have made i t possible to create a better f i n a l instrument, i t would have been d i f f i c u l t , due to restraints imposed by school principals, to obtain per-mission to have additional time for each subject. Finally, i t was d i f f i c u l t to measure an individual child's efforts. Some children concentrated more intently on the test than others. Children who completed the questionnaire rapidly were not always the fastest readers in the class, according to teachers' reports. Some children asked E_ to pronounce d i f f i c u l t words while others did not ask for any assistance. Especially with the youngest children, v a r i a b i l i t y in test concentration may have contributed to the low r e l i a b i l i t y . Special Response Scales. In addition to the total number of correct re-sponses the child obtained on the questionnaire, the type of wrong answers the child selected were also of interest. Patterns of incorrect responding some-times expressed coherent ideologies. For example, eight items offered a \"medi-cal \" response, an answer reflecting a confusion or overidentification of mental health concepts with physical health concepts. The response \"A person is sick i n bed and has a bandage on his head, usually from a bad shock.\" to the question \"What does mental illness mean?\" is classified as a medical response. TABLE 1 ' Cronbach's^Alpha Coefficients for Total. Questionnaire--'(Q ) Questiohriiaire Scales and Favorability Measure Grade 2 4 6 QT .58 .77 .78 \"Medical\" Scale .80 .79 .86 \" E f f o r t \" Scale .78 .79 .48 \"Attention\" Scale .87 .79 .50 \"Family\" Scale .79 .56 .77 \"Retardation\" Scale .63 .65 .63 \"No Change\" Scale .70 .61 .71 Favorability Measure .78 a .74b .79\u00C2\u00B0 a This i s based upon ratings of Chris, b This i s based upon ratings of Les. c.This i s based upon ratings of Sandy. 20 Similarly, to suggest \"getting medicine from a doctor\" as a way to help a person who is \"very very nervous a l l the time\" implies the respondent be-lieved medicine i s the best of the ways offered to deal with anxiety. While the \"medical\" responses on a few of the items in t h i s M scale might be con-sidered plausible answers, in each case a better answer is also provided. For example, a better treatment for the very very nervous person than the one given above would be to \"talk to a certain kind of doctor about her feelings\". With each of the special response scales in the questionnaire, the Tightness or wrongness of the answers i s less important than the general patterns of attitudes that they reveal. The \"attention\" or A scale includes four items; i n each item, one re-sponse suggests that the behaviour in question simply reflects the individual's attempt to get attention. The explanation that the g i r l who feels everybody hates her and wants to hurt her i s \"just feeling sorry for herself and wants to get attention from the teacher\" exemplifies this kind of. response. The \"effort\" or J_ scale is composed of four items, each offering one answer which suggests that simply by trying harder, an individual could over-come a problem. The very very nervous person, for example, would be \"fine i f she just tries very very hard not to be nervous\". Each of the five items comprising the \"family\" or F_ scale offered the choice of a \"family\" response. For each item, the family response;; attributed the behaviour described in the question to parental or familial influences. A law-breaker didn't have a good family l i f e , or the parents of a compulsive litter-saver made him be very clean when he was young. The \"retarded\" or R scale includes four items. Each provided an answer which allowed children to relate the concepts of \"mental hospital\" or \"mental i l l n e s s \" to the concept of \"retardation\". For example, the beliefs that only 21 mentally .retarded individuals go to mental hospitals, or that most mentally i l l people are retarded reflect this conceptualization of terms which include the word mental. Finally, the \"no change\" or N scale includes four items, each of which states that a mentally retarded or mentally i l l person cannot be helped or w i l l never change. The alpha r e l i a b i l i t i e s for each of the six special response scales are given i n Table 1. Character Cartoon Strips Four classes of physical or behavioural handicaps to which children might have been exposed were selected. Four characters, each of whom depicted a d i f -ferent kind of handicap, were created, each appearing in a classroom scene and in a schoolyard scene. The characters included (1) an anxious, self-deprecating child; (2) an autistic, withdrawn child; (3) a mildly mentally retarded child; and (4) a physically handicapped child. (See Appendix E for copies of the cartoon strips).) Characters were drawn asexually to avoid biases which might influence children's reactions. To select asexual names for the characters, seven uni-versity students rated eleven names as \"female\", \"male\" or \"either\". The four names receiving the greatest number of \"either\" ratings were randomly as-signed to the characters. These names were Les, Sandy, Chris and Corry. To assess the content validity of the strips, eight c l i n i c a l psychology graduate students and six psychology undergraduate students were asked to read the strips and briefly describe the characters. The students responses agreed 100% on the nature of each character's problem. Eight grade 2 children from the pilot group read the strips to ensure 22 that the vocabulary was within their range and that the general behavioural patterns of the characters were comprehensible to children at that age level. Although a few children had d i f f i c u l t y reading the strips themselves, none had any d i f f i c u l t y explaining the characters' general problems to the experimenter i f she read the strip aloud to the child. Adjective Sheets Six adjectives were selected to be presented on a four point scale as a rough \"favorability\" measure. The adjectives were clean/dirty, strong/weak, rich/poor, honest/not honest, good/bad, brave/cowardly. No adjective whose rating would be affected directly by the cartoon drawing was chosen and only adjectives which could be used for a l l four characters were included. Adjec-tive pairs such as healthy/sick, smart/stupid, friendly/unfriendly or polite/ rude were not selected because in each case, the adjective pair was inappro-priate for one of the characters. Adjectives were arranged randomly on the adjective sheet, and positioning of the positive and negative forms of the adjectives was systematically varied to prevent children from selecting adjectives in the same position and with the same value in each row. A l l adjective sheets presented to the subjects were identical (Appendix F). To evaluate the r e l i a b i l i t y of the favorability measure, the internal consistency of the adjectives was assessed for one character at each grade level. The retarded, autistic and neurotic characters were randomly matched with the three grade levels. Results are presented in Table 1. Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) The PPVI. Form A was employed in this study. The PPVT IQ score provides a rough estimate of verbal intelligence through receptive knowledge of voca-bulary (Dunn, 1965). Because principals at both schools had expressed 23 c o n s i d e r a b l e c o n c e r n f o r t he amount o f t i m e e a c h c h i l d was t o be ou t o f h e r o r h i s c l a s s r o o m , t he PPVT was c h o s e n as a b r i e f measure t o a s s u r e t h e homo-g e n e i t y o f t he s a m p l e . I n a d d i t i o n , u n l i k e many measu res o f I Q , i t was n o t o f f e n s i v e t o e i t h e r t he p a r e n t s o r t h e p r i n c i p a l s . The a s s u m p t i o n t h a t r e c o g n i t i o n v o c a b u l a r y and v e r b a l d e f i n i t i o n v o c a b u -l a r y a r e m e a s u r i n g v e r b a l i n t e l l i g e n c e \" i n t h e same w a y \" has been q u e s t i o n e d ( P i e r s , 1 9 6 5 , p . 8 2 2 ) . T h i s d i s t i n c t i o n o f t e n n o t e d by c l i n i c i a n s be tween \" r e c e p t i v e \" v o c a b u l a r y and \" e x p r e s s i v e \" v o c a b u l a r y , h o w e v e r , a p p e a r s t o be b a s e d upon t h e d i f f e r e n c e s i n methods o f a s s e s s m e n t r a t h e r t h a n upon any e v i -dence w h i c h s u g g e s t s t h a t t h e y a r e , i n f a c t , two d i s t i n c t a b i l i t i e s . V e r b a l a b i l i t y , a t r a i t r e c o g n i z e d s i n c e T h u r s t o n e ' s p i o n e e r i n g work i n t h e f i e l d o f m e n t a l a b i l i t i e s ( T h u r s t o n e , 1 9 3 8 ) , i s d e f i n e d by p s y c h o l o g i s t s s t u d y i n g i n d i -v i d u a l d i f f e r e n c e s as o n e ' s u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e s p o k e n o r w r i t t e n w o r d . The way i n w h i c h t h a t u n d e r s t a n d i n g i s d e m o n s t r a t e d , w h e t h e r b y v e r b a l i z i n g o r by p o i n t i n g , i s n o t i m p o r t a n t f o r t h e t r a i t b e i n g m e a s u r e d . A c c o r d i n g t o H a k s t i a n and C a t t e l l ( 1 9 7 4 ) , v e r b a l a b i l i t y , w h i c h f o c u s e s upon c o m p r e h e n s i o n o f w o r d s , i s d i s t i n c t f r o m wo rd f l u e n c y o r t h e p r o d u c t i o n o f words and \"may be t h e b e s t s i n g l e c o n t r i b u t o r t o t r a d i t i o n a l l y d e f i n e d g e n e r a l i n t e l l i g e n c e ( H a k s t i a n and C a t t e l l , 1 9 7 4 , p . 1 4 6 ) \" . The P P V T , w h i c h measures wha t p s y c h o l o g i s t s o f i n d i v i d u a l d i f f e r e n c e s t e r m \" v e r b a l a b i l i t y \" , i s c o n s i d e r e d t h e r e f o r e an a p -p r o p r i a t e t o o l t o p r o v i d e an a s s e s s m e n t o f c h i l d r e n ' s v e r b a l i n t e l l i g e n c e . P r o c e d u r e E a c h c h i l d i n t he t e s t g roup was i n d i v i d u a l l y i n t e r v i e w e d f o r a p p r o x i m a t e -l y 2 5 - 3 0 m i n u t e s . An i n t r o d u c t o r y c h a t abou t t he c h i l d ' s f a m i l y o r s c h o o l p u t t h e c h i l d a t e a s e ; no c h i l d seemed t o o u n c o m f o r t a b l e to answer t h e q u e s t i o n s as w e l l as he o r she c o u l d . 24 I n the p r e t e s t r u n o f t he c a r t o o n s t r i p s , i t became a p p a r e n t t h a t a l -t h o u g h most g rade 2 c h i l d r e n w e r e c a p a b l e o f r e a d i n g t h e s t r i p s , t h e c o n s i d e r -a b l e e f f o r t r e q u i r e d o f many o f them w o u l d h a v e r e d u c e d t h e i r c o m p r e h e n s i o n . The f o l l o w i n g i n s t r u c t i o n s were g i v e n t o t h e g rade 2 c h i l d r e n . I 'm g o i n g to show you some c a r t o o n s t r i p s o r l i t t l e s t o r i e s abou t c h i l d r e n i n s c h o o l . I ' l l r e a d them t o you w h i l e y o u l o o k a t t h e p i c t u r e s , and t h e n I ' l l ask y o u some q u e s t i o n s abou t t h e p e r s o n i n the s t o r y . The q u e s t i o n s a r e j u s t t o f i n d out. what y o u t h i n k abou t t h e p e r s o n . OK? Here i s t h e f i r s t s t o r y . I t i s a b o u t a p e r s o n named I n s t r u c t i o n s f o r c h i l d r e n i n g r a d e s 4 and 6 were as f o l l o w s : I 'm g o i n g t o show y o u some c a r t o o n s t r i p s o r l i t t l e s t o r i e s abou t c h i l d r e n i n s c h o o l . T h e r e a r e f o u r s t o r i e s i n a l l and each s t o r y h a s two p a r t s . Read b o t h p a r t s , and t h e n I ' l l a s k y o u some q u e s t i o n s abou t the m a i n p e r s o n i n t h e s t o r y . These q u e s t i o n s d o n ' t r e a l l y h a v e r i g h t o r wrong a n s w e r s , so j u s t t h i n k abou t t h e q u e s t i o n s and g i v e me the b e s t answer y o u c a n t h i n k o f . OK? He re i s t h e f i r s t s t o r y . A f t e r the c h i l d had r e a d t he two c a r t o o n s t r i p s , f o r one c h a r a c t e r , t h e E_ a s k e d h e r o r h i m t h e i n t e r v i e w q u e s t i o n s i n t he o r d e r p r e s e n t e d i n t h e i n t e r v i e w s c h e d u l e ( A p p e n d i x G ) . When t h e i n t e r v i e w q u e s t i o n s w e r e c o m p l e t e d , t h e a d j e c -t i v e s h e e t was p r e s e n t e d , a c c o m p a n i e d by t he f o l l o w i n g i n s t r u c t i o n s : Now I ' d l i k e y o u t o d e s c r i b e f o r me i n a d i f f e r e n t w a y . On t h i s page a r e words we u s e t o d e s c r i b e p e o p l e . I want y o u to p i c k t h e wo rd i n e a c h row w h i c h y o u t h i n k i s t h e b e s t wo rd i n t h a t row to d e s c r i b e . Then c i r c l e i t . F o r e x a m p l e , l e t ' s l o o k a t t he f i r s t row h e r e . ( P o i n t i n g a t e a c h word ) Do you t h i n k i s a . c l e a n p e r s o n , a d i r t y p e r s o n , a v e r y c l e a n p e r s o n , o r a v e r y d i r t y \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 p e r s o n ? ( P a u s e w h i l e t h e c h i l d s e l e c t s . ) Remember, t h e r e a r e no r i g h t o r wrong a n s w e r s . Y o u p i c k t h e one i n each row w h i c h y o u t h i n k d e s c r i b e s t he b e s t . The a d j e c t i v e s i n e a c h row were r e a d a l o u d f o r g rade 2 c h i l d r e n . G r a d e s 4 and 6 c h i l d r e n c o m p l e t e d t h e s h e e t s i n d e p e n d e n t l y . T h i s p r o c e d u r e was r e p e a t e d f o r e a c h o f t h e f o u r c a r t o o n c h a r a c t e r s . O r -d e r o f p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t he c h a r a c t e r s was c o u n t e r b a l a n c e d a c r o s s s u b j e c t s w h i l e . o r d e r o f p r e s e n t a t i o n o f t he two s t r i p s c o n c e r n i n g any one o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s was 25 k e p t c o n s t a n t . A l l I n t e r v i e w s were t a p e r e c o r d e d . The s e c o n d e x p e r i m e n t e r a d m i n i s t e r e d t h e PPVT t o t he c h i l d when she o r he had c o m p l e t e d t he i n t e r v i e w . A p p r o x i m a t e l y t h r e e t o f o u r weeks a f t e r t h e i n t e r v i e w s , e a c h o f the i n t e r -v i e w e d c h i l d r e n c o m p l e t e d t he f i n a l v e r s i o n o f t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e . C h i l d r e n i n g r a d e s 4 and 6 d i d t he q u e s t i o n n a i r e i n t h e i r c l a s s r o o m s w i t h a s s i s t a n c e f r o m E_ o n l y i n t h e p r o n u n c i a t i o n o f w o r d s . , C h i l d r e n r e q u i r e d 20 t o 30 m i n u t e s t o c o m p l e t e t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e . Grade 2 c h i l d r e n were t e s t e d i n d i v i d u a l l y , and the e n t i r e q u e s t i o n n a i r e was r e a d a l o u d . E a c h o f t h e two e x p e r i m e n t e r s r e a d t he q u e s t i o n n a i r e t o h a l f o f t he c h i l d r e n , and b o t h e x p e r i m e n t e r s t r i e d t o j u d g e t he e n d u r a n c e o f t h e i n d i v i d u a l c h i l d . I f t h e c h i l d ' s a t t e n t i o n seemed t o b e w a n i n g , t h e c h i l d and t h e e x p e r i m e n t e r t o o k a b r i e f b r e a k . The m a j o r i t y o f g r a d e 2 c h i l d r e n d i d n o t want t o s t o p d u r i n g t h e t e s t i n g and a p p e a r e d t o be a t t e n d i n g t h r o u g h o u t t h e t a s k . S c o r i n g and A n a l y s e s Que s t i o n n a i r e E a c h c h i l d o b t a i n e d a t o t a l s c o r e and s i x s p e c i a l s c a l e s c o r e s f r o m h i s o r h e r q u e s t i o n n a i r e . The t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s , PPVT s c o r e s and t he t o t a l and i n d i v i d u a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f r o m the i n t e r v i e w s were c o r r e l a t e d i n a P e a r s o n products-moment c o r r e l a t i o n m a t r i x . C o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s were d e r i v e d a s d e s c r i b e d b e l o w . The t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s and t h e PPVT s c o r e s were e a c h compared a c r o s s g r a d e s ( 2 , 4 and 6) by a t h r e e - l e v e l one-way a n a l y s i s o f v a r i a n c e (ANOVA) . P a i r w i s e g rade d i f f e r e n c e s were a s s e s s e d b y t h e Tukey m u l t i p l e com-p a r i s o n p r o c e d u r e . The \" m e d i c a l \" ( M ) , \" a t t e n t i o n \" ( A ) , \" e f f o r t \" ( T ) , \" f a m i l y \" (\u00C2\u00A5)_, \" r e t a r d a -26 t i o n \" (R) and \"no c h a n g e \" (N) s c o r e s r e f l e c t e d t h e number o f t i m e s w i t h i n e a c h s u b s c a l e t h a t t h e c h i l d s e l e c t e d t he M , A , T_, F_, R , o r N r e s p o n s e r e s p e c t i v e l y . T h e s e s c o r e s we re compared a c r o s s g r a d e s by t h r e e - l e v e l , one -way ANOVA's. The Tukey m u l t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n p r o c e d u r e was u s e d t o a s s e s s p a i r w i s e g r a d e d i f f e r -e n c e s . I n t e r v i e w The i n t e r v i e w d a t a p r o v i d e d t h e b a s i s f o r t h r e e t y p e s o f i n f o r m a t i o n : t h e c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s w h i c h y i e l d e d a q u a n t i t a t i v e a s s e s s m e n t o f t h e c h i l d r e n ' s r e s p o n s e s , t he c a t e g o r i z e d answers w h i c h gave a q u a l i t a t i v e a s s e s s m e n t o f t h e r e s p o n s e s , and t h e f a v o r a b i l i t y r a t i n g s . C o m p r e h e n s i o n S c o r e s . Ar- s c o r i n g s c h e d u l e was d e v i s e d i n c o n s u l t a t i o n w i t h two o t h e r c l i n i c a l p s y c h o l o g y g r a d u a t e s t u d e n t s to award p o i n t s f o r r e -s p o n s e s i n d i c a t i n g g r e a t e r a w a r e n e s s o r u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e h a n d i c a p i n q u e s t i o n ( A p p e n d i x H ) . Two c o d e r s , b o t h b l i n d t o t h e g r a d e l e v e l o f t h e c h i l d -r e n , s c o r e d e a c h o f t he i n t e r v i e w s . T h e s e s c o r e s a r e r e f e r r e d t o as comprehen -s i o n s c o r e s ; e a c h c h i l d r e c e i v e d an i n d i v i d u a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e f o r h e r o r h i s r e s p o n s e s t o e a c h c h a r a c t e r and a t o t a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e w h i c h was t h e sum o f the f o u r i n d i v i d u a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s . The a s s i g n m e n t o f a \" c o m p r e h e n s i o n \" s c o r e t o a c h i l d ' s r e s p o n s e s assumes t h a t the c h i l d has b e e n a b l e t o v e r b a l i z e h i s o r h e r u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f a s i t u a -t i o n . I n any e v a l u a t i o n o f k n o w l e d g e b a s e d upon v e r b a l c o m m u n i c a t i o n , i t i s p o s s i b l e t h a t t h e s u b j e c t knows more t h a n he o r she i s a b l e t o e x p r e s s . How-e v e r the p o s s i b i l i t y o f a d i s c r e p a n c y be tween t h e c h i l d ' s a c t u a l u n d e r s t a n d i n g and h e r o r h i s e x p r e s s e d u n d e r s t a n d i n g c a n n o t be a s s e s s e d i n t h i s r e s e a r c h . C h i l d r e n d i d n o t a p p e a r t o b e s t r u g g l i n g t o e x p r e s s t h e m s e l v e s a n d , i n s i t u a -t i o n s when a c h i l d ' s r e a s o n i n g seemed u n c l e a r , t h e e x p e r i m e n t e r p r o b e d f o r c l a r i f i c a t i o n . I t was t h e r e f o r e assumed t h a t t h e c h i l d r e n ' s v e r b a l i z a t i o n s 27 r e l a t i v e l y a c c u r a t e l y r e f l e c t e d t h e i r u n d e r s t a n d i n g . The p e r c e n t a g e o f i n t e r c o d e r agreement f o r e a c h c h a r a c t e r was a s f o l l o w s : 95 .5% f o r L e s , 91.2% f o r S a n d y , 93.2% f o r C h r i s and 90.0% f o r \" C a r r y . No two s c o r e s o f t h e r a t e r s d i f f e r e d more t h a n two p o i n t s . I n c a s e s o f d i s a g r e e m e n t , an a v e r a g e o f t h e two s c o r e s was t a k e n . The i n d i v i d u a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s were a n a l y s e d b y a one -way r e p e a t e d measu res ANOVA f o r e a c h g r a d e . P a i r w i s e d i f f e r e n c e s be tween c h a r a c t e r s ' s c o r e s were a s s e s s e d by t h e Tukey m u l t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n p r o c e d u r e . The i n d i v i d u a l com-p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r e a c h c h a r a c t e r we re a n a l y s e d b y a t h r e e - l e v e l one-way ANOVA and p a i r w i s e d i f f e r e n c e s be tween g r a d e s were a s s e s s e d b y t h e Tukey m u l -t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n p r o c e d u r e . I n t e r v i e w R e s p o n s e C a t e g o r i e s . R e s p o n s e c a t e g o r i e s f o r i n t e r v i e w d a t a we re d e s i g n e d b a s e d upon t h e f i n d i n g s o f a p r e v i o u s s t u d y ( M a a s , 1973) and upon an e x a m i n a t i o n o f a random, s e l e c t i o n o f i n t e r v i e w s . (See A p p e n d i x I f o r r e -s p o n s e c a t e g o r i e s ) , ) E a c h i n t e r v i e w , t r a n s c r i b e d f r o m t a p e , was coded i n d e p e n -d e n t l y b y two c o d e r s . B o t h c o d e r s were b l i n d t o t h e g rade l e v e l o f t h e s u b j e c t . The p e r c e n t a g e o f uesipomseswhich were coded i d e n t i c a l l y we re as f o l l o w s : 97.4% f o r L e s , 97.6% f o r S a n d y , 98.6% f o r C h r i s , and 99.4% f o r C o r r y . These d a t a , w h i c h we re t he p r o p o r t i o n s o f s u b j e c t s p r o v i d i n g a n s w e r s i n a p a r t i c u l a r c a t e g o r y , were t h e n compared a c r o s s g r a d e s by a n a l y s e s o f v a r i a n c e o f i n d e p e n d e n t p r o p o r t i o n s . (See M a r a s c u i l o , 1 9 6 6 ; ) A l l c h i l d r e n ' s r e s p o n s e s f o r e a c h c h a r a c t e r were i n c l u d e d i n t h e s e a n a l y s e s w i t h t h e e x c e p t i o n o f s i x g rade 2 c h i l d r e n ' s r e s p o n s e s t o C o r r y and one g rade 2 c h i l d ' s r e s p o n s e to L e s . I n e a c h c a s e , t he c h i l d was u n a b l e t o i d e n t i f y t h e c h a r a c t e r ' s p r o b l e m even i n a v e r y g r o s s manner . The c o n t e n t o f t h e r e s p o n s e was t h e r e f o r e m e a n i n g l e s s f o r t h e s e a n a l y s e s . The s i x c h i l d r e n whose r e s p o n s e s t o C o r r y were e x c l u d e d c o u l d n o t i d e n t i f y t h e c r u t c h e s . The c h i l d whose r e s p o n s e t o L e s was e x c l u d e d 28 could not ar t i c u l a t e Les' behaviour beyond saying that she was \"a nice per-son\", even after the c h i l d had been probed several times. Because these re-sponses did r e f l e c t young children's understanding of the behaviours, the children's comprehension scores were included i n the other analyses. Favorability Ratings. A value from one to four was assigned to each ad-jec t i v e the c h i l d selected; a value of one represented the most negative form of the adjective and four the most positive. The values for each of the six adjectives for a given character were summed. Each subject therefore had four f a v o r a b i l i t y ratings, one for each character. These scores were analyzed by,a three-way ANOVA with two between-subject factors, grade and sex, and one within-subject factor, character. This i s a Winer (1971) \"Case I I \" repeated measures design. 29 RESULTS The r e s u l t s a r e p r e s e n t e d as f o l l o w s : (1) t h e P e a r s o n p roduc t -momen t c o r r e l a t i o n s among t h e PPVT s c o r e s , t h e t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s and t h e i n t e r v i e w c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s , (2) t h e a n a l y s i s o f t h e PPVT. s c o r e s , (3) t h e a n a l y s e s o f t he q u e s t i o n n a i r e , i n c l u d i n g t h e s p e c i a l r e s p o n s e s c a l e s and (4) t he a n a l y s e s o f t h e i n t e r v i e w d a t a . P e a r s o n P r o d u c t - M o m e n t C o r r e l a t i o n s I n T a b l e 2 , t he c o r r e l a t i o n m a t r i x o f s e v e n v a r i a b l e s f o r e a c h g rade i s p r e s e n t e d . The r e s u l t s a r e most c l e a r l y c o n s i d e r e d a s t h e c o r r e l a t i o n s among t h e t h r e e s e t s o f s c o r e s : t he PPVT s c o r e s , t he t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s and t he i n d i v i d u a l and t o t a l c h a r a c t e r c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s . Q u e s t i o n n a i r e S c o r e s and PPVT S c o r e s F o r a l l g r a d e s , t h e PPVT c o r r e l a t e d w i t h t h e t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s a t t h e .01 l e v e l o f s i g n i f i c a n c e . C o m p r e h e n s i o n S c o r e s and PPVT S c o r e s The PPVT c o r r e l a t e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y w i t h t h e t o t a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r g r a d e s 4 and 6 a t t he .01 and .05 l e v e l s r e s p e c t i v e l y . F o r g rade 4 , t h e PPVT s c o r e s c o r r e l a t e d w i t h c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r two c h a r a c t e r s , L e s and C o r r y ; the PPVT s c o r e s c o r r e l a t e d w i t h t he c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r L e s i n g rade 2 and w i t h c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r Sandy i n g r a d e 6 . Q u e s t i o n n a i r e S c o r e s and C o m p r e h e n s i o n S c o r e s The t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s c o r r e l a t e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y w i t h t h e t o t a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s a t t h e . 0 1 , .05 and .01 l e v e l s r e s p e c t i v e l y f o r g r a d e s 2 , 4 and 6 . The q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s c o r r e l a t e d w i t h t h r e e c h a r a c t e r c o m p r e -h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r g rade 2 ( L e s , C o r r y and Sandy) and f o r g rade 6 ( L e s , C o r r y and C h r i s ) . F o r g rade 4 , t he q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s c o r r e l a t e d w i t h one c h a r a c t e r TABLE 2 30 Pearson Product-Moment Correlations for PPVT Scores, Total Questionnaire Scores, and Individual and Total Comprehension Scores QT LES CHRIS CORRY SANDY TCS PPVT Grade 2 Grade 4 Grade 6 .473** .614** .573** .402* .427* .215 .162 . 156 .277 ,262 .484** .285 ,128 .270 .416* .330 .468** .395* QT Grade 2 Grade 4 Grade 6 .476** .373* .547* ,254 , 129 ,377* ,4'45* ,302 ,518** ,373* ,159 ,298 ,520** ,382* ,566** LES Grade 2 Grade 4 Grade 6 .375* .058 ,257 , 424** .278 .482** .466** .430* .516** ,7'73 ,656* ,708c CHRIS Grade 2 Grade 4 Grade 6 .2^ 94 .361* .450* .2*36 .401 .436* ,677' .632' ,744\u00C2\u00A3 CORRY Grade 2 Grade 4 Grade 6 ,633** .547** .472** ,775' ,734' ,789* SANDY Grade 2 Grade 4 Grade 6 .744' .828' .796* *\"* p<.01 * p<.05 a These are part-total correlations. Each individual comprehension score contributes to the total comprehension score; this accounts for the high correlations. 31 c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e ( L e s ) . A n a l y s i s o f t h e PPVT S c o r e s The ANOVA b y g rade o f t h e PPVT s c o r e s i n d i c a t e d no s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s among t h e g r a d e s , s u g g e s t i n g t h a t t h e samp le o f c h i l d r e n was homogeneous w i t h r e s p e c t t o v e r b a l i n t e l l i g e n c e . The r e s u l t s a p p e a r i n T a b l e 3 . A n a l y s e s o f t h e Q u e s t i o n n a i r e S c o r e s R e s u l t s o f t h e ANOVAs and t h e Tukey c o n t r a s t s r u n on t h e t o t a l q u e s t i o n -n a i r e s c o r e and on e a c h o f t h e s p e c i a l r e s p o n s e s c a l e s a r e g i v e n i n T a b l e 3 . A l l t h r e e g r a d e s d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y f r o m one a n o t h e r i n t h e t o t a l q u e s t i o n -n a i r e s c o r e s ; mean s c o r e s i n c r e a s e d w i t h g r a d e l e v e l . G r a d e s 4 and 6 d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y f r o m g r a d e 2 on t h e M and J_ s c a l e s . I n b o t h c a s e s , g rade 2 had a s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r mean s c o r e t h a n t h e o t h e r g r a d e s . On t h r e e s c a l e s , t he A s c a l e , t h e F_ s c a l e and t h e R s c a l e , g r a d e s 2 and 6 d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y . Grade 2 had a h i g h e r mean s c o r e on t h e A s c a l e w h i l e g r a d e 6 had h i g h e r means on t h e F_ and R s c a l e s . I n e a c h c a s e , t h e mean s c o r e f o r g rade 4 was i n t e r m e d i a t e b e t w e e n t h o s e o f t h e o t h e r g r a d e s . F i n a l l y , g r a d e 4 d i f f e r e d s i g n i f i c a n t l y f r o m g r a d e s 2 and 6 on t h e N s c a l e ; g r a d e 4 had a h i g h e r mean t h a n e i t h e r o f t h e o t h e r g r a d e s . A n a l y s e s o f t h e I n t e r v i e w D a t a The a n a l y s e s o f t h e i n t e r v i e w d a t a a r e p r e s e n t e d i n two s e c t i o n s : (1) a n a l y s e s c o m p a r i n g g r a d e s and (2) a n a l y s e s c o m p a r i n g c h a r a c t e r s . A n a l y s e s C o m p a r i n g G rades T h i s s e c t i o n i n c l u d e s t h e c o m p a r i s o n s o f t h e c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s and o f t h e i n t e r v i e w r e s p o n s e s . C o m p r e h e n s i o n S c o r e s . F o r e a c h c h a r a c t e r , t h e c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s o f t h e t h r e e g r a d e s we re c o n t r a s t e d b y a t h r e e - g r o u p ! ^one-way ANOVA. The r e s u l t s o f t h e s e a n a l y s e s , p r e s e n t e d i n T a b l e 3 , r e v e a l t h a t f o r e a c h c h a r a c t e r , g r a d e TABLE 3 Analyses of Variance by Grade of PPVT Scores, Questionnaire Total Scores, Questionnaire Subscale Scores and Individual Character Comprehension Scores Dependent Variable Means by Grade 2 4 6 MS (df=87) w P Significant Paigwise Differences PPVT 114.27 116.77 114.57 163.09 .34 >.50 None Questionnaire Total 10.93 17.37 21.20 11.56 69.85 <.001 2 4 vs. vs. 4 , 6 2 vs. 6 \"Medical\" Response 2.87 1.33 .77 1.66 22. 76 <.001 2 vs. 4 , 2 vs. 6 \"Effort\" Response 1.40 .50 .50 .55 14.62 <.001 2 vs. 4 , 2 vs. 6 \"Attention\" Response .87 .53 .23 .46 6.5 <.005 2 vs. 6 \"Family\" Response 1.30 2.20 2.43 2.37 4.53 <.025 2 vs. 6 \"Retardation\" Response 2.13 2.90 3.03 1.57 4.49 <.025 2 vs. 6 \"No Change\" Response .76 1.47 .70 .96 5.66 <.005 2 vs. 4 , 4 vs. 6 Les 3.93 5.90 6.40 3.79 13.46 <.001 2 vs. 4 , 2 vs. 6 Sandy 4.37 5.90 6.07 2.96 8.90 <.001 2 vs. 4 , 2 vs. 6 Chris 3.40 4.77 5.23 4.23 . 6.44 <.005 2 vs. 4 , 2 vs. 6 Corry 3.81 5.82 6.21 2.57 19.40 <.001 2 vs. 4 , 2 vs. 6 a MSs for effects reproducible by F (for effect) x MS . w b Tukey's method of multiple comparisons was employed. 33 2 children were significantly less l i k e l y to obtain as high comprehension scores as grades 4 and 6 children. The two higher grades did not differ sig-nificantly in the comprehension of any of the characters. Interview Responses. The coded interview data were analysed by tests of independent proportions, a K-sample analog for proportions of the analysis of variance.? . The multiple comparisons procedure is a chi square analog of Scheffe's multiple comparison procedure (Marascuilo, 1966). These analyses provide a method for making multiple contrasts to determine the sources of 2 significant differences in a significant overall % . In Table 4, the results of the analysis on each of the coding categories for each character are pre-sented. No analyses were performed on data which indicated similar or equal proportions of each grade in the response categories for a given question; these proportions which did not differ significantly are given in Appendix J. Responses to each question were analysed according to the categories presented in the coding appendix (Appendix I). Results are presented in the order that the questions were discussed i n the interview. (See Appendix G for the specific questions asked in the interview)) The four topics are etiology, fault, control and change. Etiology Question: Was X \"born that way\" or is the behaviour a result of an ex-perience? Categories: (1) Born that way; (2) Experience Results: None of the grades differed i n i t s choice between \"born that way\" 2 or \"experience\" for any of the characters except Les. The overall' % w a s sig-nificant for Les, and grade 2 children tended to perceive her as \"born that way\" more frequently than did the other two grades; however, multiple compari-sons revealed no significant differences among the grades. TABLE 4 Results of Analyses of Variance of Proportions 3 34 Proportion by Grade Significant Pairwise Dependent Variable 2 4 6 X p Differences Born/Experience (Born) Les .24 .10 .03 6.20 <.05 None Type of Experience Les 22.27 < .001 1 .18 .00 .00 None 2 .45 .81 .38 2 vs. 4, 4 vs. 6 3 .36 .19 .62 4 vs. 6 Sandy 16.80 < .001 1 .14 .00 .00 None 2 .59 .59 .25 2 vs. 6, 4 vs. 6 3 .27 .41 . 75 2 vs. 6, 4 vs. 6 Corry 15.50 < .001 1 .92 . 73 .43 2 vs. 6, 4 vs. 6 2 .04 .10 .30 2 vs. 6 3 .04 .17 .27 2 vs. 6 Fault b (Yes) Les .31 .50 .56 8.55 < .05 None Sandy .33 .37 .56 7.14 < .05 None Control^ Sandy 11.65 < .01 1 .57 .57 .37 None 2 ..43 .43 .47 None 3 00 .00 .17 2 vs. 6, 4 vs. 6 Chris 7.86 < .05 1 .83 .77 .67 None 2 . 13 .13 .07 None 3 .00 .10 .27 2 vs. 6 TABLE 4 (con't) 35 Proportion by Grade Significant Pairwise Dependent Variable 2 4 6 X p Differences Control: Wants to act that wayk (Attention) Les .50 .00 Control: Doesn't want b to act that way (Can't help i t ) Chris .48 .87 e Change Les 1 .17 .03 2 .28 .37 3 .28 .03 4 .03 .13 5 .24 .43 Sandy 1 .10 .07 2 .37 .07 3 .27 .23 4 .13 .20 5 .13 .43 Chris 1 .10 .10 2 .73 .33 3 .10 .13 4 .03 .10 5 .07 .33 Corry 1 .29 .33 2 .46 .13 3 .21 .17 4 .00 .03 5 .04 .33 .00 6.86 \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 <.05 None .85 10.62 <.01 2 vs. 4, 2 vs. 6 21.74 <.001 .03 None .40 None .07 2 vs. 4 .27 2 vs. 6 .23 None 22.64 <.001 .10 None .23 2 vs. 4 .13 None .43 2 vs. 6 .10 2 vs. 4, 4 vs. 6 16.09 <.001 . 23 None .40 2 vs. 4, 2 vs. 6 .03 None .13 None .20 2 vs. 4 27.62 <.001 . 20 None .53 2 vs. 4, 4 vs. 6 .03 None .17 2 vs. 6 .07 2 vs. 4, 4 vs. 6 TABLE 4 ( c o n ' t ) 36 B - r o p o r t i o n by Grade S i g n i f i c a n t P a i r w i s e Dependent V a r i a b l e 2 4 .6 X p Differences D i f f i c u l t y o f Change (Hard) L e s . 4 6 .79 . 7 6 6. .89 <. .05 2 v s . 4 Sandy . 5 2 .82 . 7 8 6. .78 <. .05 2 v s . 4 C o r r y . 3 5 . 8 5 . 8 8 16 . .30 <\u00E2\u0080\u00A2 .001 2 v s . 4 , 2 v s . 6 a T h e s e t e s t s a r e b a s e d upon an a n a l y s i s ^ d e s c r i b e d i n M a r a s c u i l o ( 1 9 6 6 ) . O n l y t h o s e a n a l y s e s w i t h a s i g n i f i c a n t o v e r a l l X a r e r e p o r t e d . P r o p o r t i o n s among w h i c h n o n -s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s e x i s t e d a r e g i v e n i n A p p e n d i x J . b T h e s e q u e s t i o n s had o n l y two p o s s i b l e a n s w e r s o r c a t e g o r i e s so o n l y one p r o p o r t i o n i s r e p o r t e d . The numbers p r e s e n t e d a r e t h e p r o p o r t i o n s o f c h i l d r e n who s e l e c t e d t h e a n s w e r i n p a r e n t h e s e s unde r t h e s p e c i f i c q u e s t i o n . c C a t e g o r i e s f o r t h i s q u e s t i o n a r e t h e f o l l o w i n g : 1 = N o n s o c i a l ; a c c i d e n t / d i s e a s e 2 = S o c i a l - i n t e r n a l ; s e l f - i n d u c e d 3 = S o c i a l - e x t e r n a l ; o t h e r - i n d u c e d d C a t e g o r i e s f o r t h i s q u e s t i o n a r e t h e f o l l o w i n g : 1 = Does n o t want t o a c t t h a t way 2 = Wants t o a c t t h a t way 3 = Not aware o f a c t i o n s e C a t e g o r i e s f o r t h i s q u e s t i o n a r e t h e f o l l o w i n g : 1 = Can n o t change o r w i l l n o t change 2 = Change by t r y i n g h a r d 3 = Change by g r o w i n g ou t o f i t 4 = Change t h r o u g h s e l f - i n i t i a t e d e f f o r t s and w i t h o t h e r s as r e i n f o r c e r s 5 = Change t h r o u g h o t h e r - i n i t i a t e d h e l p 37 Question: If the behaviour is a function of an experience, what kind of experience? Categories: (1) Nonsocial or accident/disease; (2) Social-internal or self-induced; (3) Social-external or other-induced. Results: Grades differed significantly in their descriptions of etiological experiences' for three of the characters. Les: Multiple comparisons revealed several differences among the grades. Grade 4 children, significantly more than grades 2 or 6 children, des-cribed self-induced etiological experiences. Grade 6 children were significant-ly more li k e l y than grade 4 children to suggest an etiology which involved others. Sandy: Grade 6 children, significantly less than grades 2 and 4 c h i l -dren, perceived Sandy's behaviour as a product of self-induced factors. Rather, the oldest group was significantly more li k e l y than the other two groups to describe an etiology involving other persons. Corry: Grade 6 children contrasted with those in the other two grades in the multiple comparisons. The two lower grades were more li k e l y than grade 6 to explain Corry's behaviour purely as a result of the character's organic problem. Grade 6 children noted the role of both self-induced and other-induced factors in contributing to Corry's behaviour significantly more than grade 2 children. Fault Question: Is i t X's fault that she or he acts like this? Categories: (1) Not at fault; (2) At fault 2 Results: The overall was significant for Les and Sandy, but for neither of the other characters. None of the multiple comparisons for either Les or Sandy was significant, although as grade level increased, the proportion of 38 children ascribing fault to each character also increased. Control Question: Does X want to act this way? Categories: (1) Does not want to act this way; (2) Wants to act this way; (3) Is not aware that he or she is acting any particular way. 2 Results: For two characters, Chris and Sandy, the overall y(, was signi-ficant. Grade 6 children contrasted with grade 2 children for Chris and'with grades 2 and 4 children for Sandy; i n each case, grade 6 children suggested that the characters were unaware that their behaviour was different. Questions: If X doesn't want to act this way, then why does he or she continue to do i t ? Categories: (1) Can't help i t ; (2) Not trying hard enough Results: The only significant difference among the grades concerned Chris. Grade 2 children, significantly more than those i n the other grades, perceived Christ's behaviour as a function of lack of effort. Question: If X does want to act this way, why would she or he want to be that kind of person? . Categories: (1) To get attention; (2) Enjoys being that way Results: There was a.slight but significant tendency for grade 2 children to perceive Les's behaviour as an attempt to get attention. None of the other tests was significant. Change Question: Could X change? If so, how would change come about? Categories: (1) No change possible; (2) Change by trying harder; (3) Change by \"growing out of i t \" ; (4) Change through self-initiated actions but involving others; (5) Change through other-initiated help. 39 R e s u l t s : M u l t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n s i n d i c a t e d s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s among t he g r a d e s f o r e a c h o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s . L e s : Grade 2 c h i l d r e n c o n t r a s t e d w i t h g rade 4 c h i l d r e n i n b e l i e v i n g L e s w o u l d \" g r o w ou t o f i t \" . Grade 6 c h i l d r e n were more l i k e l y t h a n g r a d e 2 c h i l d r e n t o s u g g e s t s e l f - i n i t i a t e d h e l p as a f o rm o f c h a n g e . S a n d y : Grade 4 c o n t r a s t e d w i t h t h e o t h e r two g r a d e s i n p r o v i d i n g r e -s p o n s e s f o c u s e d upon o t h e r - i n i t i a t e d c h a n g e . Grade 6 d i f f e r e d f r o m g rade 2 i n s u g g e s t i n g s e l f - i n i t i a t e d c h a n g e . S i g n i f i c a n t l y more t h a n g rade 4 c h i l d r e n , g rade 2 c h i l d r e n t e n d e d t o d e s c r i b e \" t r y h a r d e r \" s o l u t i o n s f o r S a n d y ' s s i t u a -t i o n s . C h r i s : Grade 2 c h i l d r e n , more t h a n c h i l d r e n i n e i t h e r o f t h e o t h e r g r a d e s , t h o u g h t C h r i s c o u l d change s i m p l y b y t r y i n g h a r d e r . Grade 4 c h i l d r e n d i f f e r e d f r om g r a d e 2 c h i l d r e n i n s u g g e s t i n g C h r i s needed a s s i s t a n c e f r o m o t h e r s . C o r r y : F i v e m u l t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n s we re s i g n i f i c a n t . Grade 4 c o n t r a s t e d w i t h the o t h e r s i n e m p h a s i z i n g o t h e r - i n i t i a t e d h e l p . B o t h g r a d e s 2 and 6 d i f -f e r e d f rom g r a d e 4 i n b e l i e v i n g C o r r y c o u l d change b y \" t r y i n g h a r d e r \" . Grade 6 c h i l d r e n w e r e more l i k e l y t h a n g r a d e 2 c h i l d r e n t o s u g g e s t s e l f - i n i t i a t e d c h a n g e . Q u e s t i o n : Would i t be h a r d o r e a s y f o r X t o change? C a t e g o r i e s : (1) Change w o u l d be h a r d ; (2) Change w o u l d b e e a s y . R e s u l t s : F o r t h r e e c h a r a c t e r s , g rade 2 c h i l d r e n were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e l y t h a n t h e o t h e r g r a d e s t o b e l i e v e c h a n g i n g w o u l d be e a s y . Grade 2 c o n -t r a s t e d w i t h g r a d e 4 f o r L e s and S a n d y ; g r a d e 2 c o n t r a s t e d w i t h b o t h g r a d e s 4 and 6 f o r C o r r y . A n a l y s e s C o m p a r i n g C h a r a c t e r s I n two a n a l y s e s , c o m p a r i s o n s we re made among t h e c h a r a c t e r s : (1) ANOVAs o f the c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s and (2) ANOVAs o f t h e a d j e c t i v e f a v o r a b i l i t y s c o r e s . 40 C o m p r e h e n s i o n S c o r e s . To compare c h i l d r e n ' s c o m p r e h e n s i o n o f one c h a r a c -t e r w i t h t h e i r c o m p r e h e n s i o n o f a n o t h e r c h a r a c t e r , one way r e p e a t e d measu res ANOVAs were r u n f o r e a c h g rade l e v e l , f o l l o w e d b y m u l t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n s u s i n g T u k e y ' s me thod . The r e s u l t s a r e p r e s e n t e d i n T a b l e 5 . F o r g rade 2 c h i l d r e n , d i f f e r e n c e s i n c o m p r e h e n s i o n o f t h e f o u r c h a r a c t e r s we re n o t s i g n i f i c a n t . Among g rade 4 c h i l d r e n , t h e c h a r a c t e r s were n o t u n d e r s t o o d e q u a l l y w e l l . M u l t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n s i n d i c a t e d t h a t t h e c h i l d r e n u n d e r s t o o d C h r i s s i g n i f i c a n t l y l e s s w e l l t h a n e a c h o f t h e o t h e r t h r e e c h a r a c t e r s . The re we re no s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s among t h e i r c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r t h e o t h e r t h r e e c h a r a c t e r s . G rade 6 c h i l d r e n w e r e s i g n i f i c a n t l y l e s s l i k e l y t o u n d e r s t a n d some c h a r a c -t e r s as w e l l as o t h e r s . T h e r e we re s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s i n t h e c o m p r e h e n -s i o n s c o r e s b e t w e e n C h r i s and C o r r y and b e t w e e n C h r i s and L e s . C h r i s , i n b o t h c a s e s , was l e s s w e l l u n d e r s t o o d . A d j e c t i v e F a v o r a b i l i t y M e a s u r e . A t h r e e - w a y a n a l y s i s o f v a r i a n c e w i t h two b e t w e e n - s u b j e c t f a c t o r s , g r a d e and s e x , and one w i t h i n - s u b j e c t f a c t o r , c h a r a c t e r , was u s e d to a n a l y s e the a d j e c t i v e f a v o r a b i l i t y d a t a . (As n o t e d e a r l i e r , f a v o r a b i l i t y s c o r e s w e r e summed o v e r the , s i x a d j e c t i v e s t o y i e l d t h e s c o r e s a n a l y s e d h e r e ) ) T h i s i s a W i n e r \" C a s e II\" (1971) r e p e a t e d measu res d e s i g n . As the r e s u l t s i n T a b l e 6 i n d i c a t e , o f t he t h r e e m a i n e f f e c t s , o n l y c h a r a c t e r was s i g n i f i c a n t ; g rade was o f b o r d e r l i n e s i g n i f i c a n c e . The c h a r a c -t e r b y s e x i n t e r a c t i o n was a l s o s i g n i f i c a n t . Mean f a v o r a b i l i t y s c o r e s f o r t h e c h a r a c t e r s b y g r a d e a r e g i v e n i n T a b l e 6 . F o r e a c h g r a d e , Sandy r e c e i v e d t h e l o w e s t f a v o r a b i l i t y s c o r e , f o l l o w e d b y L e s , C o r r y and C h r i s , i n t h a t o r d e r . R e s u l t s o f m u l t i p l e c o m p a r i s o n s u s i n g t h e Tukey method on t h e mean f a v o r -a b i l i t y s c o r e s r e v e a l e d f i v e s i g n i f i c a n t d i f f e r e n c e s . B o t h Sandy and L e s were TABLE 5 One-Way Repeated Measures Analyses of Comprehension Scores Grade Chris Mean Corry Scores Les Sandy MS (df=87) res F P Significant Pairwise Differences a 2 3.40 3.81 3.93 4.37 2.18 2.18 <.10 None 4 4.77 5.82 5.90 5.90 2.46 3.76 <.05 Ch vs. Co, Ch vs. L, Ch vs. S 6 5.23 6.21 ,,.6.40 6.07 1. 72 4.61 <.005 Ch vs. Co, Ch vs. L a Tukey's multiple comparison procedure was employed. TABLE 6 Analysis of Favorability Scores 42 Means for Groups Character Les Chris Corry Sandy Grade Means 2 14.93 15.93 15.77 13.67 15.08 Grade : 4 15.87 17.28 16.93 14.38 16.11 6 15.87 16.83 16.63 13.77 15.78 Character Means 15.56 16.68 16.44 13.93 Results of Three-Way ANOVA Source of Variation df ' MS F ^Between Subjects Grade 2 Sex 1 Grade x Sex 2 Ss w. groups 84 Within Subjects Character 3 Grade x Character 6 Sex x Character 3 Grade x Sex x Character 6 Character x Ss w. groups 33. 37 3.04 .05 5. 10 .47 > .50 6. 83 .62 > .50 10. 96 139. 30 - 51.25 < .001 1. 50 .55 > .50 10. 72 3.95 < .01 55 .20 > .50 2. 72 TABLE 6 (con't) Results of Multiple Comparisons on Character Effect Ordered Means Sandy Les Corry Chris 13.93 15.56 16.44 16.68 C r i t i c a l Difference between Means by Tukey's Method = .64 Significant Pairwise Differences Sandy vs. Les Les vs. Corry Sandy vs. Corry Les vs. Chris Sandy vs. Chris 44 perceived significantly less favorably than each of the other two characters. Sandy was also perceived significantly less favorably than Les. Corry and Chris did not differ in favorability. 45 DISCUSSION Results of this study indicate that between the ages of seven and twelve, children's beliefs about mental health phenomena are dramatically modified. These developmental changes suggest the possible interaction of two factors: the natural evolution of the child's cognitive processes and the child's growing social experience. The grade 2 child has had less social experience and retains a largely egocentric perspective of others which limit and shape her or his attempts to define concepts or explain behaviours. As the child approaches adolescence, he or she has shifted from an egocentric perspective of the world to a more adult perspective, expressed i n sundry aspects of the child's thought. The two measures specifically devised for this research tapped different but complementary kinds of awareness of mental health phenomena i n children. The Mental Health Concepts Questionnaire provided a rough index of how much correct information children possessed. In addition, the questionnaire per-mitted an examination of some of the children's misconceptions and orientations. The selection of incorrect answers revealed patterns of beliefs, and the changes in these patterns across ages suggested ways i n which ideas about mental health concepts develop. The interview data indicated developmental changes in children's inter-pretations of handicapped behaviour. These data also provided measures of \"comprehension\" and \"favorability\" for each of the behaviours which were com-pared across grades and across behaviours. This discussion examines the responses to both instruments and considers the ways in which those responses conform with cognitive and social developmen-tal patterns. F i r s t , the questionnaire and i t s subscales are discussed. The children's interpretations of each of the four handicapped behaviours, the bulk 46 o f the d i s c u s s i o n a r e t h e n e x p l o r e d . T h i s s e c t i o n p r o v i d e s t he b a s i s f o r p r e -s e n t a t i o n o f t h e more g e n e r a l d e v e l o p m e n t a l p a t t e r n s i n c h i l d r e n ' s a t t i t u d e s t o w a r d h a n d i c a p p e d b e h a v i o u r . F o l l o w i n g t h e c o n s i d e r a t i o n o f t h e s e g e n e r a l p a t t e r n s , t h e l i m i t a t i o n s and i m p l i c a t i o n s o f t h e s t u d y a r e d i s c u s s e d . M e n t a l H e a l t h C o n c e p t s Q u e s t i o n n a i r e The q u e s t i o n n a i r e has c l e a r l i m i t a t i o n s as an i n s t r u m e n t on w h i c h t o b a s e s t r o n g s t a t e m e n t s a b o u t c h i l d r e n ' s k n o w l e d g e o f m e n t a l h e a l t h c o n c e p t s . The a l p h a r e l i a b i l i t i e s f o r t he t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e a r e f a r l o w e r t h a n d e s i r a b l e , l a r g e l y due t o p r o b l e m s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h c r e a t i n g an i n s t r u m e n t f o r t h e c h o s e n age r a n g e and i n the c h o s e n t o p i c . The i n v e s t i g a t i o n o f t h e s e p a r t i c u l a r age g roups n e c e s s i t a t e d an u n d e s i r a b l y l a r g e r a n g e i n t he l e v e l o f q u e s t i o n s , r e -s u l t i n g i n a t e s t o f g r e a t d i f f i c u l t y f o r g rade 2 c h i l d r e n . B e c a u s e t he p r o j e c t c o n c e r n e d m e n t a l h e a l t h phenomena, i t was r e j e c t e d as \" t o p s e n s i t i v e \" b y t h e V a n c o u v e r P u b l i c S c h o o l s whe re a l a r g e r number o f p i l o t s u b j e c t s w o u l d have b e e n a v a i l a b l e t o r e s p o n d t o a l o n g e r p i l o t q u e s t i o n n a i r e . As n o t e d e a r l i e r , a more r e l i a b l e measure c o u l d have b e e n d e s i g n e d f o r a more homogeneous samp le a v a i l a b l e f o r g r e a t e r p e r i o d s o f t i m e . Th roughou t t h e f o l l o w i n g d i s c u s s i o n , t h e r e f o r e , t h e l o w r e l i a b i l i t y o f t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e s h o u l d be k e p t i n m i n d . The t o t a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s were s i g n i f i c a n t l y c o r r e l a t e d w i t h b o t h t h e PPVT s c o r e s and w i t h t h e t o t a l c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s , s u g g e s t i n g common b a s e s b e t w e e n t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e and e a c h o f t h e o t h e r m e a s u r e s . B e c a u s e b o t h t h e PPVT and t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e measu red v o c a b u l a r y , f a c i l i t y w i t h l a n g u a g e o r g e n e r a l v e r b a l a b i l i t y was a s h a r e d f a c t o r i n t h e t e s t s . S i m i l a r l y , t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p b e t w e e n t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s and t h e c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s i n d i c a t e d t h a t the two measu res t a p p e d o v e r l a p p i n g a b i l i t i e s . Some o f t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e i t e m s r e q u e s t e d i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s o f b e h a v i o u r s s i m i l a r t o t h e b e h a v i o u r s i n t he c a r t o o n s t r i p s . A c h i l d who was k n o w l e d g e a b l e abou t m e n t a l h e a l t h te rms m i g h t a l s o b e 47 expected to be knowledgeable about handicapped behaviour. However, because the correlations between the questionnaire and each of the other measures were low, the instruments cannot be said to tap the same kinds of knowledge. In-dividual children's responses exemplified this finding. A psychiatrist's child in grade 6 recognized many of the mental health terms on the questionnaire, had a high PPVT score, and was extremely articulate i n the interview, but the child's comprehension score was only average. The child's sophistication in mental health vocabulary was not balanced by a sophisticated comprehension of behaviour-al problems. Conversely, another grade 6 child who has had speech problems for years had below average PPVT and questionnaire scores for her grade and yet had an exceptionally high comprehension score. This child was extraordinarily thoughtful and knowledgeable about the characters' problems. Thus, while the questionnaire tapped a knowledge which was related both to general verbal a b i l i t y and to basic understanding of handicapped behaviour, the questionnaire also required a b i l i t i e s which were independent of those two areas. Significant differences among a l l grade levels on the total questionnaire scores indicated that the a b i l i t y to select correct definitions of mental health concepts increased over this age range. However, the increase i n mean score was greater between grades 2 and 4 than between grades 4 and 6. This pattern was manifested throughout the research: grade 4 children more closely resembled grade 6 children than grade 2 children. This finding may reflect the inappro-priateness of the task for grade 2 children; they are less accustomed to taking tests and many of the questions were extremely d i f f i c u l t for them. Alternatively, i t may suggest that this i s an area in which children be-come dramatically more informed between the ages of seven and nine. Other authors have also noted significant changes in children's thought during these years (Flapan, 1968; Piaget, 1950; Rothenberg, 1970). The child's shift from 48 egocentric thought into operational thought has put many behaviours and concepts into new perspective. The operational child's thought about psy-chological causality can be much more f l e x i b l e and abstract than that of the egocentric c h i l d . Social experiences may have introduced handicapped people into the child's l i f e , and now the reasons why people behave d i f f e r e n t l y are a source of interest. In t h i s sample, grade 4 appeared to represent an age at which children were beginning to think about and use some physical and mental health terms i n the context of \"craziness\". For example, on the questionnaire, 36%, 70% and 33% of children i n grades 2, 4 , and 6 respectively defined \"spastic\" as \"crazy i n the head\"; grade 4 children were s i g n i f i c a n t l y more l i k e to select the slang d e f i n i t i o n than children i n either of the other grades. Few grade 2 children had heard of \"spastic\" and most grade 6 children (63%) defined i t correctly. The children i n grade 4 also seemed cautiously curious about the topic. After they had responded to the questionnaire, many children were eager to go over the questions with the experimenter. When the discussion, focused upon the meaning of the word \"mental\", the experimenter asked c h i l -dren what they thought the term meant. Each of the seven children who volun-teered to define the term believed that i t meant \"crazy\", \"weird\", \"something i s wrong i n your head\" or some notion related to abnormality or deviance. Even after the experimenter had explained the meaning of the word, children who were called upon to repeat the experimenter's d e f i n i t i o n continued to i n -clude the connotation of bizarreness. The grade 4 child's c u r i o s i t y about mental health concepts and about behaviour suggested an emerging expression of what Olmsted and Durham (1976) have called a c u l t u r a l b e l i e f system about mental i l l n e s s . 49 Q u e s t i o n n a i r e S p e c i a l R e s p o n s e S c a l e s The p a t t e r n s o f a n s w e r s s e l e c t e d by t h e c h i l d r e n p r o v i d e d a method f o r e x a m i n i n g some o f t h e i r commonly h e l d m i s c o n c e p t i o n s and i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s . The k i n d o f r e s p o n s e s c h o s e n , i f c o n s i s t e n t w i t h i n g roups o f q u e s t i o n s o f f e r i n g a p a r t i c u l a r t y p e o f a n s w e r , can adumbra te c o n c e p t u a l b e l i e f s o f c h i l d r e n a t t he v a r i o u s a g e s . A l t h o u g h each o f t h e s i x s u b s c a l e s has few i t e m s , t he s c a l e s have f a i r l y h i g h r e l i a b i l i t i e s , s u g g e s t i n g s t a b l e and c o n s i s t e n t p a t t e r n s . The numbers p r o v i d e d p a r e n t h e t i c a l l y a f t e r e a c h r e s p o n s e i n d i c a t e t h e i t e m on t h e f i n a l q u e s t i o n n a i r e f r om w h i c h t h e r e s p o n s e comes. Two s c a l e s d i s t i n g u i s h e d i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a t t h e g r a d e 2 l e v e l f r o m t h o s e a t g r a d e s 4 and 6 : t h e \" m e d i c a l \" o r M s c a l e and t h e \" e f f o r t \" o r T_ s c a l e . On b o t h s c a l e s , g r a d e 2 had a s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r mean s c o r e t h a n d i d t h e o t h e r g r a d e s . The \" M e d i c a l \" o r M S c a l e . The M s c a l e i s composed o f e i g h t i t e m s , each s u p p o r t i n g an. a s s o c i a t i o n o f p h y s i c a l s i c k n e s s w i t h m e n t a l h e a l t h phenomena. The f o l l o w i n g r e s p o n s e s a r e i n c l u d e d : (a) M e n t a l l y i l l means a p e r s o n i s s i c k i n bed and has a bandage on h i s h e a d u s u a l l y f r o m a b a d s h o c k . (7) (b) A p e r s o n who i s v e r y v e r y n e r v o u s a l l t h e t i m e s h o u l d g e t some m e d i c i n e . ( I D ( c ) Men t a l h o s p i t a l s a r e p l a c e s f o r p e o p l e who have s i c k n e s s e s o t h e r p e o p l e c a n c a t c h o r f o r p e o p l e who need o p e r a t i o n s on t h e i r b r a i n s . (12) (d) P e o p l e become m e n t a l l y i l l b y c a t c h i n g i t f r om someone e l s e who i s men-t a l l y i l l . (e ) A m e n t a l l y r e t a r d e d p e r s o n c a n be h e l p e d by a d o c t o r who g i v e s h i m m e d i -c i n e t o make h i m w e l l o r who does an o p e r a t i o n on h i s b r a i n t o make h i m w e l l . (15) ( f ) P e o p l e i n m e n t a l h o s p i t a l s f e e l s i c k i n t h e head and l i e i n t h e i r b e d s . (19) (g) Someone who i s m e n t a l l y i l l c a n b e h e l p e d b y a d o c t o r who does an X - r a y o f h i s b r a i n o r he can b e h e l p e d b y g o i n g t o t h e d r u g s t o r e and g e t t i n g some m e d i c i n e . (22) 50 (h) If someone really thinks the walls are moving back and forth, even though of course the walls are s t i l l , that person needs glasses. (33) These responses expressed an association of mental disorders with medical treatment or medical images. The significantly higher mean score for grade 2 may be a function of two kinds of responses. It might be assumed that many grade 2 children did not know the term \"mental\" and were therefore simply as-sociating the terms \" i l l n e s s \" and \"hospital\" with medical concepts. Although most grade 2 children did recognize the term \"mental retardation\", the word \"retardation\" probably enabled them to identify the concept. A few of the grade 2 children, however, told the examiner that \"mental\" meant \"crazy\" and expressed an image of mental problems as \"brain sickness\", the definition of mental illness given to the examiner by one child. Like any other sickness, brain sickness might be contagious, might require a bandage, an operation, an X-ray or medicine. One child, as she answered the questions about the mental hospital, said she had had her tonsils taken out i n a mental hospital. When asked why she thought she had been i n a mental hospital, she explained that tonsils are i n the throat, just near the brain, and they f i x brains in mental hospitals. Several grade 2 children revealed this \"medical\" orientation during the interview, suggesting medical cures for characters whose problems they had clearly defined as emotional. However, although grade 2 children were signi-ficantly more lik e l y to demonstrate this confusion of mental and physical pro-blems than older children, this kind of belief was also occasionally present in older- children. A grade 4 child, for example, described a f i e l d trip his class had taken to \"a real mental hospital\" where everyone used crutches. The \"Effort\" or T^ Scale. The T_ scale includes the following responses: (a) Mentally retarded people are not smart because they don't try hard enough. (5) 51 (b) A very very nervous person could stop being nervous i f she just tried very very hard to be calm. (11) (c) A person who is mentally i l l should try hard not to be that way. (26) (d) A mentally retarded person who tried very hard could become very smart. (35) In contrast with the older children, grade 2 children strongly believed behaviours or problems could and should be changed with effort. The philosophy that everything can be changed by \"trying hard\" expressed an egocentric reason-ing frequently emerging in the grade 2 children's interviews. The seven year old generally has not been faced with insurmountable tasks or chronic condi-tions; that an individual cannot control her or his own behaviour is not l o g i -cal to the egocentric child. The child's own efforts or internal forces ap-pear, to the child, to be the basis for her or his own behaviour, and the child uses this philosophy of causality to explain the behaviour or conditions of other persons. This emphasis of the grade 2 child upon effort as a means to change i s supported by the findings of the preliminary investigation presented in the introduction section. A l l grade 1 and grade 2 children in the pre-pilot group had defined and identified the cause of mental retardation correctly on the f i r s t pilot ques-tionnaire. However, the results of this scale indicated that the children were not aware of the permanence and limitations of retardation. Responses to three scales indicated a significant difference between grades 2 and 6; there was no significant difference between grades 2 and 4, nor be-tween grades 4 and 6. These responses suggested a kind of developmental trend, although not in the s t r i c t s t a t i s t i c a l sense of the word. In this discussion, the term \"trend\" signifies that, as children get older, they were increasingly or decreasingly l i k e l y to interpret behaviour or terms i n a particular way. The three scales which revealed this pattern are: fhe \"Attention\" or A scale, 52 the \"Family\" or _F scale, and the \"Retardation\" or R scale. The \"Attention\" or A Scale. The A scale includes four examples of neuro-t i c or psychotic bbehaviour which are interpreted simply as attention seeking. (a) A g i r l feels everybody hates her and wants to hurt her because she feels sorry for herself and wants attention. (6) (b) A man obsessively collects l i t t e r and becomes upset i f his wife at-tempts to throw i t out; he does this to be stupid and get attention. (17) (c) A woman talks quietly out loud to herself on a bus, as though someone were sittin g beside her; she is being s i l l y and trying to attract atten-tion. (21) (d) A lady washes her hands four times every hour, believing something bad w i l l happen to her i f she doesn't; she is being s i l l y and trying to get attention. (37) The interpretation of behaviours as attention-seeking is by no means foreign to psychologists today and, as noted earlier, these responses are not necessarily wrong. For each of the questions, however, a more sophisticated explanation of the behaviour was offered. The grade 2 child who consistently selected an \"attention\" interpretation of behaviours espoused a philosophy which older children increasingly rejected. The intuitive interpretation of \" s i l l y \" behaviour is that i t s purpose i s to attract attention, perhaps stemming from parents and teachers who point out the attention-getting aspects of other children's behaviour. As the child grows older, she or he is less likely to view strange behaviour as \" s i l l y \" and i s more li k e l y to be aware of other possible reasons for peculiar behaviour. So-c i a l l y , children become increasingly wary of someone who is \"different\"; strange behaviour becomes alienating rather than amusing. Additionally, as children become less egocentric, they are less l i k e l y to consider only the overt behaviour in a situation and more li k e l y to hypothesize about the more covert factors contributing to the behaviour (Flapan, 1968). : 53 S i m i l a r l y , i n t h e c h i l d ' s m o r a l d e v e l o p m e n t , P i a g e t (1932) n o t e s t h a t young c h i l d r e n j u d g e a c t s b y t h e i r p h y s i c a l c o n s e q u e n c e s whe reas o l d e r c h i l d r e n b a s e e v a l u a t i o n s more upon t he i n t e n t i o n o f t h e a c t o r . A l t h o u g h t h i s s c a l e has o n l y f o u r i t e m s , t he f i n d i n g t h a t c h i l d r e n d e c r e a s i n g l y I n t e r p r e t e d a p e r s o n ' s b e h a v i o u r b a s e d s i m p l y upon t h e b e h a v i o u r i t s e l f seems to f i t w i t h i n t h e g e n e r -a l f ramework o f c o g n i t i v e and s o c i a l d e v e l o p m e n t a l t h e o r y . The \" F a m i l y \" o r F_ S c a l e . The r e s u l t s o f t h e J_ s c a l e c o m p l i m e n t e d t h o s e o f t he A s c a l e . As t he i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f b e h a v i o u r s as \" a t t e n t i o n - s e e k i n g \" d e c r e a s e d w i t h a g e , t h e i n t e r p r e t a t i o n o f b e h a v i o u r as a r e f l e c t i o n o f f a m i l i a l c o n d i t i o n s i n c r e a s e d . These f i v e r e s p o n s e s s t r e s s t h e r o l e o f t he f a m i l y i n c r e a t i n g a b e h a v i o u r a l p a t t e r n . (a) A g i r l f e e l s p e o p l e h a t e h e r and want t o h u r t h e r b e c a u s e h e r p a r e n t s d i d n ' t show h e r t h e y l o v e d h e r . (6) (b) A p e r s o n b r e a k s l a w s b e c a u s e he d i d n ' t have a good f a m i l y l i f e . (9) ( c ) A man o b s e s s i v e l y s a v e s l i t t e r and becomes u p s e t when h i s w i f e a t t e m p t s to t h r o w i t o u t b e c a u s e h i s p a r e n t s made h i m keep v e r y c l e a n when he was a c h i l d . (17) (d) A k i d h i t s l i t t l e k i d s and s c a r e s them b e c a u s e h i s p a r e n t s a r e v e r y mean to each o t h e r and t h a t u p s e t s h i m . (27) (e ) A l a d y washes h e r hands f o u r t i m e s e v e r y h o u r b e c a u s e h e r p a r e n t s u s e d t o g e t mad i f she was d i r t y . (35) I n c r e a s i n g l y w i t h a g e , c h i l d r e n seemed t o become aware o f t h e r o l e t h a t a f a m i l y p l a y s i n c o n t r i b u t i n g t o a p e r s o n ' s b e h a v i o u r . Young c h i l d r e n g e n e r -a l l y d i d no t c o n c e i v e o f p a r e n t s as p l a y i n g a r o l e i n t h e c a u s a l i t y o f c h i l d -r e n ' s p r o b l e m s . T h i s f i n d i n g may be i n t e r p r e t e d i n two w a y s . Many c h i l d r e n , w i t h u n c o n d i t i o n a l r e s p e c t f o r p a r e n t s , may n o t b e l i e v e p a r e n t s a r e c a p a b l e o f s u c h w r o n g - d o i n g s . J u s t as many g r a d e 2 c h i l d r e n b e l i e v e d c h a r a c t e r s w o u l d o u t g r o w t h e i r b e h a v i o u r s ( b e c a u s e a d u l t s a r e n e v e r m a l a d j u s t e d ) , so t h e y f e l t t h a t b e h a v i o u r a l p r o b l e m s i n c h i l d r e n we re u n l i k e l y to be c a u s e d b y a d u l t s . 54 A l t e r n a t i v e l y , young children simply may not think i n causal terms i n -volving others. Many grade 2 children perceived behaviour as largely s e l f -induced and as i n t e r n a l l y controlled,.indicated by the T_ scale and i n the interviews. The egocentric child's interpretation of behaviour i s based more upon the immediate consequences or function of the behaviour than upon i t s less apparent causes. The hypothesizing of non-proximate causes for a behaviour, such as f a m i l i a l influences, i s more abstract conceptually. The reasoning i s further removed from the actual behaviour and therefore requires greater f l e x i b i l i t y i n thinking. For example, the grade 2 c h i l d i s l i k e l y to believe that a lady who washes her hands four times each hour i s being s i l l y . This i s an i n t u i t i v e l y reasonable interpretation. The older c h i l d , however, i s able to role-play and to r e a l i z e that the motivating forces for the behaviour are probably more complex than s i l l i n e s s . The increasing emphasis on the family as a cause of behaviour also r e f l e c t s the child's growing awareness of behaviour as a part of a personality. In the interviews, when a grade 2 c h i l d mentioned the past, he or she usually cited an incident. A person's behaviour arose from one experience. As children grow older, they become more l i k e l y to recognize behaviours as part of a t o t a l per-son and as created by repeated exposure to situations e l i c i t i n g the behaviour, such as a family. The development of this perspective, which was repeatedly i l l u s t r a t e d i n the interview data, i s supported by the results of this scale. The \"Retardation\" or R Scale. Four responses v'sich associate the concepts of mental hospital and mental i l l n e s s exclusively with mental retardation. (a) Mental i l l n e s s means a person was born retarded. (7) (b) A mental hosoital i s only for people who are brain damaged or mentally retarded. (12) (c) Most mentally i l l people are retarded. (16) 55 (d) I n m e n t a l h o s p i t a l s , most o f t h e p e o p l e a c t j u s t l i k e u s , e x c e p t t h e y a r e a l l r e t a r d e d . (19) The mean R s c o r e i n c r e a s e d w i t h g r a d e l e v e l . C h i l d r e n l e a r n t h e t e r m \" r e t a r d e d \" e a r l y i n t h e i r s c h o o l y e a r s , and t h e c o n c e p t o f r e t a r d a t i o n e v i d e n -t l y , becomes a s s o c i a t e d w i t h o t h e r t e rms i n v o l v i n g t he w o r d \" m e n t a l \" . \" M e n t a l h o s p i t a l \" and \" m e n t a l i l l n e s s \" , as g rade l e v e l i n c r e a s e d , were i n -c r e a s i n g l y assumed t o c o n c e r n r e t a r d a t i o n and b r a i n damage b y c h i l d r e n i n t h i s s a m p l e . U n f o r t u n a t e l y , none o f t h e s e q u e s t i o n s i s o l a t e s t h e way c h i l d r e n d i f f e r e n t i a t e t h e te rms m e n t a l i l l n e s s and m e n t a l r e t a r d a t i o n . C a s u a l t a l k s w i t h c h i l d r e n r e v e a l e d t h a t w h i l e a few c h i l d r e n d i s t i n g u i s h t h e t w o , most e q u a t e them. One e x c e p t i o n a l l y a r t i c u l a t e c h i l d i n g rade 4 e x p l a i n e d t h a t m e n t a l i l l n e s s was w o r s e t h a n m e n t a l r e t a r d a t i o n b e c a u s e t h e b r a i n o f a m e n t a l l y i l l p e r s o n w i l l n e v e r work p r o p e r l y w h e r e a s a m e n t a l l y r e t a r d e d p e r s o n w i l l a l w a y s have t o work h a r d e r t h a n o t h e r p e o p l e b u t \" h i s b r a i n wo rks a t e e n s y b i t r i g h t \" . A n o t h e r g r a d e 4 c h i l d b e l i e v e d t h a t r e t a r d a t i o n was t h e c h i l d h o o d c o n -d i t i o n o f m e n t a l i l l n e s s . The r e s u l t s o f t h i s s c a l e may b e i n t e r p r e t e d i n t h e f o l l o w i n g way . The t e r m \" m e n t a l \" a l o n e was n o t g e n e r a l l y r e c o g n i z e d by most g rade 2 c h i l d r e n , as n o t e d i n t he d i s c u s s i o n o f t h e M s c a l e . Mos t g r a d e 4 c h i l d r e n t h o u g h t o f \" m e n -t a l \" as \" c r a z y \" and s e v e r a l r e f e r r e d t o a c h a r a c t e r i n t h e i n t e r v i e w as \" m e n t a l \" . T h i s s u g g e s t s t h e deve lopmen t o f a c o n c e p t o f \" m e n t a l \" a t age e i g h t o r n i n e w h i c h s o o n t h e r e a f t e r becomes a s s o c i a t e d w i t h t h e c o n c e p t s o f m e n t a l h o s p i t a l and m e n t a l i l l n e s s . W h i l e g rade 4 c h i l d r e n d i d n o t d i f f e r s i g n i f i c a n t l y f r o m e i t h e r g rade 2 o r g r a d e 6 c h i l d r e n on t h i s s c a l e , t h e i r mean was much c l o s e r t o t h a t o f t he g r a d e 6 c h i l d r e n . Some g rade 6 c h i l d r e n a p p a r e n t l y lumped t o g e t h e r a l l t e rms w h i c h i n c l u d e t h e word \" m e n t a l \" and assumed t h e y s h a r e d t h e c o n n o t a -t i o n o f r e t a r d a t i o n . B e c a u s e i t i s u n l i k e l y t h a t a c h i l d i n g r a d e 6 w o u l d h a v e 56 been exposed to labeled psychotic or neurotic behaviour, mental retardation i s probably the child's only concept of \"mental\" disorder. The \"No Change\" or N Scale. On one scales the N scale, grade 4 children differed from those in both of the other grades. This scale includes four responses suggesting that mental illness and mental retardation cannot be treated. (a) Someone who i s mentally retarded cannot be helped. (15) (b) Someone who is mentally i l l cannot be helped. (23) (c) Someone who is mentally i l l w i l l always be that way. (26) (d) Someone who is mentally retarded w i l l always be, that way. (35) The selection of these answers suggests a developmental shift from the grade 2 M response, which was offered in questions 15 and 22, or the T_ response, offered in questions 26 and 35, to an awareness of the seriousness of retarda-tion and mental il l n e s s . The profoundness of the conditions, which a child might be likely to encounter during the elementary school years, undoubtedly inspires awe and curiosity. During the interviews, six of the thirty children in grade 4 mentioned having siblings or cousins who were brain damaged or mentally retarded. In two cases, the grade 4 children had grade 2 siblings who were interviewed; i n neither case did the grade 2 child mention the retarded relative. The perman-ence of the condition was the factor most often stressed by the grade 4 child with a retarded relative; the children had extended their beliefs about mental retardation to beliefs about mental illness. Generally, responses to this scale suggested the following. Grade 2 children, unaware of the actual meaning of the concepts of mental retardation and mental i l l n e s s , were also unaware of the seriousness of the conditions and therefore did not subscribe to a \"no change possible\" perspective. According to the grade 2 child, almost any problem can be changed either through medical 57 help or through effort. Grade 6 children, in contrast, have learned more than grade 4 children about these concepts, although some children, as suggested by the R scale, may equate the terms. Grade 6 children were more lik e l y to recog-nize that ways of helping both mentally retarded and mentally i l l individuals do exist. In grade 4 , children's understanding of these terms may be influenced by the novelty of the concept of a permanent condition. Summary of the Questionnaire Responses The responses to the questionnaire suggested an overall developmental picture of children's explanations of some mental health concepts. There was a general increase i n correct identification of technical terms as children grow older, and the special response scales suggested some of the orientations of children at each age level. Most children had outgrown the \"medicalization\" of mental health concepts by grade 4 and had begun to recognize mental health concepts as distinct from physical health concepts. Children decreasingly believed that behaviours or conditions can be changed purely by effort. Young children more often interpre-ted neurotic behaviour as \" s i l l y \" or simply as \"attention-seeking\" than older children; with age, children were less l i k e l y to judge a behaviour outside of i t s context and more lik e l y to consider the behaviour a reflection of familial influences. Most children in grade 2 did not appear to recognize the word \"mental\" although they did know that \"mental retardation\" meant \"a person is not smart\" and that a retarded person is \"born that way\". When the term \"mental\" had come into the child's vocabulary at about grade 4 , i t meant \"crazy\" or \"brain damaged\" and connoted a permanent condition. Some children in grade 4 believed, therefore, that individuals with \"mental retardation\" or \"mental i l l n e s s \" can-not be helped and w i l l never change. By grade 6 however, many children were more li k e l y to express a better understanding of both concepts and to recognize 58 t h a t a m e n t a l l y r e t a r d e d o r m e n t a l l y i l l i n d i v i d u a l c a n be h e l p e d . As t h e y grow o l d e r , c h i l d r e n we re i n c r e a s i n g l y l i k e l y t o a s s o c i a t e t h e t e r m \" m e n t a l \" w i t h t he c o n c e p t o f r e t a r d a t i o n and t h e r e f o r e t o b e l i e v e t e rms w h i c h i n c l u d e d t he word \" m e n t a l \" were r e f e r r i n g t o c o n c e p t s c o n c e r n i n g r e t a r -d a t i o n . These o t h e r c o n c e p t s , s u c h as \" m e n t a l h o s p i t a l \" and \" m e n t a l i l l n e s s \" we re i n c r e a s i n g l y l i k e l y to be d e f i n e d i n te rms o f r e t a r d a t i o n . I n t e r v i e w s The i n t e r v i e w d a t a p r o v i d e d s e v e r a l d i f f e r e n t k i n d s o f i n f o r m a t i o n a b o u t c h i l d r e n ' s p e r c e p t i o n s o f h a n d i c a p p e d b e h a v i o u r . The c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s o r q u a n t i t a t i v e i n t e r v i e w d a t a i n d i c a t e d w h i c h c h a r a c t e r s we re most d i f f i c u l t t o u n d e r s t a n d a t e a c h o f t h e g rade l e v e l s and w h i c h g r a d e s had g r e a t e r d i f f i c u l t y u n d e r s t a n d i n g any o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s . The q u a l i t a t i v e i n t e r v i e w d a t a i l l u s t r a t e d how c h i l d r e n d i f f e r i n t h e i r p e r c e p t i o n s o f e a c h h a n d i c a p as t h e y g e t o l d e r . F i n a l l y , t he f a v o r a b i l i t y measure s u g g e s t e d how, a c r o s s a l l g r a d e s , t h e c h a r a c -t e r s compared w i t h one a n o t h e r . The c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s a p p e a r e d t o measure a k n o w l e d g e w h i c h o v e r l a p p e d w i t h and y e t was n o t e n t i r e l y dependen t upon t h e v e r b a l a b i l i t y measu red b y t he PPVT and t h e know ledge o f m e n t a l h e a l t h c o n c e p t s measu red b y t he q u e s t i o n -n a i r e . The l a c k o f a s i g n i f i c a n t r e l a t i o n s h i p be tween t h e c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s and t h e PPVT s c o r e s a t t h e g r a d e 2 l e v e l may be a t t r i b u t e d p a r t l y t o t h e l o w r e l i a b i l i t y o f t he PPVT w i t h y o u n g e r age g r o u p s . R o t h e n b e r g (1970) a l s o f o u n d t h a t v e r b a l i n t e l l i g e n c e as m e a s u r e d b y t h e PPVT was more c l e a r l y r e l a t e d t o s o c i a l s e n s i t i v i t y among o l d e r ( g r a d e 5) as opposed t o y o u n g e r ( g r a d e 3) c h i l -d r e n . I n g e n e r a l , t h e c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s a p p e a r t o r e l y l e s s upon v e r b a l i n -t e l l i g e n c e t h a n do t h e q u e s t i o n n a i r e s c o r e s . O t h e r a u t h o r s h a v e s u g g e s t e d t h a t t he r e l a t i o n s h i p be tween i n t e l l i g e n c e and s o c i a l s e n s i t i v i t y o r i n t e r -p e r s o n a l a w a r e n e s s i s n o t s t r o n g (Hamsher , 1 9 7 1 ; R o t h e n b e r g , 1 9 7 0 ) . As n o t e d 59 e a r l i e r , the questionnaire and comprehension scores appear to have tapped overlapping a b i l i t i e s , but c l e a r l y they also measured d i f f e r e n t kinds of aware-ness . The comprehension scores supported the d i s t i n c t i o n noted e a r l i e r between grade 2, on the one hand, and grades 4 and 6 on the other. The youngest group received s i g n i f i c a n t l y lower scores on a l l four characters, while the older groups did not d i f f e r . As suggested e a r l i e r , the d i f f e r e n c e s between grades 2 and 4 appear to be greater than between grades 4 and 6, a f i n d i n g supported by cognitive developmental theory and research. The s h i f t from pre-operational to operational thinking has freed the c h i l d to think i n more creative ways; t h i s newly acquired f l e x i b i l i t y i s evident i n the grade 4 c h i l d ' s i n t e r p r e t a -t i o n of behaviour. The discussion of the interview data examines the explanations of each of the four characters i n d i v i d u a l l y and then focuses upon the more general trends of the c h i l d r e n . The concept of \"trend\", as noted e a r l i e r , r e f e r s to an i n -creasing or decreasing tendency with age to give a p a r t i c u l a r kind of response. Each discussion of a character covers the three major areas explored i n the interview: e t i o l o g y , control (including the concept of f a u l t ) and change. The sex of the character used during the discussion i s the sex selected by the majority of the c h i l d r e n for that p a r t i c u l a r character. Chris De s c r i p tjfc6n.SE. Chris, a m i l d l y retarded c h i l d , i s depicted as good natured and hard work-ing. In the classroom, he receives extra help from the teacher and i s unable to answer a simple question from a peer. He w i l l i n g l y j o i n s a b a l l game i n the school yard, and although he has not understood the r u l e s and plays i n c o r -r e c t l y , he enjoys himself.(See Appendix E)) 60 G e n e r a l R e s p o n s e C h i l d r e n o f a l l ages were a b l e t o i d e n t i f y C h r i s ' s p r o b l e m , a t l e a s t i n a v e r y g e n e r a l w a y . Mos t g rade 2 c h i l d r e n s a i d s i m p l y t h a t C h r i s d i d n o t u n d e r -s t a n d t h i n g s w e l l ; c h i l d r e n i n g r a d e s 4 and 6 e l a b o r a t e d on C h r i s ' s o b v i o u s i n -a b i l i t y t o u n d e r s t a n d b y r e l a t i n g h i s b e h a v i o u r t o p r o b l e m s w i t h l e a r n i n g . A l t h o u g h b o t h t h e c o n c e p t s o f \" u n d e r s t a n d i n g \" and o f \" l e a r n i n g \" we re p r e -s e n t e d i n the c a r t o o n s t r i p , t h e r e a p p e a r s to be a q u a l i t a t i v e d i f f e r e n c e b e -tween them. To \" u n d e r s t a n d \" c o n n o t e s a s t a t i c c o n d i t i o n : e i t h e r one u n d e r s t a n d s o r one d o e s n ' t u n d e r s t a n d . To \" l e a r n \" , i n c o n t r a s t , s u g g e s t s a dynam ic p r o c e s s . The y o u n g e r c h i l d was more l i k e l y t o d e s c r i b e C h r i s i n a b s o l u t e t e r m s : \"He c a n ' t u n d e r s t a n d s t u f f . \" The o l d e r c h i l d , w i t h g r e a t e r a w a r e n e s s o f b e h a v i o u r as a p r o c e s s , t e n d e d t o p e r c e i v e C h r i s a s a p e r s o n w i t h p r o b l e m s i n l e a r n i n g , t h e r e b y g e n e r a l i z i n g t h e s t a t e o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g t o t h e p r o c e s s o f l e a r n i n g . C h r i s had t h e l o w e s t mean c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e a t a l l g r a d e l e v e l s . F o r g rade 6 , C h r i s was s i g n i f i c a n t l y l e s s w e l l u n d e r s t o o d t h a n two o t h e r c h a r a c -t e r s and f o r g rade 4 , l e s s w e l l u n d e r s t o o d t h a n a l l t h e o t h e r c h a r a c t e r s . T h i s f i n d i n g c o n t r a s t s w i t h t h e e a r l y age a t w h i c h c h i l d r e n become f a m i l i a r w i t h the g e n e r a l mean ing o f r e t a r d a t i o n . To e x p l a i n t h e s e l o w c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s , two p o s s i b i l i t i e s e x i s t . E i t h e r c h i l d r e n d i d n o t i d e n t i f y C h r i s as \" r e t a r d e d \" b u t s i m p l y as u n i n t e l l i g e n t , o r c h i l d r e n d i d i d e n t i f y C h r i s as \" r e t a r d e d \" b u t t h e y have m i s c o n c e p t i o n s abou t r e t a r d a t i o n . I n e i t h e r c a s e , t h e c h i l d r e n d i d n o t a p p e a r t o u n d e r s t a n d t h e b e h a v i o u r s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h l o w i n t e l l i g e n c e and h e n c e r e c e i v e d l ow c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s . I n c o n t r a s t w i t h t h e l o w c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s , C h r i s r e c e i v e d t h e h i g h e s t mean f a v o r a b i l i t y s c o r e , a s c o r e s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r t h a n t h o s e f o r L e s and S a n d y . W h i l e the f a v o r a b i l i t y measure o f C h r i s may no t h a v e b e e n a measure o f a t t i t u d e s t owa rd a r e t a r d e d i n d i v i d u a l , i t was n e v e r t h e l e s s a measurement o f a t t i t u d e s t o w a r d a c h i l d r e c o g n i z e d as u n i n t e l l i g e n t . T h a t c h i l d r e n r a t e d a 61 character thought of as \"stupid\" more favorably than characters perceived as \"sad\" and/or \"lonely\" (Sandy) or self-deprecating (Les) indicated these c h i l -dren's p r i o r i t i e s ; sociability and good-nature were valued more than i n t e l l i -gence. : _ Concep ts of ~Et iolo gy Grade 2. Fewer than half of the grade 2 children identified Chris's problem as innate, and most of those who did had d i f f i c u l t y expressing the condition. Some linked Chris's innate condition directly to understanding. The typical explanations was, \"When he was born, he could never understand any-thing.\" Some struggled more to explain the behaviour. Explained one child, He's a l i t t l e mental. (E_: What does that mean?) He never listened to anybody ever since he was born so he's not smart. (E_: Why didn't he ever listen?) Because his ears weren't good...not like deaf...but he just had the kind of ears that didn't understand stuff right. Others reasoned that the innate lack of understanding was due to cultural or familial factors. One child suggested Chris was probably Mexican when he was born and \"that kind of person can never understand anything\". (The child's teacher later informed the experimenter that Mexico and the idea of a foreign language had been introduced to the class the day before the interview). A majority of the children described experiential etiologies which focused upon self'-induced factors such as inattention, not working or listening hard enough, and imitating other children. For some of these children, the idea that an attentive, hard-working child was incapable of understanding was not logical. One child defined Chris's problem in an unusually mature way, saying \"She can't learn properly and she just can't catch on fast.\" But then the child reasoned Chris became that way from not attending school enough, a con-crete reason more easy to grasp than the abstract notion of inab i l i t y to \"learn properly\". The few children who described other-induced etiologies a l l blamed other people for not explaining things enough times to Chris. The drawings from the cartoon strip which directly contradicted this perspective, even when specifically pointed out, did not seem to them to contradict their formulations. If people explained things carefully, they reasoned, Chris would be as clever as other children. This kind of reasoning was not given i n either of the higher grades. Grade 4_. Two thirds of the grade 4 children believed Chris was born with his problem, and they were better able to elaborate upon their ideas than grade 2 children. Many specified some kind of brain damage; Chris was born with a \"wrecked brain\", \"a brain that couldn't l i s t e n to directions\" or \"stupid brains\". One child explained, Something happened when he was in his mom's tummy. She took a lot of p i l l s or drank too much beer. It wrecked his brain so i t has one part missing or one part is a l i t t l e chipped or damaged. However, the confusion of environmental and organic factors in many re- . sponses suggested that the grade 4 child was not completely sure of the impli-cations of an innate condition. A few children said Chris was \"born that way\" but then described social experiences which influenced Chris' development. One child said, \"She was born that way. She had a wrecked brain, I think, but people were teasing her and that wrecked i t a l i t t l e more.\" Those who proposed experiential etiologies tended to cite self ^-induced factors. These included not working hard enough, not listening carefully, and not asking others to explain when he did nb:t understand. Several children sug-gested he had done poorly on a test and had lost confidence. Only two children mentioned the role of others as the major factor in the etiology of Chris's behaviour. One, who had the highest PPVT in the sample and the highest ques-tionnaire score i n the grade, called Chris a \"slow learner\" and explained that At f i r s t maybe he had a very bad teacher. She had a bad attitude toward him and he got afraid or bored of her so he didn't concentrate and f e l l behind. 63 The other child believed Chris's condition was due to being ignored by other children \"because he had trouble learning\". His learning problem, according to the child, was \"because he was an only child and no one would play with him\". This subject, incidentally,,1s an only child. Grade 6. About two thirds of the grade 6 children said Chris was born with his problem. Almost a l l the children phrased Chris's condition i n terms of a learning problem: \"slow in.learning\", \"can't learn as fast as other kids\", \"the kind where even when she tries hard, i t doesn't help too much\". A few children added to their idea of innate factors the belief that Chris wasn't trying as much as he should be. Chris's statement that he i s trying his best did not influence these children's reasoning. Even at the grade 6 level, i t appears, the concept of innate i n a b i l i t i e s i s not completely logical. Of those children who proposed experiential etiologies, half emphasized self-induced behaviours and the others focused upon other-induced behaviours. The self-induced etiologies concerned Chris's lack of attention to school work or loss of self-confidence from poor work. Other-induced etiologies included parents who did not raise Chris correctly and \"told her stuff was right even when i t was wrong\", the ina b i l i t y of his family to give him good food and take proper care of him due to their poverty, people teasing him which resulted i n his learning .problem, and traumas such as the death of a close friend which \"shook him up and kept him from understanding stuff\". The notion of parents contributing to Chris's behaviour was expressed only by children in grade 6. Perception of Control Most children i n each grade believed that Chris's behaviour was not his fault. Those who did ascribe fault to Chris had suggested etiologies i n which lack of effort was a major factor. In grade 2, five children who had des-cribed self^induced etiologies did not find Chris at fault; in each case, the 64 fault was God's. Most children also believed Chris did not want to maintain his present behaviour. Children in grade 2 contrasted with those in the other grades. Almost a l l children in grades 4 and 6 thought Chris could not help his beha-viour. Over half the children in grade 2, however, suggested Chris continued his behaviour, although he did not want to, because he was not trying hard enough to stop. While this reasoning is consistent with a self-induced etio-logy, i t is inconsistent with a \"born that way\" etiology; grade 2 children when confronted with this inconsistency, did not find i t i l l o g i c a l . Their egocentric reasoning was not threatened by inconsistencies. Effort, according to them, enables an individual to overcome any condition. A significant number of grade 6 children suggested Chris might be unaware of his behaviour. The idea of an individual being unaware of his or her be-haviour introduces a new abstract dimension into the child's understanding of psychological causality. The concept of unconsciously motivated behaviour, i f expressed by a child, implies -he or she is not relying upon the direct connec-tion between conscious motivation and i t s expression in actions to explain be-haviour. The development of this way of thinking w i l l be considered later i n the general discussion of grade differences. Concepts of Change Grade 2. Over two thirds of the grade 2 children believed Chris could change by \"trying harder\", \"paying attention more\", \"listening more\" or \"study-ing more\". Often this avenue of change was juxtaposed with an organic etiology. When directly presented with this contradiction, no child changed her or his mind. It does not represent i l l o g i c a l reasoning because this innate condition, whatever i t i s , does not connote a permanent disability. 65 A few c h i l d r e n s u g g e s t e d C h r i s w o u l d grow ou t o f t h e p r o b l e m , i n d e p e n d e n t o f t h e k i n d o f e t i o l o g y s u g g e s t e d . S a i d o n e , \" I n 20 o r 30 y e a r s , h e ' l l f o r -g e t h e ' s s t u p i d and h e ' l l s t a r t b e i n g s m a r t \" . When a s k e d why C h r i s w o u l d b e -come d i f f e r e n t as a n a d u l t , a n o t h e r c h i l d n o t e d s i m p l y , \" G r o w n - u p s a l w a y s know m o r e . \" I t w o u l d b e i n t e r e s t i n g t o know how c h i l d r e n w i t h t h i s p h i l o s o p h y e x p l a i n r e t a r d a t i o n i n an a d u l t . The few c h i l d r e n who s u g g e s t e d o t h e r s m i g h t h e l p C h r i s s t r e s s e d t h e i d e a t h a t i f p e o p l e we re k i n d e r to h i m , h e w o u l d l i k e p e o p l e more and t h e r e b y u n -d e r s t a n d m o r e . P r o b e s o f s u c h r e s p o n s e s o n l y l e a d t o c i r c u l a r r e a s o n i n g . A l l o f t h e s e p e r s p e c t i v e s on change r e f l e c t e d t h e e g o c e n t r i c r e a s o n i n g o f t h e y o u n g c h i l d ; t h e s o u r c e o f change was a l w a y s p e r c e i v e d a s w i t h i n t h e i n d i v i d u a l . G rade 4 . One t h i r d o f t h e g r a d e 4 c h i l d r e n e m p h a s i z e d C h r i s ' s need t o t r y h a r d e r , T h i s e m p h a s i s o n e f f o r t o f t e n a c c o m p a n i e d t h e i d e a t h a t t h e s i -t u a t i o n w o u l d change w i t h t i m e . As one c h i l d e x p l a i n e d , H e ' l l g e t more b r a i n s b y t h i n k i n g a l o t and when he g e t s o l d e r , h e ' l l u n d e r s t a n d m o r e . (E_: Why w i l l he u n d e r s t a n d more when he g e t s o l d e r ? ) B e c a u s e h e ' l l be b e t t e r a t t h i n k i n g . A n o t h e r t h i r d o f t h e c h i l d r e n f o c u s e d upon t h e need f o r o t h e r - i n i t i a t e d h e l p , a r e s p o n s e w h i c h d i s t i n g u i s h e d g r a d e 4 f r om g rade 2 c h i l d r e n . C h i l d r e n m e n t i o n e d s p e c i a l s c h o o l s o r e x t r a h e l p f r o m p a r e n t s . A few c h i l d r e n w e r e s t i l l u n c l e a r abou t t h e r e l a t i o n s h i p be tween t h e o r g a n i c c a u s e and t h e c a p a c i t y t o c h a n g e . T h i s exchange e x e m p l i f i e d t h a t r e a s o n i n g : She needs some p e o p l e t o t e l l h e r t o l i s t e n t o d i r e c t i o n s m o r e . ( E : Do y o u t h i n k i f she l i s t e n e d t o d i r e c t i o n s more she c o u l d become s m a r t ? ) Y e s , e v e r y o n e g e t s s m a r t e r i f t h e y l i s t e n m o r e . ( E : And y o u t h i n k C h r i s c o u l d become s m a r t e r e v e n t h o u g h y o u t h i n k s h e was b o r n t h a t way?) Hmmm. (Pause ) Y e a h , I guess s o . (E_: What was she l i k e when she was b o r n ? ) She j u s t w a s n ' t u s e d t o l i s t e n i n g t o d i r e c t i o n s . 66 Grade 6_. The largest number of grade 6 children in any category be-lieved in a \"try harder\" solution for Chris. These children stressed \"pay-ing attention\", \"practicing\", \"putting moire effort into everything and try-ing with a l l his might\". Even a child who has a mongoloid sister said Chris could change with effort. For many eleven year olds, as for many seven year olds, i t was i l l o g i c a l that an individual who pays attention and tries hard would not be smart, even i f the individual was born with the problem. A child with the highest PPVT and comprehension scores in grade 6 said, He could change. It's hard to t e l l since he was born with i t , but he might find some subject he's really strong in and become really b r i l l i a n t . (E_: Do you think this could happen even though he was born slow at learning, as you said before?) Yes, but i t would take a lot of hard work for him to become very intelligent. It wouldn't come naturally, but i t might come. Across a l l grades, then, the concept of innately limited intelligence was not clearly understood. Di f f i c u l t y of Change Most of the children who believed Chris could change indicated that change would be d i f f i c u l t . Almost half of grade 2 children, compared with one third of grade 4 children and one quarter of grade 6 children, said i t would be easy for Chris to change. This difference between grade 2 and the other grades was not significant for Chris, although i t was significant for each of the other characters. Summary.rof jChi'ldrenLs 1 Interpretations .of Chris..,,, The grade 2 children perceived Chris as a person who was \"born that way\" or whose lack of understanding was self-induced. His behaviour was not his fault, although many children reasoned that he behaved as he did because he did not try hard enough to cease his present behaviour. He could change by making more effort. 67 A g r e a t e r p r o p o r t i o n o f g r a d e 4 c h i l d r e n t h a n g rade 2 c h i l d r e n p e r -c e i v e d C h r i s ' s p r o b l e m - a s i n n a t e , a l t h o u g h some s u g g e s t e d t h e b e h a v i o u r was s e l f - i n d u c e d . Grade 4 c h i l d r e n d i d n o t a s c r i b e f a u l t t o C h r i s f o r h i s b e -h a v i o u r and g e n e r a l l y b e l i e v e d he \" c o u l d n ' t h e l p i t \" . C h a n n e l s o f change w e r e p r i m a r i l y e f f o r t and h e l p f r om t h e e n v i r o n m e n t . Grade 6 c h i l d r e n d e s c r i b e d e t i o l o g i e s s i m i l a r t o t h o s e o f g rade 4 c h i l -d r e n , a l t h o u g h t h e y e x p l a i n e d t h e i n n a t e c o n d i t i o n more c l e a r l y . A c c o r d i n g t o most c h i l d r e n , t h e b e h a v i o u r was n o t h i s f a u l t , and he c o u l d n o t h e l p b e -h a v i n g as he d i d . Grade 6 c h i l d r e n were more l i k e l y to b e l i e v e C h r i s was unaware o f h i s b e h a v i o u r t h a n t h e o t h e r c h i l d r e n w e r e . Change w o u l d come a b o u t p r i m a r i l y t h r o u g h e f f o r t . I n g e n e r a l , t h e r e t a r d e d c h i l d was l i k e l y t o b e p e r c e i v e d b y c h i l d r e n a t a l l g rade l e v e l s as \" b o r n t h a t w a y \" . W h i l e c h i l d r e n m i g h t f e e l r e l a t i v e l y f a v o r a b l y t o w a r d a r e t a r d e d c h i l d , t h e y n e v e r t h e l e s s w o u l d e x p e c t h i m o r h e r t o work h a r d t o ove rcome h i s o r h e r p r o b l e m . C h i l d r e n a t a l l age l e v e l s e x -p r e s s e d t h e b e l i e f t h a t w i t h e f f o r t , an u n i n t e l l i g e n t o r \" s l o w \" p e r s o n c o u l d become s m a r t . R e t a r d a t i o n , i t a p p e a r s , i s n o t c l e a r l y u n d e r s t o o d . C o r r y D e s c r i p t i o n C o r r y , a c r i p p l e d c h i l d , makes e f f o r t s t o do t h i n g s h i s c l a s s m a t e s d o , b u t h a s l ow s e l f - c o n f i d e n c e . He a t t e m p t s a f r i s b e e game w i t h p e e r s , b u t f a l l s and c o n c l u d e s he s h o u l d n o t t r y t o p l a y s u c h games. I n t h e c l a s s r o o m , he i s s e l f - c o n s c i o u s abou t mov ing s l o w l y , i s awkward w i t h h i s s c h o o l w o r k , and i s a p o l o g e t i c abou t d r o p p i n g t h e g l u e r e q u e s t e d by a c l a s s m a t e . (See A p p e n d i x E. ) G e n e r a l R e s p o n s e C h i l d r e n i n g r a d e s 4 and 6 had s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s f o r C o r r y t h a n t h e y had f o r C h r i s . H o w e v e r , s i x c h i l d r e n i n g r a d e 2 c o u l d 68 not identify Corry's problem. Their low comprehension scores contributed substantially to lowering the mean for grade 2 children. Except for the six grade 2 children, a l l children identified the crutches. At the end of the discussion of Corry with those six children, the interviewer pointed to the crutches and asked each child i f he or she knew what they were. A l l said no. Even when they were labeled as \"crutches\", none knew what they were. This finding could be a failure of the measure to clearly depict a crip-pled child. However, because a l l the pilo t subjects were able to identify the crutches, i t was not anticipated that a significant number of children would be unable to recognize them. If the children had not seen or heard of crutches, as they claimed, then their low comprehension scores reflected ap-propriately the state of some young children's understanding of physical handi-caps . A few older children also expressed some confusion about crutches. Two children, one in each of grades 4 and 6, associated Corry's physical condition with a mental condition as well as an organic condition. Both children assumed crutches signified a leg problem and that people who needed to use crutches were not intelligent. Like Chris, Corry's relatively low comprehension scores contrasted with a high favorability score. Corry was perceived significantly more favourably than Les or Sandy. This favorability rating may conflict with what adults generally know to be the experience of the physically handicapped child i n the schools. She or he is often the victim of ridicule and insensitivity. It i s impossible to know whether verbalized attitudes and actual behaviour are rela-ted. Would a child who, i n an interview with an adult, speaks sensitively about a crippled child actually interact with such a child with the same thoughtfulness? 69 Concepts of Etiology A l l eighty-four children whose responses were included in the analyses of the interview data said Corry's condition was either innate or the result of an accident or disease. Grade 2 children who tended to say Corry had been born with his problem, also believed Corry was born with his sad feelings. With increasing age, the children were more li k e l y to note the contribution of the environment to his feelings, in addition to the organic condition i t s e l f . Grade 6 children contrasted with the others in mentioning both self- and other-induced etiologies. Children at this age commented upon Corry's general struggle to adjust, his desire to be like other children, and his self-deni-gration. They also noted the contribution of other people te l l i n g him that he is no good, ugly and clumsy. These suggestions demonstrate the a b i l i t y of the older child to abstract from the cartoon strips to other aspects of the character's l i f e . The etio-logies mentioned by grade 6 children were, for the most part, not expl i c i t l y stated in the strips. The ideas expressed reflected the role-playing a b i l i t y of the older child, a task of which grade 2 children are incapable. Even when probed, grade 2 children were unable to go beyond the drawings and words of the strip to describe what might contribute to Corry's feelings. The following i s a typical discussion: He's got something wrong with his legs. (E_: How do you think he feels?) I think he's sad. (E_: What do you think made Corry start having those feelings?) When his legs didn't work. (E_: Why did that make him sad?) Because he couldn't play frisbee. . .and here, he dropped the glue. (E_: OK, now pretend you know Corry. Can you t e l l me about a l l the things that made him a sad person?) Well, I think he just forgot how to pass the glue when his'ilegs went wrong and he won't remember how to do i t again un t i l they get fixed. This kind of response illustrates Piaget's distinction between pre-oper-ational and operational thought. The young child's thinking was tied directly to the stimulus, allowing no f l e x i b i l i t y between his or her visual and concep-70 tual pictures. The shift from perceiving Corry's behaviour as solely a func-tion of organic factors to recognizing the role of social factors exemplifies the development of more abstract thinking i n children. A physical, organic condition is concrete and tangible; the assumption that ridicule and feelings of insecurity play a part i n Corry's behaviour required abstraction from the cartoon strip. Perception of Control Most of the children in each grade did not believe Corry's behaviour was his fault. Those who did find Corry at fault emphasized that Corry should build up his self-confidence; he should t e l l himself he can do things. Most of the children did not think Corry wanted to act as he did. A few children in grades 2 and 6 had perceived Corry as a person who, though handi-capped, tried his best and liked to help people. Those children believed Corry was content with his behaviour. A l l children who f e l t Corry was not happy with his behaviour said he could not help his condition or his feelings. In general, the physically handicapped child, more than any other kind of handicapped child, was perceived as neither at fault nor as wanting to main-tain his or her behaviour. Concepts of Change Grade 2. Almost one third of the children believed Corry's personality would not change. Twelve children had said he would change \"when his legs get better\". When asked what would happen i f his legs always had this problem, half said he would never change. Almost half of the children suggested Corry would change by \"trying hard-er\" or \"trying to learn to do things better\". Several children perceived his behaviour as a function of factors other than his condition, implying that 71 change would be easy. For example, one child explained, He's mad-- because he feels angry because his legs are broken so he's dropping things on purpose. He has to get happy so h e ' l l stop doing that. Most children suggested being more careful, practicing things over and over again, trying to learn special tricks with his crutches to entertain class-mates. One child thought i f Corry got a pet for his birthday, a l l his pro-blems would disappear. Once again, the emphasis was upon internal forces as means to change in most children's explanations. Grade 4_. One third of grade 4 children said Corry could not change. Four said he would change \"when he doesn't need the crutches any more\"; they a l l decided, when asked about the effect of a permanent condition, that Corry probably would not change. Another third suggested that Corry could change with the help of others. Friends who played special games with him, gave him rides, and generally en-couraged him would help him to become a more self-confident, happy person. This orientation toward help from others distinguished grade 4 children from those in the other grades. A few children expressed the kinds , of solutions more common among grade 2 children, such as practicing a great deal or outgrowing his moods. As one child put i t , When he's older, about 20, h e ' l l be happy because when you're older, you realize things more...you understand things more because you've lived longer. That's what my mom t e l l s me. Grade 6_. Grade 6 children contrasted dramatically with grade 4 children in focusing upon Corry's need to work hard to adapt to his handicap. Over one half of the children spoke only of working hard, practicing, discovering things he could do and perfecting his s k i l l s in those areas, not letting himself become discouraged. This orientation differs from what might be ex-72 p e c t e d f rom c h i l d r e n who had n o t e d t h e r o l e o f t h e e n v i r o n m e n t i n c o n t r i b u t i n g t o C o r r y ' s b e h a v i o u r . O n l y two c h i l d r e n s u g g e s t e d h e l p by o t h e r s and f i v e s u g g e s t e d o t h e r p e o -p l e m i g h t p l a y some r o l e i n C o r r y ' s c h a n g e , b u t t h a t r o l e w o u l d be s e c o n d a r y t o the e f f o r t C o r r y h i m s e l f must c o n t r i b u t e . Grade 6 c h i l d r e n a p p e a r e d t o be e x p r e s s i n g an a t t i t u d e o f t e n expounded by a d u l t s w h i c h d i s c o u r a g e s dependency and s t r e s s e s s e l f - r e l i a n c e . D i f f i c u l t y o f Change A l m o s t a l l t h e c h i l d r e n i n g r a d e s 4 and 6 b e l i e v e d i t w o u l d b e d i f f i c u l t f o r C o r r y t o c h a n g e ; o n l y one t h i r d o f t h o s e i n g rade 2 d i d . \" J u s t p r a c t i c e \" was the t y p i c a l r e s p o n s e o f a g rade 2 c h i l d . P r a c t i c i n g was assumed t o e l i -m i n a t e n o t o n l y C o r r y ' s p h y s i c a l a w k w a r d n e s s , b u t a l s o h i s \" s a d \" f e e l i n g s . Many o f t h e o l d e r c h i l d r e n , e s p e c i a l l y t h o s e i n g rade 6 , n o t e d t h a t i f C o r r y was a l w a y s c r i p p l e d , he w o u l d have c o n s t a n t r e m i n d e r s o f h i s l i m i t a t i o n s . The g r a d e 6 c h i l d ' s awa reness o f t h e r o l e o f t h e e n v i r o n m e n t i n m a k i n g change d i f -f i c u l t o f t e n f o l l o w e d h i s o r h e r b e l i e f t h a t change w o u l d come abou t t h r o u g h e f f o r t . A p p a r e n t l y t h i s d i d n o t r e p r e s e n t a c o n t r a d i c t i o n t o t h e c h i l d r e n . E f f o r t , d e s p i t e s t r e s s f u l e n v i r o n m e n t a l c o n d i t i o n s , was e x p e c t e d and r e s p e c t e d . Summary. -of ; C h i l d r e n ' s;' I nCexp re t -a - t i ons o f , C o r r y - 3 The c r i p p l e d c h i l d was p e r c e i v e d r e l a t i v e l y s i m i l a r l y a c r o s s t h e g r a d e l e v e l s . E x c e p t f o r s i x g rade 2 c h i l d r e n who were u n a b l e t o i d e n t i f y C o r r y , ' s p r o b l e m , a l l c h i l d r e n d e s c r i b e d p l a u s i b l e c a u s e s f o r C o r r y ' s c o n d i t i o n . Grade 6 c h i l d r e n , i n c o n t r a s t w i t h t h e o t h e r s , n o t e d t h e r o l e o t h e r p e o p l e p l a y e d i n c o n t r i b u t i n g t o C o r r y ' s f e e l i n g s . None o f t h e c h i l d r e n t h o u g h t C o r r y was a t f a u l t , n o r d i d t h e y t h i n k he w a n t e d t o engage i n h i s p r e s e n t b e h a v i o u r . Many c h i l d r e n i n g r a d e s 2 a n d , 6 f e l t C o r r y s h o u l d t r y h a r d to a d j u s t t o h i s s i t u a t i o n w h i l e g rade 4 c h i l d r e n most o f t e n m e n t i o n e d t h a t h e l p f r o m o t h e r s would f a c i l i t a t e change. Most grade 2 children thought change would be easy while children in grades 4 and 6, expressing a greater understanding of Corry's behaviour, realized change would be d i f f i c u l t . Les Description An anxious, self-deprecating child, Les feels her work is poor despite the teacher's reassurance. Although Les complains to the school nurse of feeling terrible, the nurse says there is nothing wrong with her. Les feels certain a group of classmates w i l l not include her in a hopscotch game, and when they ask her to join them, she expresses doubt about her a b i l i t y to play well. Although her classmates perceive her performance as good, she is dis-satisfied and says she can never do anything right. (See Appendix El) General Response In a l l grades, comprehension scores on Les did not differ significantly from those on Corry or Sandy. The mean\"comprehension score for Les in each grade was the highest or the second highest score for a l l the characters. Re-lative to the other characters, then, Les was well understood. Except for one grade 2 child who was unable to grasp Les's problem at a l l , a l l children ex-pressed Les's behaviour adequately. Les received the third highest favorability score, significantly lower than those of Chris and Corry. Many children expressed negative feelings and impatience with Les's behaviour during the interview, an attitude not expressed in discussions of Corry and only occasionally in discussions of Chris. Thus while children seemed to identify Les's problem accurately, they were not sym-pathetic to her behaviour. This combination of high comprehension and low favorability w i l l be discussed later at greater length. 74 Concepts of Etiology Grade 2. Grade 2 children demonstrated no clear pattern in their ideas for etiologies of Les's behaviour, although they showed a greater tendency to believe she was \"born that way\" than either of the other grades did. Some-times, the behaviour was obviously incomprehensible to the child, and to as-cribe i t to innate forces was a last resort. The following exchange exempli-fied this reasoning: He didn't think he had any friends. (E_: Why did he think that?) Be-cause he didn't think that he could do anything right.' (E: Well, what made him think he couldn't do anything right?) Because he didn't have any friends that telled him he was good. (E_: Oh. Well, why didn't he have any friends to t e l l him he was good?) Maybe he was just born that way. (E_: What was the matter with him when he was born?) He was born the kind of person who thought he'd never be good at things. The innate condition, in the mind of a seven year old,was associated directly with the individual's specific behaviours. Just as Chris was born \"not under-standing stuff\" and Corry was born sad, sp Les was born \"thinking she wasn't good at stuff\". Children at seven years of age have already begun to associate feelings and behaviour, including non-organically based behaviour, with the brain or head. Four children described accidents in which Les hit or bumped her head. One child explained that \"she bumped into someone and hit her head so she lost her memory and she forgot she is good at stuff.\" Another child des-cribed Les as a person with \"a nervous brain\". Over one third of the children's responses suggested self ^ -induced etio-logies: \"he learned i t from his friend\", \"she got curious to try i t \" , \"he did something once and thought he'd always be wrong after that\". The beha-viour, according to these children, emerges completely from within the in d i -vidual with no enviornmental involvement. 75 The direct associations of etiology and behaviour again reflected the egocentric reasoning of the young child. The \" i t \" from the above two quotes suggested the children conceived of Les acquiring a_ specific behaviour. A l -ternatively, the children suggested that one experience might have brought about the behaviour. None of the children abstracted from the cartoon strips to a general l i f e condition which might have produced a person like Les. Grade 4. Almost a l l grade 4 children thought Les's behaviour was self -induced. Experiences of failure, rejection i n friendships and lack of a b i l i t y to accept the praise of others were the themes of the children's explanations. In each case, the emphasis was upon the inappropriateness of .Les's perceptions rather than upon the trauma of the experience. The children often made ex-cuses for the reactions of others to Les, thereby absolving them of blame and focusing upon Les's behaviour as irrational. For example, one child said, She asked someone to play and they said no, so she thought she was a bad person. She thinks too much about herself. Probably the other people were playing a game that couldn't have any more people. Three children thought Les's behaviour was based on an innate condition. They suggested she was born, for example, \"the kind of person who wants to be perfect\". The question of how a person could be born with that quality was not resolved by any of the children. It is d i f f i c u l t to determine whether the children actually believed the quality could be innate or whether they simply could think of no alternative way to explain the behaviour. Only a few children placed more emphasis upon what others had done to Les than upon Les's thoughts. These responses concerned cruel peers who con-tinually told Les she was no good. No child mentioned parents. Grade 6. Almost two thirds of the children emphasized the role of others, especially good friends and parents, i n influencing Les's development. C r i t i -cism, failure to perform up to expectations, and comparisons with siblings were 76 common t h e m e s , e v e n t h o u g h none o f t h e s e i d e a s was s u g g e s t e d i n t h e s t r i p s . A l t h o u g h p a r e n t s we re n e v e r m e n t i o n e d by y o u n g e r c h i l d r e n , g rade 6 c h i l d r e n f r e q u e n t l y a t t r i b u t e d L e s ' s p r o b l e m s t o p a r e n t a l i n f l u e n c e . T h i s f i n d i n g l e n d s s u p p o r t t o t h e F_ s c a l e o f t he q u e s t i o n n a i r e i n w h i c h o l d e r c h i l d r e n t e n d e d t o p e r c e i v e n e u r o t i c b e h a v i o u r as c a u s e d b y f a m i l i a l i n f l u e n c e s . O v e r ; o n e : t h i r d o f t h e c h i l d r e n e m p h a s i z e d t h e f a c t t h a t L e s ' s b e h a v i o u r was an o v e r r e a c t i o n o r an i n a p p r o p r i a t e r e s p o n s e and t h e r e f o r e f u n d a m e n t a l l y s e l f - i n d u c e d r a t h e r t h a n o t h e r - i n d u c e d . The a t t i t u d e t o w a r d L e s e x p r e s s e d b y t h i s g roup w a s , i n c o n t r a s t w i t h o t h e r g rade 6 c h i l d r e n , o b v i o u s l y u n s y m p a t h e -t i c . One c h i l d s a i d , -Some f r i e n d s were t e a s i n g h e r , t e l l i n g h e r h e r p r o j e c t was n o t g o o d . She j u s t b e l i e v e d t h e m , b u t t h a t was dumb b e c a u s e t h e y we re j u s t p r e -t e n d i n g and she k e p t on b e l i e v i n g i t even a f t e r t h e y s t o p p e d . Once a g a i n , c h i l d r e n e x c u s e d t h e b e h a v i o u r o f o t h e r s w h i c h m i g h t have c o n t r i -b u t e d t o L e s ' s b e h a v i o u r . P e r c e p t i o n s o f C o n t r o l The o l d e r t h e g roup , , t h e more l i k e l y i i f c > w a s / . \" t o f i n d L e s a t f a u l t f o r h e r b e h a v i o u r . Fewer t h a n one t h i r d o f t h e g r a d e 2 c h i l d r e n , i n c o n t r a s t w i t h o v e r h a l f t h e c h i l d r e n i n g r a d e s 4 and 6 , t h o u g h t L e s was a t f a u l t . Some o f t h e c h i l d r e n i n g rade 6 who had d e s c r i b e d an o t h e r - i n d u c e d e t i o l o g y now a s c r i b e d f a u l t to L e s . A t y p i c a l e x p l a n a t i o n w a s , W e l l , s h e ' s t h e one w h o ' s s t i l l d o i n g i t . . . s h e ' s a c t i n g l i k e t h a t even t h o u g h she d o e s n ' t have to. i T h i s r e a s o n i n g was b a s e d upon t h e p e r c e p t i o n t h a t L ! e s ' s b e h a v i o u r c o n t i n u e d d e s p i t e t he r e a s s u r a n c e s o f t e a c h e r s and p e e r s and upon t h e b e l i e f t h a t she c o u l d c o n t r o l h e r own b e h a v i o u r . U n l i k e C o r r y who had p h y s i c a l l i m i t a t i o n s o r C h r i s who had m e n t a l l i m i t a t i o n s , L e s had no o s t e n s i b l e l i m i t a t i o n s . As one g r a d e 6 c h i l d e x p r e s s e d i t , \" S h e ' s a c t i n g t h a t way b e c a u s e s h e ' s s t u p i d . . . b u t r e a l l y s h e ' s v e r y v e r y s m a r t . \" 77 Most of the children in each grade did not believe Les actually wanted to engage in the illustrated behaviour. The reasons given for continuing the behaviour were relatively equal across a l l grades, although the tendency to perceive Les as \"not trying hard enough\" decreased slightly with age. Children's answers frequently became inconsistent at this point in the interview. Either of the following would represent a consistent response: Etiology \" Fault Wants to behave Why continues this way? the behaviour? Self-induced At fault No Not trying hard enough to stop Other-induced Not at fault No Can't help i t However, the patterns emerging, based upon the majority of responses, were as follows:. Etiology Fault Wants to behave this way? Why continues the behaviour? 2 Self-induced Not at fault No Not trying hard enough to stop 4 Self-induced At fault No Not trying hard enough to stop 6 Other-induced At fault No Can't help i t The concepts of etiology and of why Les continued her behaviour were consistent; however, the ascription of fault was inconsistent for grades 2 and 6 with the other parts of the responses. While this pattern is based upon the majorities of responses rather than upon individual patterns, i t nevertheless suggests that while children increasingly perceived the environmental contributions to Les's behaviour as they get older, they also increasingly ascribed fault to her. The behaviour was not considered within Les's control and yet she was at fault. These ideologies for both grades 2 and 6 reflected children's 78 attitudes about etiology and responsibility for neurotic behaviours. This w i l l be discussed in the section concerning general grade differences. Concepts of Change Grade 2_. A majority of grade 2 children suggested either that Les should \"try hard\" or that she would outgrow the behaviour. Those who suggested Les \"try hard\" were not focusing upon efforts to be self-satisfied but rather upon efforts to do better work which would lead to greater happiness. For example, one child said, Some day, she'll just try and try and try and then she'll do i t per-fect. Then she'll be happy and she won't think she's terrible. Although they had identified the problem correctly and had sometimes been quite perceptive, saying \"She doesn't like herself.\", or \"She thinks she's no good.\", those same children had not recognized the paradox of vbeing \"good\" and yet not being able to acknowledge i t . As a result, they assumed only \"perfection\" would satisfy her. The children who proposed that Les would grow out of her behaviour ex-pressed the delightfully optimistic theory that adults simply do not act foolishly. One bright child explained that h e ' l l stop doing that when he gets older. (E_: Why w i l l that happen when he gets older?) Because h e ' l l be older and h e ' l l understand things better. Things are easier when you're older and smarter. As in the case of Chris, i t would be interesting to hear children's explana-tions of adult neurotic behaviour. Those who suggested Les's need for other-initiated help generally be-lieved that other people, by repeatedly te l l i n g Les that she is_ good, would change her. The cartoon included unsuccessful efforts of both teacher and peer to allay Les's anxieties with positive reinforcement, but the children were not perturbed by this. Their reasoning, from their perspective, was 79 completely logical. The following exchange illustrates this tight reasoning: They'll t e l l her lots of times that she's good, over and over again. (E_: In the cartoon, you can see that the teacher t e l l s her she's done good work, and here, her friend told her she played a good game. Do you think Les can change with people te l l i n g her she's good over.and over again?) Yes, I'm sure she w i l l . See, here, she thinks they just feel sorry for her because she might lose. (E_: Do you think Les might think everyone who t e l l s her she is good i s just feeling sorry for her?) No, because she'll ask them i f they feel sorry for her and they'll say no and she'll believe them. As with their reasoning about Corry and Chris, the grade 2 children shaped Les's situation to f i t their perceptions, sometimes obviously distorting Les's behaviour. Grade 4_. Over a third of the grade 4 children proposed a \"try hard\" means of change, but the largest group suggested other-initiated help. In contrast to the \"try hard\" solutions of the grade 2 children, the grade 4 children suggested efforts at self-reflection, working to convince herself that her behaviour i s appropriate; Les should keep t e l l i n g herself that she is good. The children's shift from an emphasis on efforts to perfect herself to an emphasis on self-examination marked the beginning of a realization that Les's behaviour is inappropriate. The largest percentage of responses f e l l into the other-initiated help category. Once again, there was a qualitative change from the grade 2 re-sponses. Children now were not simply suggesting that peers t e l l Les she i s good. The children seemed to recognize that such an approach would not be effective. They had many thoughtful suggestions about how to raise Les's self-esteem: letting her win games or elections, making her feel she i s needed, giving her a book in which a character behaves as she does so that perhaps she'll recognize herself and think about her behaviour. One child proposed that Les be confronted by someone she respected. Parents, interestingly enough, were not mentioned. 80 Grade 6 . The g r e a t e s t number o f r e s p o n s e s o f g r a d e 6 c h i l d r e n f e l l i n t o t h e \" t r y h a r d \" c a t e g o r y . A g a i n , t he f o c u s upon e f f o r t s was q u a l i t a t i v e l y d i f -f e r e n t f r om t h a t s u g g e s t e d by g rade 2 c h i l d r e n . Grade 6 c h i l d r e n e m p h a s i z e d L e s ' s n e e d t o t h i n k abou t h e r s e l f and t h e r e a c t i o n s o f o t h e r s t o h e r . The d a t a d i d n o t i n d i c a t e t h a t a l l c h i l d r e n a t t h i s age r e c o g n i z e d , t h e i r r a t i o n a l n a t u r e o f L e s ' s p r o b l e m , a l t h o u g h a s u r p r i s i n g number d i d a p p e a r t o i n t e r p r e t i t a t an a d u l t l e v e l . The l e s s s o p h i s t i c a t e d c h i l d t h o u g h t L e s s h o u l d \" c h a n g e h e r t h o u g h t s \" o r \" p e o p l e s h o u l d ge t mad a t h e r f o r b e i n g s t u -p i d \" . O t h e r s , h o w e v e r , saw f a r beyond t h e o b v i o u s b e h a v i o u r s to L e s ' s n e e d s : I t d o e s n ' t r e a l l y m a t t e r what o t h e r p e o p l e s a y to h e r i f h e r p a r e n t s s t i l l d o n ' t l o v e h e r . She n e e d s . t o know t h e y d o . Maybe t h e y s a y t h e y do b u t t h e y n e v e r show i t . The i n c r e a s i n g a w a r e n e s s o f t h e r o l e p a r e n t s p l a y i n a c h i l d ' s p r o b l e m s p a r a l l e l s some a s p e c t s o f t h e c h i l d ' s m o r a l d e v e l o p m e n t . A s c h i l d r e n come t o r e c o g n i z e t h e f a c t t h a t r u l e s and l a w s a r e n o t a b s o l u t e , t h e y a l s o b e g i n t o q u e s t i o n t h e m o r a l s u p e r i o r i t y o f a u t h o r i t y ( K o h l b e r g , 1 9 7 2 ) . S i m i l a r l y , a d u l t s a r e no l o n g e r p e r c e i v e d as f l a w l e s s , and c h i l d r e n c a n i m a g i n e and d e s -c r i b e t he p r o b l e m s p a r e n t s c a n c r e a t e f o r c h i l d r e n . T D i f frculty f o f c h C h a n g e The m a j o r i t y o f g rade 2 c h i l d r e n t h o u g h t i t w o u l d b e e a s y f o r L e s t o c h a n g e . The e t i o l o g y and t h e c u r e a r e b o t h p e r c e i v e d as i n t e r n a l l y c o n t r o l l e d ; t h e r e f o r e c h a n g i n g t he b e h a v i o u r s h o u l d be e a s y . I f a bump on h e r head c a u s e d h e r m e m o r y , l o s s , a n o t h e r bump w i l l r e v i v e h e r memory. I f someone s a y i n g \" Y o u ' r e no g o o d \" c a u s e d h e r b e h a v i o u r , someone e l s e s a y i n g \" Y o u ' r e g o o d \" w i l l change i t . The o l d e r c h i l d a p p e a r s t o h a v e e v o l v e d to a new s t a g e o f t h i n k i n g a b o u t p r o b l e m s , suggestelcljby\u00E2\u0080\u00A2';gr^'dfej3.-s.4.;'andv'. 6 c h i l d r e n ' s a w a r e n e s s o f t h e r e a s o n s why change i s so d i f f i c u l t . A s one c h i l d n o t e d m a t u r e l y , 81 I t ' l l be h a r d f o r h e r t o change b e c a u s e maybe she j u s t i s n ' t good a t some t h i n g s and t h a t w i l l keep r e m i n d i n g h e r . Bu t no one i s p e r f e c t and s h e ' l l n e v e r b e e i t h e r . Summary o\",f C h i l d r e n ' ^ . - I n t e r p r e t a t i o n s ofk 'Les Grade 2 c h i l d r e n most f r e q u e n t l y p e r c e i v e d L e s ' s b e h a v i o u r as s e l f -i n d u c e d . A l t h o u g h the c h i l d r e n d i d n o t b e l i e v e L e s w a n t e d t o engage i n t h e b e h a v i o u r , mos t c h i l d r e n f e l t t h e b e h a v i o u r c o n t i n u e d b e c a u s e L e s d i d n o t t r y h a r d enough t o s t o p . L o g i c a l l y , L e s c o u l d change s i m p l y b y t r y i n g h a r d t o become p e r f e c t o r she w o u l d o u t g r o w t h e p r o b l e m . F o r t h e m a j o r i t y o f g rade 4 c h i l d r e n , L e s ' s b e h a v i o u r was s e l f - i n d u c e d and h e r b e h a v i o u r was h e r own f a u l t . She d i d n o t r e a l l y want t o c o n t i n u e h e r b e -h a v i o u r b u t she was n o t t r y i n g h a r d enough t o s o p . She c o u l d change i f p e o p l e h e l p e d h e r o r i f she t r i e d h a r d t o s t o p b e h a v i n g so i n a p p r o p r i a t e l y . O t h e r p e o p l e i n d u c e d L e s ' s b e h a v i o u r a c c o r d i n g t o most g r a d e 6 c h i l d r e n ; b u t t h e m a j o r i t y o f c h i l d r e n a l s o b e l i e v e d L e s ' s b e h a v i o u r was h e r own f a u l t . They t e n d e d to b e l i e v e t h a t L e s d i d n o t want t o engage i n h e r p r e s e n t b e h a v i o u r b u t s h e c o u l d n o t r e a l l y h e l p i t . Change w o u l d come abou t t h r o u g h s e l f - r e f l e c -t i o n o r r e i n f o r c e m e n t f r o m o t h e r s . I n g e n e r a l , n e u r o t i c b e h a v i o u r was d e s c r i b e d r e l a t i v e l y w e l l , b u t r a t e d l e s s f a v o r a b l y t h a n e i t h e r c r i p p l e d o r r e t a r d e d b e h a v i o u r . By g r a d e 4 , c h i l -d r e n have d e v e l o p e d more comp lex s y s t e m s o f c a u s a l i t y t h a n t h e y o u n g e r , e g o -c e n t r i c c h i l d r e n . T h i s c o g n i t i v e f l e x i b i l i t y p e r m i t s t h e o l d e r c h i l d t o i n -t e g r a t e the i n c o n s i s t e n c i e s o f t h e n e u r o t i c b e h a v i o u r w i t h o u t d i s t o r t i n g i t as t h e y o u n g e r c h i l d d o e s . A t t he same t i m e , c o n f o r m i t y to \" m a j o r i t y o r ' n a t u r a l ' b e h a v i o u r \" has a l s o become o f i m p o r t a n c e t o t h e c h i l d , and i n t e n t i o n s h a v e become a b a s i s o f e v a l u a t i o n ( K o h l b e r g , 1 9 7 2 , p . 1 6 4 ) . The n e u r o t i c b e h a v i o u r w h i c h d e v i -a t e s f r o m norms i s j u d g e d more h a r s h l y , and f a u l t i s a s c r i b e d to t h e 82 individual for the behaviour. Most children did not perceive the neurotic behaviour as intentional. However, the oldest group, who were the most li k e l y to think the neurotic individual could not help her behaviour, were also the most lik e l y to ascribe fault to her. A consideration of intentions, therefore, which might have tempered a child's evaluation of normal behaviour, did not appear to have that effect with respect to neurotic behaviour. Sandy Description Sandy i s an autistically withdrawn child who both in the classroom and in the schoolyard avoids participating in peer a c t i v i t i e s . In the classroom, she stares at a pencil and seems to be daydreaming rather than joining class-room ac t i v i t i e s . Without responding, she walks away from a child who asks her to join i n a schoolyard game. She engages in autistic speech behaviour both in response to a teacher's question and when alone: (See Appendix E-) General Response Sandy's comprehension scores did not differ significantly from those of Les or Corry at any grade level; for grades 2 and 4, Sandy's comprehension score was the highest score for the grade (although in grade 4, that position was shared with Les). Many children commented thoughtfully and relatively knowledgeably on Sandy's behaviour. Sandy's favorability rating, however, was significantly lower than those of a l l the other characters. This finding i s not surprising; Sandy's behaviour i s the most antisocial and bizarre of the characters, and psychotic behaviour is possibly the most rejected of a l l noncriminal behaviours in this society. The relationship of relatively high comprehension to relatively low favorability w i l l be discussed later at greater length. 83 Concepts of Etiology Grade 2_. The majority of children mentioned ideas concerning being new in the school, being excluded by peers, learning the behaviour from others. The emphasis, in most cases, was upon the idea that Sandy's behaviour was s e l f -induced. Even when the actions of others may have contributed originally to Sandy's behaviour, children perceived i t as maintained by Sandy's own thought. Over one quarter of the grade 2 children thought Sandy's behaviour began at birth, and three children suggested Sandy was \"mental\". Children's elabor-ations of their \"born that way\" responses commented on Sandy's explicit beha-viours only. The children, whose thinking was tied to the immediate stimulus of the cartoon strip, were unable to imagine situations apart from those-pre-sented. For example, when asked what was the matter with Sandy when she was born, a child said, \"She was always si t t i n g alone and not paying attention and saying s i l l y things\". A few children suggested organic problems, a sickness that \"she got from someone else\", an \"undeformed brain\" or a \"mental thing\" which meant \"she doesn't hardly know what the kids are saying and she doesn't know how to play games.\" Two children combined social and physical factors to explain the unfamiliar behaviour. One child explained that Sandy was teased and then bitten by a dog. \"right around the brain, and that gave her a brain damage.\" The other suggested. When she was a baby, she got hurt, maybe she f e l l out of her crib. But then when she was three and she was listening and someone said something mean about her so she decided to be mean and only talk to herself for-ever . These responses reflected thoughtful attempts to make sense of autistic beha-viour. Sandy's behaviour does not conform with behaviour generally associated only with physical disorders; yet neither does i t seem like behaviour which would result solely from an unpleasant social experience. Neither of these 84 descriptions was suggested in the cartoon strip. However, the f i r s t child had been bitten on the face by a dog and the second child had been told by her mother that she had fallen from her crib as an infant. This again i l l u s -trates the young child's egocentric orientation in the interpretation of be-haviour in others. The child assimilates her or his perceptions of the world into her or his existing schemas of social understanding, regardless of how distorted the original situations become in the assimilation process. Grade 4. A few grade 4 children thought Sandy's behaviour had been i n -nate, but the majority described self-induced etiologies. About a third fo-cused upon other-induced etiologies. The few children who believed Sandy's problem reflected an innate condi-tion differed from those in grade 2 in the way they expressed the condition. Whereas grade 2 children had assumed Sandy as an infant displayed a l l her pre-sent behaviours grade 4 children tried to abstract from the cartoon strip and to describe innate behaviour patterns which might evolve to her present behaviour. Children suggested that when Sandy was born she \"just always liked to be quiet\" or \"had feelings that got hurt very easily\". Several grade 4 children described traumatic events as causes of Sandy's behaviour; some children were sympathetic and emphasized the effect of the event on Sandy, while others stressed that Sandy, by holding onto the past event, was inducing her own problem. The traumatic events included the theft of a precious possession, being badly beaten, being teased i n front of others, hav-ing unkind rumors spread about her. But whereas many of these children had been sympathetic to the traumas of Chris or Corry, they now seemed impatient with Sandy's unwillingness to relinquish feelings about a past experience. This intolerance is illustrated by the following comment: 85 She's a weirdo. I think she got teased, a long time ago, in front of a lot of people. Maybe her best friend was there and she was laughing too, so Sandy got very upset. But then she just kept holding on and holding on to her upset...gee, everyone gets teased sometimes. She should just forget i t . Grade 6_. Children of this age clearly found Sandy the most d i f f i c u l t character to discuss.. Many interviews began with a comment indicating the child's confusion or discomfort. \"I don't know how to explain this\" or \"I know there's a word for this but I can't think of i t \" were common kinds of expressions. Some children mixed physical concepts with emotional ones: She's a bit weird, talking to herself. It's like she's crippled or something...she doesn't talk with other people, doesn't get involved. I think she's probably cripped because crippled people are weird like that, talking to theirselves. A small number mentioned birth defects or retardation. The birth defect, explained one child, was the in a b i l i t y \"to feel her own feelings\". Another child described a parentally-induced retardation. While they appeared to have more ideas about the causality of autistic behaviour than younger children, many children this age s t i l l seemed confused and alienated by the behaviour. Most children described other-induced etiologies with the largest number of children blaming parents who spoiled, rejected, ignored or mistreated her. Two children conceived of Sandy's behaviour as a retreat to a fantasy world. They demonstrated an abi l i t y to infer feelings of alienation or withdrawal from Sandy's behaviour. Both children showed compassion for Sandy. One of the children described Sandy thus: Something happened in his l i f e . . . i t ' s hard to describe...maybe he had a good friend and the friend started to bug him and he got a l l upset and kind of wanted to get the guy back and he just started thinking of how i t would be and he got a l l dreamy and he thought of things... when things like that happen you think about being a king and what would happen with the person i f you were a king. That's what probably happened to Sandy and he thought i t was good to be that way...he was happier i n his dream world, so now he's l i v i n g there a l l the time. 86 Perception of Control Increasingly with age, children perceived Sandy as being at fault, as they had Les. More than half of the grade 6 children as opposed to one third of the grade 2 children said Sandy was at fault. The ascription of fault to Sandy reflected an incongruence i n thinking, in view of the emphasis on other-induced etiologies posited by the children. A l l the children who espoused an interpretation of the behaviour as parentally induced also said they believed Sandy was at fault. The common response to the question of fault was, \"Yes, of course i t ' s her fault. It's her choice, and she's the one who's doing the walking away and she's the one. who's talking weird.\" Several grade 6 children perceived Sandy as unaware of her behaviour. Each of those children had also perceived Chris as unaware and had also suggest-ed organic /bases to both behaviours. None had ascribed fault to either Sandy or Chris. For these children, an organic etiology absolved a person of respon-s i b i l i t y for behaviour and suggested that the individual may not be aware of his or her actions. More than one half of the grades 2 and 4 children did not believe Sandy wanted to engage in her behaviour. Most children reasoned that she could not help herself, although grade 2 children were more likely to believe she was not trying hard enough to stop her behaviour, i l l u s t r a t i n g their emphasis upon the internal control of behaviour. However, in contrast with their perceptions of a l l other characters, a l -most half the children in each grade believed Sandy did want to engage in her behaviour. Most believed Sandy maintained the behaviour to get attention. A l -though almost a l l children identified Sandy's feelings as \"sad\" and/or \"lonely\", they nevertheless believed she wanted to maintain.her behaviour. On the one hand, they recognized a sadness in her, a quality not directly manifested i n the cartoon strip. On the other hand, the children could not accept the idea 87 that such flagrantly anti-social behaviour was involuntary. Concepts of Change Grade 2_. Two thirds of grade 2 children suggested that Sandy should \"try hard\" to change or that she would grow out of the behaviour. Children gener-all y thought something would happen, someone would ask her to dinner or to play a game perhaps, and Sandy would simply, magically, change. Clearly, most of the children did not have any sense of the severity of the problem. One child proposed that \"in 10 or 20 years she'll suddenly forget a l l about being that way\". Once again, young children seemed to have an image of adults as paragons of psychological adjustment; surely an.adult would never behave so strangely. Children who had proposed organic bases for Sandy's behaviour tended to suggest medical cures. If Sandy went to a doctor, he might \"change her from . being a l i t t l e mental\" or \"look in his throat\". The latter comment was ex-plained as follows: 'Maybe he swallowed something when he was l i t t l e and that was what made him talk and act funny.\" This medical orientation, as noted in the discussion of the M scale, had largely disappeared by grade 4. Those children who had included self- or other-induced causes posited one-event cures. Just as the etiology of the behaviour was a brief, one-ex-perience occurrence, so too was the \"cure\" a one-event experience. For example, \"Someone w i l l ask her out to dinner and she'll go and have a great time.\" This conception of personality as a series of discrete moments rather than as a process appears to. be typical in the thinking of children this age. Grade 4. Many of the grade 4 children's responses illustrated a new kind of thinking about'change from that of grade 2 children, although some suggested the gjcowiout-of-it and one-event \"cures\" typical of grade 2 children. Most children at this age were beginning to think about the environment and how 88 Sandy might benefit from changes in her surroundings. Many children suggested going to a new school to get a fresh start or going to a special school; others thought, with children's encouragement and morale-boosting support, Sandy would gradually change over time. Several children also noted that Sandy could not survive as an adult without changing her behaviour. The role of the environment was again central. As one child expressed i t . It's OK to be like that now, but when she grows up and has a job, she'll need gas to get to work and when she goes to a gas station, she has to talk right. Grade 6. At the grade 6 level, children seemed to swing back to focus on effort as the major factor in changing. The largest number of children des-cribed situations in which Sandy would have to make the f i r s t efforts herself and.wo.uld then need reinforcement .from her environment for the efforts. Many of the children who believed Sandy simply needed to \"try harder\" seemed almost surprised at the question of how Sandy could change. The respon-ses were brief: \"ignore her parents\", \"make herself do stuff\", \"just make an effort to play with them\". Almost every child who suggested self-initiated change had presented an other-induced etiology. A child who said ''Sandy's parents had ignored and re-jected her suggested that she \"try to play with other people and enjoy life.^. . she should realize her parents were wrong\". Another who thought Sandy has been annoyed by other children \"Maybe every day for a year\" now said \"She should have fun...it's her decision. She can be however she wants now.\" The children held Sandy responsible for her behaviour now, regardless of how they had per-ceived heir past experience. 2r.D'ff f i ' G u l ' tyfof: Change The patterns of responses on the question of difficulty o'f change were similar to those for Les. Many grade 2 children thought change would be easy. 89 For many of them, Sandy's behaviour was voluntary, so change would only i n -volve small efforts; changing was simply a matter of wanting to change. By grade 4 children expressed a different conception of the d i f f i c u l t y of change. They considered the role of the environment in changing and they recognized that effort alone would be insufficient. While placing more emphasis on effort than grade 4 children, grade 6 children also acknowledged that change for Sandy would be d i f f i c u l t . Many grade 6 children noted that enviornmental factors might impede Sandy's efforts. A perceptive child commented that change would be d i f f i c u l t because, even after she had changed, other people would con-tinue to discuss her past behaviour. SumS.ummary of ' Children Vs '-Interpretations 6f.-iSa.ndy Most grade 2 children perceived Sandy's behaviour as self-induced, a l -though they did not believe i t was her fault. Many thought her actions either suggested she was not trying hard enough to stop or reflected an attempt to attract attention. She could change solely through effort or, alternatively, she might outgrow her behaviour. While the majority of grade 4 children believed Sandy's behaviour was self-induced, many also thought i t was other-induced. For the most part, the be-haviour was not perceived as her fault. Children either believed Sandy could not help her behaviour or believed she wanted attention. Other peoples' help was the method of change most frequently suggested. According to most grade 6 children, other people's actions caused Sandy's behaviour. The children tended to perceive Sandy as at fault for her behaviour, and most of the children believed that the behaviour was voluntary. Her own efforts, reinforced by other people, would make i t possible for her to change. In general, autistic behaviour, like neurotic behaviour, was understood f a i r l y well but evaluated quite negatively. Although sadness was not expressed 9 0 directly i n the cartoon strips, children even at very young ages inferred un-happiness from the autistic behaviour. Yet the children were c r i t i c a l of the behaviour because, like neurotic behaviour, autistic behaviour does not con-form to standards of acceptable, normal behaviour. For older children who judge behaviour upon intentions, the c r i t i c a l interpretation may be based on the belief that the individual wishes to engage in withdrawn behaviour. As with a neurotic individual, a person displaying psychotic behaviour does not appear to have any overwhelming limitations which made the behaviour necessary or explicable, In contrast with a physically handicapped individual whose inappropriate behaviour might be excused, the psychotic individual i s li k e l y to be held responsible for his or her behaviour. This may suggest that c h i l -dren place psychotic behaviour into a category with criminal behaviour rather than into a category with other kinds.of handicapped behaviour when they judge the extent to which an individual should be held responsible for her or his behaviour. General Grade Differences The responses discussed revealed both differing interpretations of the various handicapped behaviours as well as several shared pattern responses among the behaviours. In the interpretations of causality and. change of handi-capped behaviour, the responses to a l l the characters supported developmental patterns. Responses to the autistic and neurotic behaviours indicated a developmental pattern concerning concepts of fault and responsibility. A third developmental pattern involves the idea of an individual's lack of awareness of his or her own behaviour which emerged in grade 6 children; this applied only to responses to Chris and Sandy. Causality and Change The seven year olds, ignoring environmental factors, perceived behaviour 91 as s e l f - i n d u c e d . B e h a v i o u r s t e n d e d t o be v i e w e d as a c t i o n s r a t h e r t h a n r e -f l e c t i o n s o f p e r s o n a l i t i e s , and a c t i o n s r e p r e s e n t e d c o n s c i o u s d e s i r e s o r needs on t he p a r t o f t h e c h a r a c t e r . C h i l d r e n a t t h i s age a l s o r e a s o n e d t h a t t h e c h a r a c t e r s c o u l d change e i t h e r b y \" t r y i n g h a r d \" o r b y \" g r o w i n g o u t o f i t \" . The change t h a t w o u l d come abou t t h r o u g h e i t h e r method a p p l i e d t o one s p e c i f i c b e h a v i o u r r a t h e r t h a n to t h e t o t a l p e r s o n . The s e v e n y e a r o l d c h i l d ' s f o c u s upon t h e i n t e r n a l f o r c e s b o t h i n e t i o l o g y and i n change s u g g e s t e d e g o c e n t r i c t h i n k i n g . L i k e t h e a n i m i s t i c r e a s o n i n g o f the p r e - o p e r a t i o n a l c h i l d , t h e c h i l d assumed a c t i o n s r e p r e s e n t t h e w i l l o f t h e a c t o r . The c h i l d b a s e d h e r o r h i s d e s c r i p t i o n s on t h e i m m e d i a t e p e r c e p t u a l e x p e r i e n c e s p r o v i d e d by t he c a r t o o n so t h a t she o r he c o u l d o n l y c o n c e i v e o f t he c h a r a c t e r as i t was e x p l i c i t l y p r e s e n t e d . Y e t , t h e c h i l d ' s own p e r s p e c t i v e d o m i n a t e s h i s o r h e r r e s p o n s e s and may d i s t o r t t h e o b j e c t i v e s i t u a t i o n . C h i l -d r e n i n g rade 2 o f t e n t w i s t e d t h e c h a r a c t e r s ' b e h a v i o u r s o r s i t u a t i o n s to f i t i n t o t h e i r own schema ta o f s o c i a l u n d e r s t a n d i n g . I n c o n s i s t e n c i e s w h i c h r e s u l -t e d f r om the d i s t o r t i o n o f t h e o b j e c t i v e s i t u a t i o n , even when d i r e c t l y m e n t i o n e d t o t he c h i l d , d i d no t t h r e a t e n t he c h i l d ' s l o g i c . A s P i a g e t (1950) has n o t e d , \" t h e c o e r c i o n s o f o t h e r p e o p l e w o u l d n o t b e enough t o engende r a l o g i c i n t he c h i l d ' s m ind ( p . 1 6 2 ) \" . P s y c h o l o g i c a l c a u s a l i t y f o r t h e n i n e y e a r o l d was a l s o f o c u s e d upon t h e s e l f , b u t n o t t o t h e e x c l u s i o n o f t h e e n v i r o n m e n t . F a c t o r s i n t h e e n v i r o n m e n t c o n t r i b u t e d t o an i n d i v i d u a l ' s b e h a v i o u r . H o w e v e r , t h e m a j o r e m p h a s i s was s t i l l upon the i n d i v i d u a l ' s own p e r c e p t i o n s , i n t h e i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s o f t h e n i n e y e a r o l d . C h a n g e , many c h i l d r e n as t h i s age b e l i e v e d , w o u l d come a b o u t t h r o u g h u n s o l i c i t e d a s s i s t a n c e and s u p p o r t f r om t h e i n d i v i d u a l ' s e n v i r o n m e n t . W h i l e t h e y had n o t y e t r e c o g n i z e d t h e s i g n i f i c a n c e o f t h e e n v i r o n m e n t i n c r e a t -i n g b e h a v i o u r p r o b l e m s , many g r a d e 4 c h i l d r e n d i d p e r c e i v e t h e e n v i r o n m e n t as 92 the major agent in making change possible. The grade 4 child's reasoning reflected a natural progression from that of the grade 2 child. The dramatic changes both in the interview data and in the questionnaire responses suggested that the period between grades 2 and 4 may be a transitional period for the assimilation of much information about psychological causality. Other investigators have also found the shifts at about these ages quite remarkable in the area of interpersonal understanding (Flapan, 1968; Rothenberg, 1970; Whiteman, 1967). The shifts in responses from grade 2 to grade 4 reflected both social and cognitive development which have taken.place during these years. The emerging identification of environmental factors in children's interpretations may re-flect increasing involvement in helping ac t i v i t i e s . The \"helping\" ethic i s stressed both in and out of school;, children are expected to help more at home than previously and are l i k e l y to be encouraged to be sensitive to the needs of others. The Catholic schools place especially strong emphasis on charitable acts and helping others. Children are now less egocentric i n their thinking. The dramatic increase in children's a b i l i t y to abstract from the cartoon strip a l i f e for the charac-ter and to refrain from assuming his or her own l i f e experiences are equivalent to those of the characters reflects a change in the child's role-playing ca-pacities. Change is no longer perceived as \"easy\" and simply a matter of \"trying hard\"; rather, the child can recognize, even though she or he has not experienced the character's problem, that change is often extremely d i f f i c u l t . Recognition of the role of the surrounding environment in the etiology of a behaviour is not fully within the child's reasoning u n t i l grade 6. Now the child conceives of behaviour as a reflection of the individual who emits i t and perceives the individual as a product of an environment which has gradually 93 shaped him or her. Parents, peers, teachers are central themes i n e t i o l o -g i c a l explanations; parents are no longer regarded as too perfect to be i n -volved i n contributing to a c h i l d ' s problems. Changing, which grade 4 children had so c h a r i t a b l y thought necessitated help.from others, i s thought to depend upon s e l f - r e f l e c t i o n and s e l f - i n i t i a t e d help. This s h i f t i s not a regression back to the \" t r y hard\" solution.of the grade 2 c h i l d r e n , but d e f i n i t e l y places considerable r e s p o n s i b i l i t y upon the i n d i v i d u a l for bringing about change i n her or h i s own l i f e . The suggestion of s e l f - r e f l e c t i o n as a method of change i l l u s t r a t e s the development of abstract thinking In c h i l d r e n . Younger c h i l d r e n described tan-g i b l e , v i s i b l e methods of change. The notion of an i n d i v i d u a l ' s own e f f o r t as a channel of change represents the simplest r e l a t i o n s h i p between a problem and a s o l u t i o n . No intervening factors are necessary. Help from the environ-ment i s somewhat more complex, in v o l v i n g more i n d i v i d u a l s and, a s l i g h t l y less d i r e c t r e l a t i o n s h i p between the problem and the s o l u t i o n . S e l f - r e f l e c t i o n , however, i s considerably more abstract and implies an a b i l i t y to r o l e - p l a y , to step outside oneself and view one's own behaviour. The progression i s there-fore from an egocentric perspective of change to an abstract one. Secord and Peevers (1974) have noted that a r e f l e c t i v e view of the s e l f i s absent i n young chi l d r e n but emerges gradually between grades 4 and 11. The r e v e r s a l between grades 4 and 6 of the r o l e of environmental factors i n c a u s a l i t y and change may be p a r t i a l l y accounted for by s o c i o - c u l t u r a l fac-t o r s . Grade 4 children espoused self-induced e t i o l o g i e s which, l o g i c a l l y , might suggest s e l f - i n i t i a t e d change. As noted, however, grade 4 c h i l d r e n , tended to suggest o t h e r - i n i t i a t e d change. Grade 6 c h i l d r e n , who described other-induced e t i o l o g i e s , might have been expected to suggest o t h e r - i n i t i a t e d change. However, they generally discussed e f f o r t s i n s e l f - r e f l e c t i o n and 94 s e l f - i n i t i a t e d other-reinforced change. These patterns may be interpreted several ways. The grade 6 child's emphasis upon self-reflection rather than help from others may reflect the increasing internalization of prevalent societal a t t i -tudes toward many emotional problems: \"Sure he comes from a lousy neighbour-hood and a lousy family, but he ought to just pull himself up by his bootstrap and make something of himself.\" The admiration many adults have for the indi -vidual who rises over a problematic background i s seldom commensurate with the sympathy offered to the same individual who, despite efforts, has not been able to make the same successful adjustment. Because the sample was from Catholic schools, several religious factors may also be important determinants of these attitudes. The \"God helps those who help themselves\" belief which is emphasized in these schools stresses the responsibility of the individual to be self-reliant. The older children are, the more thoroughly ingrained this attitude would be. Grade 4 children, the middle age group in the school, are in a position of being helpers to the youn er children and of being helped by the older children. Grade 6 children, in contrast, are among the oldest children i n the school and have many more re-sponsibilities. Self-reliant behaviour is l i k e l y to be encouraged in many of the large families of these children. The average number of children in each family in the sample was five; no eleven year old was-^a\"youngest, child, and many&we*re..\u00E2\u0080\u00A2amdn\u00E2\u0080\u00A2g\u00E2\u0080\u00A2^thieeoldes.t t^chiiareh3in^tner.famil>3?; with, Iprobably, the accom-panying expectations:oft;vbeing independent and self-helping. Fault and Responsibility Patterns in the ascription of fault apply only to the neurotic and autis-t i c characters. Of the four characters, these are the two which might be classified as emotionally disturbed. Whereas Corry and Chris were seldom 95 considered at fault for their behaviours, both Les and Sandy were often perceived as at fault, especially by grades 4 and 6 children. More grade 4 than grade 2 children believed each of the characters was at fault, although the grade 4 children perceived change as less within the characters' control than grade 2 children did. The grade 6 children were the most lik e l y to per-ceive Les and Sandy as at fault, even though they had perceived the causes of both characters' behaviour as other-induced. Thus, while concepts of causality shifted from self- to other-induced as children grow older, children also i n -creasingly ascribed fault to an individual for his or her behaviour regardless of the cause of the behaviour. This finding i s perhaps unexpected because as children increasingly emphasize the environment as causes of behaviour, one might expect them to be less l i k e l y to hold an individual responsible for her or his behaviour. This pattern may be interpreted as a manifestation of the child's emerging concept of responsibility. The grade 2 child, with l i t t l e sense of obligation to anyone, does not think of behaviours in terms of responsibilities. The phrase \"I couldn't help i t \" , i n the young child's mind, excuses him or her from the responsibility for any actions which might be unacceptable. As the child gets older, she or he increasingly perceives other individuals as respon-sible for their actions; presumably she or he i s increasingly expected to ac-count for her or his own behaviour and relies upon others to do the same. Be-haviour which does not conform to norms and which does not have any obvious basis for nonconformity i s considered the responsibility of the actor and judged especially harshly. The grade 6 child's ascription of fault to Les and Sandy indicated a belief that the characters must accept responsibility for their behaviours, 96 r e g a r d l e s s o f t he e t i o l o g i e s h y p o t h e s i z e d f o r t h e b e h a v i o u r s . As O l m s t e d and Durham (1976) n o t e d , c o l l e g e s t u d e n t s \" a r e e x c e e d i n g l y r e l u c t a n t , o r u n -a b l e t o g i v e up t h e n o t i o n o f i n d i v i d u a l r e s p o n s i b i l i t y f o r a c t i o n s when t h e r e i s no a p p a r e n t b i o l o g i c a l o r p h y s i o l o g i c a l \" c a u s e \" f o r a b e r r a n t b e h a v i o u r ( p . 4 3 ) \" . T h u s , t h e e m e r g i n g a t t i t u d e s o f t he c h i l d r e n i n t h i s samp le r e f l e c t t he p o p u l a r a t t i t u d e s t o w a r d e m o t i o n a l l y d i s t u r b e d b e h a v i o u r i n a d u l t s o c i e t y . A w a r e n e s s o f O n e ' s Own B e h a v i o u r A t h i r d p a t t e r n , s u p p o r t e d by a s m a l l b u t s i g n i f i c a n t number o f c h i l d r e n , c o n c e r n s t he e m e r g i n g i d e a o f l a c k o f awa reness o f o n e ' s own b e h a v i o u r . No g rade 2 c h i l d r e n s u g g e s t e d t h a t any o f t h e c h a r a c t e r s m i g h t n o t b e aware o f h i s o r h e r b e h a v i o u r ; e i g h t g r a d e 6 c h i l d r e n d i d s o . The g r a d e 2 c h i l d must . . l o g i c a l l y c o n n e c t an a c t i o n w i t h a c o n s c i o u s m o t i v a t i o n . B e h a v i o u r s a r e i n t e r -p r e t e d as r e f l e c t i o n s o f t h e w i l l o f t h e i n d i v i d u a l . The young c h i l d assumes t h a t h e r o r h i s own b e h a v i o u r s a r e i n t e n t i o n a l and s i m i l a r l y t h a t t h e b e h a v i o u r s o f o t h e r s a r e r e g u l a t e d i n t h e same manner . I n c r e a s i n g l y , t he c h i l d ' s c o g n i t i v e need f o r an o b v i o u s r e l a t i o n s h i p b e -tween c o n s c i o u s m ind and b e h a v i o u r becomes l e s s i m p o r t a n t . C h i l d r e n c a n i n -t e r p r e t b e h a v i o u r w h i c h may n o t r e f l e c t t h e w i l l o f t h e i n d i v i d u a l ; i t i s no l o n g e r n e c e s s a r i l y i l l o g i c a l . F i n a l l y , t h e c h i l d can c o n c e i v e o f b e h a v i o u r w h i c h i s n o t a s s o c i a t e d w i t h any c o n s c i o u s m o t i v a t i o n w i t h i n t he i n d i v i d u a l . The g rade 6 c h i l d ' s h y p o t h e s i s t h a t an i n d i v i d u a l may be unaware o f h i s o r h e r own b e h a v i o u r e x p r e s s e d t he c h i l d ' s c a p a c i t y t o c o n c e p t u a l i z e b e h a v i o u r d i s -t i n c t f r o m c o n s c i o u s t h o u g h t . The c o n c e p t o f u n c o n s c i o u s m o t i v a t i o n o r u n c o n s c i o u s c o n t r o l o f b e h a v i o u r i s c e n t r a l i n t h e f i e l d o f p s y c h o p a t h o l o g y . S e v e r a l a u t h o r s have n o t e d t h e emergence o f t h i s c o n c e p t i n c h i l d r e n ' s t h i n k i n g d u r i n g t h e e l e m e n t a r y s c h o o l y e a r s ( K i n g , 1 9 7 1 ; W h i t e m a n , 1 9 6 7 ) . The c h i l d ' s g r o w i n g a b i l i t y t o u n d e r s t a n d 97 the behaviour of others in this kind of framework implies a readiness to understand some of the complex and intuitively uncomfortable aspects of be-haviour. At the grade 6 level, then, children are beginning to think in terms of unconscious motives and to ascribe fault. . This.study has not explored the relationship between these two trends. However, the negative attitudes of the public toward emotional disorders suggest that the ascription of fault takes priority over the mitigating factor of unconscious motivations, or at least that unconscious motivations do not absolve an individual of responsibility . except i n some legal situations. Further investigation of these two areas with older children would shed light upon the way people learn to resolve the paradox of unconscious motivation and responsibility in emotionally disordered individuals. Cognitive and Affective Components of Attitudes Toward Emotionally Disturbed Behaviour Despite the grade differences on most of the dependent variables, a l l the children shared a more negative attitude toward Les and Sandy than toward Chris or Corry. Because the characters were not labeled as \"neurotic\", \"autistic\", \"crippled\" and \"retarded\", the children's responses reflect attitudes toward the behaviours only rather than toward the explicit concepts. Sandy's behaviour although clearly anti-social, was nevertheless identified by children at every grade level as reflecting sadness or loneliness. Evidentlyi; ... thinking that an individual i s unhappy did not make the children feel more positively toward that individual. Sandy's and Les's low favorability scores cannot be attributed to the children's lack of insight into the, characters' problems; on the contrary, the 98 c h i l d r e n ' s c o m p r e h e n s i o n o f b o t h c h a r a c t e r s was r e l a t i v e l y h i g h . W i t h o u t q u e s t i o n , c h i l d r e n w e r e a l i e n a t e d b y b o t h c h a r a c t e r s , e s p e c i a l l y S a n d y . A c h i l d who has c o n t a c t w i t h a c r i p p l e d o r b r a i n damaged i n d i v i d u a l may f i n d the b e h a v i o u r s u f f i c i e n t l y f o r e i g n t o q u e s t i o n h e r o r h i s p a r e n t and r e c e i v e an e x p l a n a t i o n f o r t h e d e v i a n t b e h a v i o u r . The same c h i l d , v i e w i n g a p e e r w i t h e m o t i o n a l p r o b l e m s , may n o t seek an e x p l a n a t i o n f r o m t h e p a r e n t b e c a u s e t h e a b n o r m a l i t y o f t h e b e h a v i o u r i s no t so p r o n o u n c e d as t o be o u t s i d e t h e r e a l m o f t h e c h i l d ' s schemas o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g . A n x i e t y c a n b e i n t e r p r e t e d as \" a t t e n t i o n - s e e k i n g \" ; w i t h d r a w a l i s p e r c e i v e d as s h y n e s s o r s i m p l y \" a q u i e t n a t u r e \" . The c h i l d p e r c e i v e s t h e e m o t i o n a l l y d e v i a n t b e h a v i o u r as he o r she m i g h t p e r c e i v e any e m o t i o n a l b e h a v i o u r ; h o w e v e r , b e c a u s e i t i s more ex t reme , t h a n most e m o t i o n a l b e h a v i o u r s , t he c h i l d p e r c e i v e s i t n e g a t i v e l y w i t h l e s s t o l e r -a n c e t h a n he o r she m i g h t i f he o r she were more aware o f t h e c o m p l e x i t i e s o f t h e b e h a v i o u r . U n d e r s t a n d i n g o f t h e b e h a v i o u r s , h o w e v e r , d i d n o t a f f e c t f a v o r a b i l i t y . A l t h o u g h g r a d e 6 c h i l d r e n had s i g n i f i c a n t l y h i g h e r c o m p r e h e n s i o n s c o r e s on b o t h Sandy and L e s t h a n g rade 2 c h i l d r e n d i d , t h e r e was no d i f f e r e n c e i n t h e i r f a v o r a b i l i t y s c o r e s . T h e r e a r e s e v e r a l p o s s i b l e e x p l a n a t i o n s f o r t h i s f i n d i n g . As c h i l d r e n become more aware o f t h e c a u s e s f o r e m o t i o n a l d i s o r d e r s , t h e y a l s o become aware o f s o c i e t a l r e j e c t i o n o f s u c h b e h a v i o u r s . T h e r e f o r e , as c h i l d r e n l e a r n more abou t t h e p r o b l e m s , t h e y a l s o l e a r n how t h e y a r e e x p e c t e d t o r e a c t t o t h o s e p r o b l e m s . As n o t e d i n t h e i n t r o d u c t i o n , i n c r e a s e d e d u c a t i o n o r know-l e d g e does n o t n e c e s s a r i l y l e a d t o i n c r e a s e d t o l e r a n c e . Much o f c h i l d r e n ' s k n o w l e d g e o f o t h e r p e r s o n s comes f r o m a c t i v e i n v o l v e -ment w i t h them ( S e c o r d & P e e v e r s , 1 9 7 4 ) . C h i l d r e n depend upon b e i n g a b l e t o a n t i c i p a t e the a c t i o n s o f o t h e r s . H o w e v e r , t h e d i s t u r b e d c h i l d may be t h r e a t -e n i n g p r e c i s e l y b e c a u s e h i s o r h e r b e h a v i o u r o f t e n c a n n o t b e a n t i c i p a t e d . 99 Thus, children may have discovered from their own experiences that help-ing a child with emotional problems is more complicated than i t may f i r s t ap-pear to be. Les, for example, would be li k e l y to need more continual reassur-ance and attention than Corry. Ultimately the needs of a disturbed peer might exhaust a child who originally might want to help. The \"normal\" child might conclude that he or she is unable to help the disturbed child and that the l a t -ter w i l l have to help herself or himself. Further research is needed to deter-mine the relationship between the cognitive and affective components of a t t i -tudes in children's judgments of emotionally disturbed behaviour. Limitations and Implications The findings of this study must be replicated and elaborated before a comprehensive picture of children's attitudes toward handicapped behaviour w i l l emerge. A major limitation in the generalization of this study concerns the sample used. A group of public school children might provide different inter-pretations from those given by parochial school children. Other major limita-tions of the study concern the measures, employed. The development of a more reliable measure to assess knowledge of mental health concepts is of c r i t i c a l importance before progress can be made in this area. In particular, the sper ci f i c a t i o n of children's concepts of the word \"mental\" and their distinctions between \"mental retardation\" and \"mental i l l n e s s \" would contribute to a clear-er understanding of children's associations with key mental health terms. Ad-ditionally, the use of more kinds of disturbed behaviours would elaborate upon the results of the present study. Children's interpretations of psychotic and neurotic behaviour i n adults\u00E2\u0080\u0094behaviours associated with alcoholism, anorexia, compulsions, and schizophrenia, for example\u00E2\u0080\u0094would be of interest and would expand the limited perspective given by the small sample of disturbed behaviour used in this study. A more extensive measure of affective components of 100 a t t i t u d e s t o w a r d d i s t u r b e d b e h a v i o u r w o u l d be v a l u a b l e . F i n a l l y , a more t h o r o u g h measure o f i n t e l l i g e n c e w o u l d p r o v i d e a more v a l i d i n d i c a t i o n o f t h e r o l e o f i n t e l l i g e n c e i n c h i l d r e n ' s a t t i t u d e s i n t h i s a r e a . A l t h o u g h t h i s s t u d y f o u n d many d i f f e r e n c e s be tween i n t e r p r e t a t i o n s a t d i f f e r e n t g rade l e v e l s , t h e r e was a l s o c o n s i d e r a b l e v a r i a b i l i t y among c h i l d r e n w i t h i n any g r a d e . The i n v e s t i g a t i o n o f t he s o c i a l f a c t o r s w h i c h m i g h t have c o n t r i b u t e d t o t h e s e i n d i v i d u a l d i f f e r e n c e s m i g h t i n v o l v e t e s t i n g c h i l d r e n i n f a m i l i e s w i t h one d i s t u r b e d member o r o b s e r v i n g c h i l d r e n ' s a c t i o n s w i t h p e e r s m a n i f e s t i n g d i s t u r b e d b e h a v i o u r . L e v e l o f c o g n i t i v e and m o r a l deve lopment , and r o l e p l a y i n g a b i l i t y c o u l d b e a s s e s s e d t o d e t e r m i n e t h e i r r e l a t i o n s h i p s t o c h i l d r e n ' s a t t i t u d e s . The i n v e s t i g a t i o n o f t h e s e a t t i t u d e s i n g r o u p s o f c h i l d r e n w i t h h a n d i c a p s w o u l d p r o v i d e i n t e r e s t i n g c o m p a r i s o n s w i t h t h e f i n d -i n g o f s t u d i e s w i t h \" n o r m a l \" c h i l d r e n . P e r h a p s u l t i m a t e l y t h e most c r i t i c a l a r e a o f i n v e s t i g a t i o n c o n c e r n s t h e e f f e c t s o f i n s t r u c t i o n abou t h a n d i c a p p e d b e h a v i o u r on c h i l d r e n ' s a t t i t u d e s . T h i s r e s e a r c h s u g g e s t s t h a t mos t c h i l d r e n b e l o w g r a d e 4 do n o t h a v e t h e c a p a -c i t y to c o n c e p t u a l i z e p s y c h o l o g i c a l l y comp lex b e h a v i o u r s . The g rade 2 c h i l d i s u s u a l l y s t i l l t o o e g o c e n t r i c i n h i s o r h e r t h i n k i n g t o g r a s p t he c o n c e p t o f e m o t i o n a l l y d i s t u r b e d b e h a v i o u r s . T h u s , t h e e x t e n t to w h i c h e x p e r i e n c e s i n t h e c h i l d ' s l i f e i n f l u e n c e h e r o r h i s t h i n k i n g i s dependen t upon t h e c h i l d ' s a g e . C a m p b e l l (1975) f o r e x a m p l e , f o u n d t h a t t h e s o p h i s t i c a t i o n l e v e l o f c h i l d r e n ' s c o n c e p t s o f p h y s i c a l i l l n e s s was i n f l u e n c e d by t he c h i l d ' s h e a l t h h i s t o r y , b u t s i g n i f i c a n t l y more so among o l d e r c h i l d r e n ( o v e r 9 . 5 y e a r s ) t h a n among y o u n g e r . c h i l d r e n (unde r 9 . 5 y e a r s ) . S i m i l a r l y , p e r h a p s e x p e r i e n c e s w i t h d i s t u r b e d b e h a v i o u r w o u l d n o t a f f e c t y o u n g c h i l d r e n ' s a t t i t u d e s t o w a r d t h e b e h a v i o u r as much as o l d e r c h i l d r e n ' s a t t i t u d e s . A d d i t i o n a l l y , t h e s e b e h a v i o u r s may n o t be f r e q u e n t enough i n t h e young c h i l d ' s s o c i a l e n v i r o n m e n t f o r an 101 e d u c a t i o n a l a p p r o a c h t o be o f s i g n i f i c a n t i m p o r t a n c e . By g rade 4 , h o w e v e r , c h i l d r e n i d e n t i f y d i s t u r b e d b e h a v i o u r s and r e c o g -n i z e t h e n e e d f o r e n v i r o n m e n t a l h e l p t o m o d i f y them. The c h i l d r e n ' s c o n c e p t s o f c a u s a l i t y a r e s t i l l somewhat s i m p l i s t i c , a l t h o u g h t h e y a p p e a r t o be i n a t r a n s i t i o n a l s t a g e w h i c h s u g g e s t s t h a t c h i l d r e n ' s c o n c e p t i o n s m igh t be m o d i -f i e d w i t h e d u c a t i o n . S e v e r a l i n v e s t i g a t o r s have n o t e d t h a t r o l e - p l a y i n g , a t an a p p r o p r i a t e a g e , c a n change c h i l d r e n ' s m o r a l v a l u e s ( A r b u t h n o t , 1 9 7 5 ; K o h l b e r g , 1 9 7 2 ) . The e x p e r i e n c e o f r o l e - p l a y i n g i t s e l f , as F l a v e l l (1968) has s u g g e s t e d , may i n c r e a s e c h i l d r e n ' s i n t e r p e r s o n a l a w a r e n e s s and i m p r o v e t h e i r a b i l i t i e s t o communica te w i t h o t h e r s . By g rade 6 , c h i l d r e n a r e b e g i n n i n g t o f i n d i n d i v i d u a l s a t f a u l t f o r t h e i r b e h a v i o u r s w h i c h , t h e y s a y , a r e i n d u c e d b y o t h e r s i n t he i n d i v i d u a l ' s e n v i r o n -men t . The onus o f c h a n g i n g t h e u n a c c e p t a b l e b e h a v i o u r i s p l a c e d upon t h e i n -d i v i d u a l w i t h much l e s s emphas i s p l a c e d upon t h e r o l e e n v i r o n m e n t a l f a c t o r s c o u l d p l a y i n t h e p r o c e s s . Grade 5 may t h e r e f o r e r e p r e s e n t an a p p r o p r i a t e age f o r i n t r o d u c t o r y d i s -c u s s i o n s o f f a c t s and a t t i t u d e s a b o u t h a n d i c a p p e d b e h a v i o u r s , i n c l u d i n g p h y s i -c a l , m e n t a l and e m o t i o n a l p r o b l e m s . The q u e s t i o n n a i r e d a t a i n d i c a t e d t h a t , c h i l d r e n o f t h i s age a r e b e c o m i n g f a m i l i a r w i t h some o f t h e m e n t a l h e a l t h t e r m i n o l o g y and i d e n t i f y i n g t he b e h a v i o u r p a t t e r n s as d e v i a n t . O b v i o u s l y t e n y e a r o l d s a r e n o t r e a d y f o r d e t a i l e d e x p l a n a t i o n s o f d e v i a n t b e h a v i o u r , b u t an e d u c a t i o n a l p r o c e s s m i g h t s t a r t a t t h i s s t a g e i n t h e c h i l d ' s deve lopmen t and c o n t i n u e t h r o u g h h i g h s c h o o l . A m a j o r new f o c u s o f m e n t a l h e a l t h p rog rams t o d a y i s upon p r i m a r y p r e -v e n t i o n , t he d e v o t i o n o f t i m e and f u n d s t o p r e v e n t i n g t h e emergence o f t he p r o b l e m i n q u e s t i o n . P r i m a r y p r e v e n t i o n p rog rams f o c u s upon h i g h r i s k p o p u l a -t i o n s o r upon p r o m o t i n g p o s i t i v e m e n t a l h e a l t h . T h i s s t u d y has i m p l i c a t i o n s 102 for the second type of program. The problem of public attitudes toward mental illness contributes to ob-vious societal conditions such as unemployment, crime, hospitalization and suicide as well as the less dramatic but no less important conditions of i n -dividual feelings of inadequacy, of being different and of alienation. As noted earlier, the modification of attitudes in adults i s extremely d i f f i c u l t . Children automatically adopt the attitudes of their parents, especially in a society where those attitudes are prevalent. Intervention must occur during the school years, before attitudes and misinformation are firmly embedded in children's concepts of mental health phenomena. This assumes that in children, knowledge w i l l lead to compassion or that compassion can be taught. There i s no way of knowing whether educational processes with children might shape or improve attitudes in this area. At this time, the topic of mental disorders i s associated with ridicule and dis-comfort, and there is nothing to prevent children from continuing in their parents' path to acquire negative attitudes. Because children on their own are unlikely to become enlightened, mental health professionals must consider the modification of public attitudes through the education of children a priority. 103 SUMMARY Investigations examining public reactions toward the mentally i l l find that the public possess negative attitudes toward deviant behaviour and toward mental health labels. These attitudes appear to be learned early and are resistant to change. At the adult level, education with the goal of modifying these attitudes has not been effective. In this study, young children's developing conceptions of mental health terms and their interpretations of handicapped behaviour were explored. The subjects were ninety children, fifteen boys and fifteen g i r l s in grades 2, 4 and 6. A l l children were enrolled i n two Catholic elementary schools in Van-couver, British Columbia.. This age range was selected because children's a t t i -tudes are strongly influenced by both cognitive and social developmental fac-tors during these years. Two assessment devices were designed to measure children's attitudes to-ward mental health terminology and handicapped behaviours. A mental health concepts multiple-choice questionnaire assessed how much correct information the children at each grade level possessed and how some of children's concepts of mental health phenomena change over this age range. To assess children's interpretations of abnormal behaviour, four classes of handicapped behaviour were presented in cartoon strips of characters in school settings. The charac-ters included an autistically withdrawn child, a neurotically anxious child, a mildly retarded child, and a crippled child with low self-esteem. Children responded to interview questions which explored concepts of causality, control and change. Children also provided favorability ratings for each character by selecting adjectives on a four point scale to describe the character. The PPVT was given to each child to ensure the homogeneity of the sample and to provide a rough measure of verbal intelligence to correlate with the other 104 measures. Questionnaire special response scales and interview comprehension scores were analysed by 3-level 1-way ANOVAs; comprehension scores were also analysed by 1-way repeated measures ANOVA. Qualitative interview data were coded and then analysed by ANOVA of proportions. Favorability data were analysed by a 3-way ANOVA with two between factors, grade and sex, and one 'within, factor, character. The total questionnaire scores, comprehension, scores and PPVT scores were significantly correlated for a l l grades, with the exception of the grade 2 PPVT and comprehension scores. The six special response scales of the questionnaire revealed several patterns. 1. Grade 2 children tended to associate mental health concepts with medical terms significantly more than children in the higher grades did. In the interviews, grade 2 children sometimes suggested medical solutions for pro-blems which they had defined as emotional. Many children at this age had ap-parently not yet made the distinction between physical and mental health pro-blems. 2. Children i n grade 2, more than children in the other grades, believed people could change their conditions or behaviours simply with effort. This philosophy of change was also expressed by grade 2 children i n the interviews. 3. More than children in either of the other grades, grade 4 children asso-ciated mental retardation and mental illness with an i n a b i l i t y to change. 4. With increasing age level, a. children were decreasingly l i k e l y to interpret behaviour as attention-seeking. b. they were increasingly l i k e l y to associate behaviour with familial factors, and c. they increasingly associated terms which include the word \"mental\" 105 such as \"mental hospital\" or \"mental i l l n e s s \" with retarda-tion. The interview data provided three kinds of information. F i r s t , character comprehension scores suggested that grade 2 children were significantly less li k e l y to understand any of the behaviours as well as the older children, and that the older two groups did not differ significantly i n their a b i l i t y to understand the behaviours. Children in the higher two grades understood the retarded behaviour less well than the other behaviours. Second, the coded interview data showed grade differences in explanations of etiologies, of control, and of change. With increasing age, children tended to shift from believing behaviours were self-induced to perceiving them as/ reflections of environmental influences; Many children in grade 2 either believed the characters would outgrow their disorders or believed they could change their behaviours through effort. Children in grade 4 tended to cite the role of other-initiated help in bringing about change more than children in the other grades did. Effort, self-reflection and reinforcement from the environment were major channels of change suggested by grade 6 children. Grade 2 children were significantly more likely to believe change would be easy, whereas children i n grades 4 and 6 thought change would be d i f f i c u l t . In-creasingly with age, children were l i k e l y to ascribe fault to the two emotion-all y disturbed characters. Finally, the two emotionally disturbed characters were perceived less favorably than the crippled or retarded characters. Many of these findings reflect the decline of egocentrism in the child's thinking as she or he shifts from pre-operational to operational'thought. The grade 2 child interprets the causes of behaviour primarily i n terms of internal forces and similarly perceives changing behaviour as a process of self-effort. 106 As the child grows older, he or she begins to recognize other perspectives and notes the role of the environment, both in causing and i n changing beha-viour. Acquiring and changing behaviours are no longer perceived as isolated acts but rather as processes integrally related to the environment. In addition to the influence of cognitive factors i n the child's per-ceptions, societal attitudes have a major influence on her or his interpreta-tions. As the child gets older, she or he is increasingly l i k e l y to ascribe fault to a character for emotionally disturbed behaviour, regardless of what the child believes has caused the disturbed behaviour. By grade 6, many c h i l -dren appear to have adopted prevalent adult attitudes toward emotionally dis-turbed behaviour. Prio r i t i e s for further research include the design of an improved measure for assessing children's knowledge of mental health phenomena and the valida-tion of the present findings on other populations of children. The determina-tion of cognitive and social factors contributing to children's attitudes' might include the exploration of special populations of children, such as c h i l -dren from families with a disturbed member or children with various handicaps. Finally, this research has implications for the education of children about handicapped behaviour. Results indicate that at approximately age ten, c h i l -dren are beginning to recognize mental health terms and to understand psycho-logically complex behaviours. 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Behavioral assessment: a review of c l i n i c a l methods. Journal of Personality Assessment, 1974, 38(1), 3-16. APPENDIX B 114 Pre-Pilot Mental Health Vocabulary Questionnaire 1. Worry means being a. bored. b. sad. c. excited. d. upset. 2. What is a criminal? a. Someone who cheats in games and breaks the rules. b. Someone who breaks the law. c. Someone who cries a l l the time. d. Someone who bothers the teacher. 3. When would you feel nervous? a. If you have a sore throat. b. If you got a l l your math problems right. c. If you are going to the doctor to get a shot. d. If your dinner was so good that you feel very f u l l . 4. Insane means ,:a... impossible. b. crazy. c. ugly. d. stupid. 5. What does mentally retarded mean? a. A person i s not nice. b. A person is not happy. c. A person is not pretty or handsome. d. A person is not smart. 6. Depressed means a. unhappy. b. angry c. not honest. d. afraid. 7. When would you feel worried? a. If you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas. b. If you got a nice letter from a friend. c. If a kid bigger than you i s going to hit you. d. If you saw a sad movie. 8. How do people become mentally i l l ? a. They catch i t from somebody else who is mentally i l l . b. They have a lot of problems which worry them a l l the time. c. They are in a car accident and hit their heads. d. They are born that way. 115 9. One thing about a mentally retarded person is that he a. does not try very hard. b. is not very strong. c. does not learn quickly. d. does not act friendly. 10. Nervous means a. happy. b. sick. c. smart. d. worried. 11. What do people in mental hospitals do? a. They do bad things. b. They do strange things. c. They a l l speak in words we can't understand. d. They a l l act retarded. 12. Anxious means a. bored. b. sad. c. worried. d. sick. 13. What does mentally i l l mean'? a. A person is bad and always in j a i l . b. A person does stupid things just so other people w i l l look at him. c. A person is sick in bed with a bandage on his head. d. A person does strange things and can't understand his own feelings. 14. Why does someone commit suicide? a. They are very angry. b. They are i*ery unhappy. c. They are very rich. d. They are very stupid. 15. What is a delinquent? a. A young person who plays cards a lot. b. A young person who has trouble speaking. c. A young person who has no parents. d. A young person who breaks the law. 16. How does a person become mentally retarded? a. She was born that way. b. Her parents were mean to her when she was a baby. c. She f e l l down and broke her leg and became retarded. d. She just wanted to be that way. 17. Who goes to a mental hospital? a. Bad people whom the police have sent there. b. People who have sicknesses that other people can catch. c. People who have problems thinking and feeling happy. d. Only mentally retarded and brain damaged people. 116 18. A person might become depressed when a. he is looking for something... b. he loses someone he loves. c. he has a headache. d. he is in a hurry. 19. What does senile mean? a. You can't see very well. b. You have some problems getting along with friends. c. You have some problems of being old. d. You never feel very happy. 20. If you knew someone who was mentally retarded and you wanted to help him, who would you send him to? a. To a doctor who would give him medicine to make him well. b. To a doctor who would do an operation on his brain. c. To a teacher who would work slowly with him. d. Nowhere?../.because nou6nev;can help;him.:. 'T 21. What does a psychologist do? a. Helps you when you have problems with your feelings. b. Helps you when you might need an operation. c. Helps you when you need more money. d. Helps you when you want to find out about the future. 22. What does stuttering mean? a. A person is clumsy and always dropping things. b. A person has a walking problem. c. A person is afraid of many things. d. A person has a speaking problem. 23. Madness means a. anger. b. craziness. c. dumbness. d. sadness. 24. How do people become senile? a. You are born that way. b. You do bad things. c. You catch i t from a friend. d. You grow old. 25. If you had a friend who was depressed, what would you do? a. Give her an aspirin. b. Do something with her that she would like to do. c. Just t e l l her to stop being so s i l l y and not pay attention to her. d. T e l l her to go on a diet and to stop eating so much. 26. Suicide means a. going to court to sue someone. b. k i l l i n g yourself. c. eating too much. d. k i l l i n g somebody else. 117 27. When would you feel anxiety? a. If you lost your mother's watch. b. If you got a nice birthday present. c. If your team lost a game. d. If you are very tired. 28. What does therapy mean? a. Punishment for being bad. b. Help with putting on a play in a theatre. c. Help with problems. d. Reward for being good. 29. Can some^one who is mentally i l l be helped? a. Yes, by having his head X-rayed. b. Yes, by going to the drugstore and getting some medicine. c. Yes, by talking with a special kind of doctor. d. No, she w i l l always be mentally i l l . 30. A psychiatrist might help you when a. you feel unhappy a l l the time. b. you get lost. c. you have a cavity and need your teeth cleaned. d. you want to learn how to play a new game. 31. What does neurotic mean? a. A person like having a lot of people around. b. A person worries a l l the time. c. A person is very itchy. d. A person buys a lot of new things. 32. What is something a senile person might do? a. Hit you. b. Have bad stomach aches. c. Forget your name. d. Wear glasses to see better. 33. What is an alcoholic? a. Someone who buys alcohol. b. Someone who cannot stop drinking even when he tries. c. Someone who sells alcohol. d. Someone who does advertisements for alcohol on TV. 34. What does paranoid mean? a. A person is always making fun of other people. b. A person thinks he is better than anyone else, and beats up l i t t l e kids. c. A person has a lot of problems with school work. d. A person thinks other people are going to hurt him. 35. What is a nervous breakdown? a. When a person is in a big hurry, but the car breaks down. b. When a person is so. worried that he breaks his leg by accident. c. When a person is worried a l l the time that he can't think right. d. When a person is very excited about a party but then can't go because he gets a bad cold. 118 36. What is schizophrenia? a. A special diet for sick people. b. A kind of criminal. c. A person who helps you with your problems. d. A problem thinking clearly. 37. Manic means a. very excited. b. just like a man. c. bored. d. depressed. 38. What are hallucinations? a. When somebody sees things that are not really there. b. When somebody thinks people are saying meancthings about them. c. When somebody is always sad and crying for no reason. d. When somebody has a lot of problems with school work. 39. What does psychosomatic mean? a. A health problem caused by emotions. b. Crazy in the head. c. Breaking a leg. d. Feeling sad about missing a TV show. 40. What is a hypochondriac? a. Someone who is afraid of things that most peopleare not afraid of. b. Someone who needs a special kind of operation on his brain. c. Someone who always thinks he i s sick even though he isn't. d. Someone who thinks he i s better than anybody else. 41. If you have a friend who has a phobia, what is the matter with her? a. She has problems with her school work so she needs a special teacher. b. She is afraid of something which most people aren't afraid of. c. She has a special disease so she has to use a wheelchair. d. She cannot speak very well. 42. What is a psychopath? a. Someone who cries a l l the time and is a bad sport i f he loses the game. b. Someone who is '.always making fun of other people. c. Someone who acts crazy and s i l l y a l l the time to get attention. d. Someone who doesn't care i f he breaks the law and makes people unhappy. 43. What are tranquillizers? a. Things you take i f you are crazy. b. Things you take to make you relax. c. Things you take to make you see better. d. Things you take to make you smarter. 44. What is an inferi o r i t y complex? a. When you think everyone hates you. b. When you think you are better than everyone else. c. When you think everyone is better than you. d. When you feel confused a l l the time. 119 APPENDIX C Pilot Mental Health Concepts Questionnaire 1. Worry means being a. disappointed b. angry c. upset d. excited 2. What is a criminal? a. Someone who cries a l l the time. b. Someone who breaks the law. c. Someone who cheats in games and breaks the rules. d. Someone who disobeys the teacher. 3. When would you feel nervous? a. If your mother threw away your favorite game. b. If your best friend i s absent. c. If a kid bigger than you is going to hit you. d. If you get a l l of your math problems right. 4. What does mentally retarded mean? a. A person i s not honest. b. A person i s not clean. c. A person i s not good at sports. d. A person i s not smart. 5. When would you feel worried? a. If you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas. b. If you are going to the doctor to get a shot. c. If a friend broke a toy of yours. d. If you saw a very sad movie. 6. Nervous means a. s i l l y . b. unhappy. c. disappointed. d. worried. 7. If there was a child in your class who never talked or played with the other children and just liked to s i t in a corner by himself a l l the time, why would you think he was like that? a. He was born like that and has always liked to be alone. b. His parents taught him that being alone was best. c. Other children were never nice to him, so he got that way. d. He was in an accident and his brain got messed up. 8. Depressed means a. unhappy. b. angry. c. not honest. d. afraid. 9. Why does a person who breaks the law act like that? 120 a. Because he was born that way and has always been bad. b. Because he had an accident that messed up his brain and made him do bad things. c. Because he was never taught that breaking laws i s bad. d. Because he didn't have a good family l i f e . 10. How does a person become mentally retarded? a. She was born that way. b. Her parents were mean to her when she was a baby. c. She f e l l down and broke her leg and became retarded. d. She never tried hard enough to be like other children. 11. What does mentally i l l mean? a. A person was retarded and had brain damage when he was born. b. A person does s i l l y things just so other people w i l l look at him. c. A person i s sick in bed with a bandage on his head, usually from a bad shock. d. A person does strange things and can't understanding his own feelings. 12. What is something that i s true about most mentally retarded people? a. They are not smart because they do not try hard enough. b. They usually s i t alone and talk out loud to themselves. c. They can not learn very quickly. d. They are not very friendly. 13. A g i r l feels that everybody hates her and wants to hurt her, even though this i s not true. Why does she feel that way? a. She was born that way, with her feelings a l l mixed up. b. She had an accident and has fe l t that way ever since. c. She just likes to feel sorry for herself to get attention. d. Her parents did not show her they loved her. 14. A person might become depressed when a. someone t e l l s him a l i e . b. he sees something he is afraid of. c. he loses someone he loves. d. he has a terrible stomach ache. 15. What does insane mean? a. impossible b. crazy c. stupid d. s i l l y 16. What do you think a person who is very very nervous a l l the time should do to become more calm? a. Go away on a vacation. b. Get some medicine from a doctor. c. Talk to a certain kind of doctor about her feelings. d. Just try very very hard not to be nervous and she'll be fine. 17. Who goes to a mental hospital? a. People who need operations on their brains. b. People who have sicknesses that other people can catch. c. Only mentally retarded people and people with brain damage. d. People who are not able to think well or feel happy. 1 Q A \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 121 18. Anxious means a. curious. b. bored. c. angry. d. worried. 19. How do most people become mentally i l l ? a. They catch i t from somebody else who is mentally i l l . b. They have a lot of problems which worry them a l l the time. c. They are in a car accident and hit their heads so they get that way. d. They are born that way. 20. Everybody uses chairs and i t seems s i l l y to be afraid of a chair. But one g i r l i s afraid of wooden chairs and cries i f she has to s i t on a chair. Why does she act like that? a. She was born like that, afraid of everything. b. Her parents taught her to be that way. c. A chair broke while she was sitting on i t once. d. She is just acting s i l l y so the teacher w i l l let her s i t on the floor. 21. What does senile mean? a. You never feel very happy. b. You can't see very well. c. You have a hard time remembering things. d. You have problems getting along with friends. 22. If you knew someone who was mentally retarded and you wanted to help him, who would you send him to? a. To a doctor who would give him medicine to make him well. b. To a teacher who would work slowly with him. c. To a doctor who would do an operation on his brain. d. Nowhere, because no one can help him. 23. A man picks up every l i t t l e piece of l i t t e r he sees and saves i t a l l . When his wife tries to throw i t away, he gets very upset. Why is he like this? a. He was born that way with that kind of problem. b. He is just being stupid and trying to get attention. c. His parents made him be very clean when he was young. d. He had a sickness when he was a baby that made him do s i l l y things. 24. Most mentally i l l people are a. retarded. c. spastic. c. unhappy. d. very old. 25. What is a delinquent? a. A young person who has a lot of problems with his school work. b. A young person who has trouble speaking. c. A young person who has no parents. d. A young person who breaks the law. 26. What do people in mental hospitals do? a. They do strange things that don't make sense to us. b. They a l l feel sick in the head and they l i e in their beds. c. They a l l speak in workds that we can't understand. d. They act like we do, except they are a l l retarded. 122 27. What is a psychologist? a. Someone who helps you when you might need a brain operation. b. Someone who helps you when you are confused about your feelings. c. Someone who helps you when you are very poor and need more money. d. Someone who helps you when you want to find out about the future. 28. What does mental mean? a. When someone is retarded. b. Being really bad at sports. c. Things going on in someone's head. d. When someone just i s not very nice. 29. If you got on a bus and you saw someone sitting a l l alone talking quietly out loud to herself as i f someone were sitting beside her, what would you think? a. She was born like that and has always been strange. b. She has problems with her feelings that made her start acting like that. c. She is just acting s i l l y like that because she wants to get lots of attention. d. She is drunk. 30. When would you feel anxiety? a. If you lost your mother's new watch. b. If you got an exciting birthday present. c. If you wanted very much to win a game but your team lost. d. If i t i s raining and you wanted to play outside. 31. Do you think someone who is mentally i l l can be helped? a. Yes, he can be helped by having a doctor X-ray his head. b. Yes, he can be helped i f he goes to the drugstore and gets some medicine. c. Yes, he can be helped i f he talks with a special kind of doctor. d. No, he cannot be helped because he w i l l always be mentally i l l . 32. What does stuttering mean? a. A person is clumsy and always dropping things. b. A person has a walking problem. c. A person has a speaking problem. d. A person i s afraid of many things. 33. A lady has stomach aches and headaches a l l the time and thinks she is always sick, even though her doctor t e l l s her she is very healthy. Why? a. She i s pretending. b. She worries too much. c. She i s being stupid. d. The doctor is wrong. 34. Madness means a. s i l l i n e s s . b. anger. c. dumbness. d. craziness. 35. How do people become senile? a. They are born that way. b. They catch i t from a friend. c. They do bad things. d. They grow old. 123 36. A psychiatrist might help you when a. you feel unhappy a l l the time. b. you get lost. c. you need extra help with your school work. d. you had a car accident and hit your head. 37. What does spastic mean? a. A person i s crazy in the head. b. A person i s not smart and does dumb things a l l the time. c. A person has a kind of sickness that makes i t hard to walk. d. A person has very mean parents, so she is very shy with other people. 38. If a person is mentally i l l , i s i t his fault? a. Yes i t i s his fault, and he should try harder not to be that way. b. Yes, i t is his fault, but now that he's mentally i l l , h e ' ll always be that way. c. No, i t i s not his fault, but with people's help, he could get better. d. No, i t is not his fault, i t just happened to him, and he'll always be that way. 39. A big kid always hits l i t t l e kids and scares them and likes to ruin things that belong to other people. Why does he act like that? a. He was born that way. b. His parents were very mean to each other and that upset him. c. No one ever told him he shouldn't do that. d. He saw someone being a bully one day and he thought i t might be fun so he just decided to start doing i t . 40. If you heard a child say, \" I c-c-c-can't d-d-do i t \" , why would she speak like that? a. She was born that way. b. Her parents didn't teach her to speak right. c. She gets worried when she has to speak. d. She is not very smart. 41. What does neurotic mean? a. A person gets sick very easily. b. A person worries about things that are not important. c. A person i s very nervy and always boasting and showing off. d. A person spends a lot of money buying new things because he i s rich. 42. If a man knows that drinking a lot of alcohol every single day i s bad for him, why does he do it? a. He doesn't try hard enough to stop. b. He just can't help himself. c. He was born that way. d. He i s just very thirsty. 43. What does therapy mean? a. Help with putting on a play in a theatre. b. Punishment when you have been bad. c. Help with understanding your feelings. d. Extra help with your school work when you get behind. 44. What are hallucinations? a. When somebody sees things that are not really there. b. When somebody thinks people are saying mean things about them. c. When somebody i s always sad and crying for no reason. d. When somebody has a lot of problems with school work. 1 2 4 45. You go to a friend's house and his grandmother i s there. You have met her many times, but sometimes she calls you by a name that i s not yours. Why does she do that? a. Old people sometimes try to be funny like that. b. Old people sometimes can't remember things. c. Old people are sometimes not very smart. d. Old people are sometimes not very polite. 46. A boy tries to hurt himself by banging his head against a wall or by hitting himself very hard. Why does he act like this? a. He i s very angry at himself. b. He i s acting stupid to get attention from the teacher. c. His parents used to hit his head when he was a baby. d. He has something wrong in his brain. 47. What is an alcoholic? a. Any person who sells alcohol. b. Any person who drinks alcohol. c. A person who cannot stop drinking alcohol even when he tries. d. A person who never drinks any alcohol because he knows i t i s bad for him. 48. What is a nervous breakdown? a. When a person i s very excited and in a big hurry, but the car breaks down. b. When a person i s so worried a l l the time that she can't think right. c. When a person i s very unhappy because she has a broken leg. d. When a person i s very excited and nervous because i t i s her birthday. 49. What does paranoid mean? a. A person i s always making fun of other people. b. A person thinks he i s better than anyone else and beats up l i t t l e kids. c. A person has a lot of problems with school work. d. A person thinks other people want to hurt him. 50. If there was a child in your class who had a hard time walking and i t was hard to understand her when she talked, but she did very good school work, what would you think. a. She was born with some walking and talking problems. b. She had an accident when she was a baby and became retarded. c. Her parents didn't teacher her to walk and talk right. d. Her parents and friends didn't love her, so she got this sickness. 51. What is a pervert? a. Someone who doesn't do things the way most people do. b. Someone who is always picking on smaller children. c. Someone who is not as smart as the other children in the class. d. Someone who is very nervous and not good at sports. 52. A person really thinks the walls of her room are moving back and forth even though of course the walls are s t i l l . Why does she think that? a. She was born that way. b. She has a seeing problem and needs glasses. c. She has something wrong in her brain. d. She is mentally retarded. 125 53. What is a psychopath? a. Someone who cries a l l the time and is a bad sport i f he loses a game. b. Someone who doesn't care i f he breaks laws of makes people unhappy. c. Someone who acts crazy and s i l l y a l l the time just to get attention. d. Someone who i s always making fun of other people. 54. If a person is mentally retarded, is i t her own fault that she is that way? a. No, i t isn't her fault, but i f she worked really hard, she could become a smart person. b. No i t isn't her fault, and she w i l l always be that way. c. Yes, i t is her fault, but she could work really hard and become a smart person. d. Yes, i t is her fault, and she w i l l always be that way. 55. A lady feels she must wash her hands four times every hour, even though they are very clean. She thinks i f she doesn't do this, something bad w i l l happen to her. Why is she lik e that? a. She was probably born that way. b. She read in .a book that she should do i t , and now she's just being s i l l y to believe the book. c. When she was a child, her parents got mad i f her hands were dirty. d. She had an accident and hurt her hands so she thinks they w i l l get better i f she washes them a lot. 56. How does someone become spastic? a. He was born that way. b. He didn't have nice parents. c. He didn't try hard enough to be like other children. d. His friends made fun of him so he got that way. 57. What i s one way a person might get brain damage? a. From a bad shock, lik e when someone he loves dies. b. From being crippled and having everyone tease him. c. From never working hard enough in school so he got put back a few grades. d. From a bad car accident. 126 APPENDIX D Mental Health Concepts Questionnaire Directions These questions are for children of many different ages, so some questions may seem very easy and some may seem very hard. Read each question carefully and choose the answer which you think is best. This i s the way to answer a question. What is an animal that can climb a tree? Cat is the right answer, so you c i r c l e the letter just in front of the word cat, lik e this -v Sometimes more than one answer i s correct, but ONLY CIRCLE ONE LETTER. Pick the answer that you think is the most correct. Now try these examples. What does huge mean? a. small b. happy c big d. thin If you wanted to buy an apple, you would go a. to a school. b. to a hospital. c. to a store. d. to a movie. An elephant is a. a very big animal that lives in trees. b. a small animal that swims in the ocean. c. an animal that eats houses. d. a large animal that has a trunk. a. turtle b. f i s h c. horse d. cat 127 1. What is a criminal? a. Someone who cries a l l the time. b. Someone who breaks the law. c. Someone who cheats in games and breaks the rules. d. Someone who disobeys the teacher. 2. When would you feel worried? a. If you didn't get what you wanted for Christmas. b. If you are going to the doctor to get a shot. c. If a friend broke a toy of yours. d. If you saw a very sad movie. 3. Nervous means a. s i l l y . b. unhappy. c. disappointed. d. worried. 4. Depressed means a. unhappy. b. angry. c. not honest. d. afraid. 5. What is something that is true about most mentally retarded people? a. They are not very friendly. b. They can not learn very quickly. c. They usually s i t alone and talk aloud to themselves. d. They are not smart because they do not try hard enough. 6. A g i r l feels that everybody hates her and wants to hurt her, even though this i s not true. Why does she feel that way? a. She was born that way, with her feelings a l l mixed up. b. She had an accident and has fe l t that way ever since. c. She just likes to feel sorry for herself to get attention. d. Her parents did not show her they loved her. 7. What does mentally i l l mean? a. A person was retarded when he was born. b. A person does s i l l y things just so other people w i l l look at him. c. A person does strange things and can't understand his own feelings. d. A person i s sick in bed and has a bandage on his head, usually from a bad shock. 128 8. A person might become depressed when a. someone t e l l s him a l i e . b. he sees something he i s afraid of. c. he loses someone he loves. d. he has a terrible stomach ache. 9. Why does a person who breaks the law act like that? a. Because he was born that way and has always been a bad person. b. Because he didn't have a good family l i f e . c. Because he was never taught that breaking laws i s bad. d. Because he had an accident that messed up his brain and made him do bad things. 10. What does insane mean? a. impossible b. stupid c. s i l l y d. crazy 11. What do you think a person who is very very nervous a l l the time should do to become more calm? a. Go away on a vacation. b. Get some medicine from a doctor. c. Talk to a certain kind of doctor about her feelings. d. Just try very very hard not to be nervous and she'll be fine. 12. Who goes to a mental hospital? a. People who need operations on their brains. b. People who are not able to think well or feel happy. c. People who have sicknesses that other people can catch. d. Only mentally retarded people and people with brain damage. 13. What does senile mean? a. You never feel very happy. b. You can't see very well. c. You have a hard time remembering things. d. You have problems getting along with friends. 14. How do most people become mentally i l l ? a. They catch i t from somebody else who i s mentally i l l . b. They have a lot of problems which worry them a l l the time. c. They are in a car accident and hit their heads so they get that way. d. They are born that way. 129 15. If you knew someone who was mentally retarded and you wanted to help him, who would you send him to? a. To a doctor who would give him medicine to make him well. b. To a teacher who would work slowly with him. c. To a doctor who would do an operation on his brain to make him well. d. Nowhere, because no one can help someone who is mentally retarded. 16. Most mentally i l l people are a. retarded b. spastic c. unhappy d. very old 17. A man picks up every l i t t l e piece of l i t t e r he sees and saves i t a l l . When his wife tries to throw i t away, he gets very upset. Why is he like this? a. He was born that way with that kind of problem. b. He i s just being stupid and trying to get attention. c. His parents made him be very clean when he was young. d. He had a sickness when he was a baby that made him do s i l l y things. 18. What is a psychologist? a. Someone who helps you when you might need a brain operation. b. Someone who helps you when you are confused about your feelings. c. Someone who helps you when you are very poor and need more money. d. Someone who helps you when you want to find out about the future. 19. What do people in mental hospitals do? a. They do strange things that don't make sense to us. b. They a l l feel sick in the head and they l i e in their beds. c. They a l l speak in words that we can't understand. d. They act like we do, except that they are a l l retarded. 20. When would you feel anxiety? a. If you lost your mother's brand new watch. b. If you got an exciting birthday present. c. If you wanted very much to win a game but your team lost. d. If i t is raining and you wanted to play outside. 21. If you got on a bus and you saw someone sitting a l l alone, talking very quietly out loud to herself as i f someone were sitting beside her, what would you think? a. She was born lik e that and has always been strange. b. She has problems with her feelings that made her start acting lik e that. c. She is just acting s i l l y like that because she wants to get lots of attention. d. She is drunk. 130 22. Do you think someone who i s mentally i l l can be helped? a. Yes, he can be helped by having a doctor X-ray his head. b. Yes, he can be helped i f he goes to the drugstore and gets some medicine. c. Yes, he can be helped i f he talks with a doctor about his feelings. d. No, he can not be helped because he w i l l always be mentally i l l . 23. Madness means a. s i l l i n e s s . b. anger. c. dumbness. d. craziness. 24. A psychiatrist might help you when a. you get lost. b. you feel unhappy a l l the time. c. you are in a car accident and hit your head. d. you need extra help with your school work. 25. What does spastic mean? a. A person i s crazy in the head. b. A person is not smart and does dumb things a l l the time. c. A person has a kind of sickness that makes i t hard to walk. d. A person has very mean parents, so she is very shy with other people. 26. If a person i s mentally i l l , i s i t his fault? a. Yes i t i s his fault, and he should try very hard not to be that way. b. Yes i t i s his fault, and h e ' l l always be that way. c. No i t i s not his fault, but i f people help him, he'll stop being that way. d. No i t is not his fault, but h e ' l l always be that way. 27. A big kid always hits l i t t l e kids and scares them and likes to ruin things that belong to other people. Why does he act like that? a. He was born that way. b. His parents were very mean to each other and that upset him. c. No one ever told him he shouldn't do that. d. He saw someone being a bully one day and he thought i t might be fun, so he just decided to start doing i t . 28. What does neurotic mean? a. A person gets sick very easily. b. A person thinks too much about things that are not important. c. A person i s very nervy and always boasting and showing off. d. A person always spends a lot of money buying new things because he i s rich. 131 29. What does therapy mean? a. Help with putting on a play in a theatre. b. Punishment when you have been bad. c. Help with understanding your feelings. d. Extra help with your school work when you get behind. 30. You go to a friend's house and his grandmother is there. You have met her many times, but sometimes she calls you by a name that i s not yours. Why does she do that? a. Old people sometimes try to be funny like that. b. Old people sometimes can not remember things. c. Old people are sometimes not very smart. d. Old people are sometimes not very polite. 31. A boy tries to hurt himself by banging his head against a wall or by hitting himself very hard. Why does he act like this? a. He i s very angry at himself. b. He i s acting stupid to get attention from the teacher. c. His parents used to hit, his head when he was a baby, so he learned i t . d. He has something wrong in his brain. 32. What is an alcoholic? a. Any person who sells alcohol. b. Any person who drinks alcohol. c. A person who cannot stop drinking alcohol even when he tr i e s . d. A person who never drinks any alcohol because he knows i t i s bad for him. 33. A person really thinks she sees the walls of her room moving back and forth even though of course the walls are s t i l l . Why? a. She was born that way. b. She has a seeing problem and needs glasses. c. She has something wrong in her brain. d. She is mentally retarded. 34. What is a psychopath? a. Someone who cries a l l the time and is a bad sport i f he loses a game. b. Someone who doesn't care i f he breaks laws or makes people unhappy. c. Someone who acts crazy and s i l l y a l l the time just to get attention. d. Someone who i s always making fun of other people. 35. If a person is mentally retarded, i s i t her own fault that she i s that way? a. No, i t isn't her fault, but i f she worked really hard, she could become a smart person. b. No i t isn't her fault, and she w i l l always be that way. c. Yes, i t is her fault, but she could work really hard and become a smart person. d. Yes, i t i s her fault, and she w i l l always be that way. 132 36. What is a nervous breakdown? a. When a person i s very excited and in a big hurry, but the car breaks down. b. When a person i s so worried a l l the time that she can't think right. c. When a person i s very unhappy because she has a broken leg. d. When a person i s very excited and nervous because i t ' s her birthday. 37. A lady feels she must wash her hands four times every hour, even though they are very clean. She thinks i f she doesn't do this, something bad w i l l happen to her. Why is she like that? a. She was probably born that way. b. She read i n a book that she should do i t , and now she's just being s i l l y and trying to get attention. c. When she was a child, her parents got mad i f her hands were dirty. d. She had an accident and hurt her hands so she thinks they w i l l get better i f she washes them a lot. 133 APPENDIX E Character Cartoon Strips (a) Chris (b) Corry (c) Les (d) Sandy 1 3 6 APPENDIX F Adjective Favorability Sheet 138 CLEAN VERY STRONG POOR NOT HONEST AT ALL GOOD COWARDLY DIRTY WEAK VERY POOR HONEST VERY GOOD VERY BRAVE VERY CLEAN VERY WEAK RICH NOT TOO HONEST VERY BAD BRAVE VERY DIRTY STRONG VERY RICH VERY HONEST BAD VERY COWARDLY 139 APPENDIX G Interview Schedule After both, cartoon strips for one character had been read, the following questions were asked in the order presented. 1. What kind of a person is X? 2. How do you think X feels? 3. What do you think made X start acting this way? (Probe) How did X become this kind of person? 4. Is i t X's fault that she/he acts like this? 5. Do you think X wants to act this way? 5a. (If answer is \"yes\" to question 5) Why would he/she want to act like this? 5b. (If answer is \"no\" to question 5) If he/she doesn't want to act that way, why does he/she? (Probe) Well, you said X doesn't want to act this way. If she/he doesn't want to act l i k e this, then why does she/he keep doing it? 6. Do you think X could change? 7. (If answer is \"yes\" to question 6) How would i t happen that X would change? 8. Would i t be hard or easy for X to change? While the interview questions were asked exactly as expressed above, the examiner was flexible in her interviewing style and probed children i f their answers were unclear or unusually creative. 140 APPENDIX H Scoring Schedule for Comprehension Scores A total of nine points were possible for Les, Chris and Sandy; ten points were possible for Corry. Les Statement of Less problem (1 point) 1 point: The child's answer included recognition that Les thinks she/he is not good at things even though she/he i s . Examples: \"He thinks he isn't good.\" \"He's afraid he can't ever do stuff good.\" 0 points: The child indicated he/she thinks Les i s actually not able to do things well. Example: \"He's no good. He can't do anything right.\" Identification of Less feelings (2 points) 2 points: The child's answer identified Less negative self image, lack of self confidence or irrational worry. Examples: \"He doesn't lik e himself.\" \"He thinks he's a bad person.\" 1 point: The child's answer included only the idea of generally negative feelings. Examples: \"He feels terrible.\" \"Sad.\" Description of etiology (2 points) 2 points: The child described a repeated, ongoing or traumatic experience which could be either self-induced or other-induced. Examples: \"His parents never t e l l him he's good.\" \"Maybe she wrote a poem that she really loved and she handed i t in and the teacher gave i t back to her and said she should change part of i t and she just f e l t so embarrassed and bad that she shought she could never do anything again.\" 1 point: The child described one experience, either self-induced or other-induced, but less plausible than a 2-point response. (This would not include a traumatic experience.) Example: \"A real mean guy in the class told him he was no good and he believed him so he got like this.\" 0 points: The child believed Les was born that way. 141 Desire to act this way (1 point) 1 point: The child's answer was acceptable, logical and consistent. Example: \"He wants to get attention from his parents because he has too many l i t t l e sisters and brothers.\" \"He doesn't want to be like that, but he can't help i t because they are always t e l l i n g him he's no good.\" 0 points: The child's answer was i l l o g i c a l or imperceptive. Examples: \"He just likes being that kind of person. He thinks i t ' s fun.\" \"She doesn't lik e being that way, but she has to do i t . \" (E_: Why does she have to do it?) \"Because they're always saying she's dumb and she's not trying hard to not listen. \" Mechanics of change (2 points) 2 points: The child's answer suggested other-initiated help. Example: \"People w i l l t e l l him over and over and over again that he is good and ask him to play and a l l that. And maybe they could let him win a few times and he'll feel better.\" 1 point: The child's answer included the idea of s e l f - i n i t i a t e d help but involving others as reinforcers. Example: \"He'll think hard about what the people are saying...that he is good and great...and then he ' l l try to believe them and i f they keep saying i t , sooner or later h e ' l l believe i t . \" 0 points: The child presented a \"try harder\" or \"grow out of i t \" solution. Examples: \"He'll try hard to think he's good.\" \"One day when he wakes up, h e ' l l see that he's good and then he won't be lik e that.\" Dif f i c u l t y of change (1 point) or 1 point: The child believed that changing behaviour and feelings is d i f f i c u l t . 0 points: The child suggested that changing would be easy. Sandy Statement of Sandy's problem and identification of Sandy's feelings (3 points) 3 points: The answer included a l l of the following: (a) Sandy likes to be alone or doesn't lik e to do things with others, (b) Sandy i s probably sad or lonely, and (c) Sandy appears happy but probably isn't or in some way conveys the strangeness of the behaviour. Example: \"She's not normal. She doesn't do things with them and she pretends to be happy, but she wouldn't act like that i f she was. 142 2 points: The child's answer included the f i r s t two (a and b) or the third (c). Example: \"She's sad. She never does stuff with the other kids when they ask her.\" 1 point: The child's answer included either (a) or (b). Example: \"She's lonely.\" Description of etiology (2 points) 2 points: The child explained an organic cause for the behaviour (i.e., said that Sandy was \"born that way\" and elaborated upon that to suggest retardation or brain damage) or the child suggested the behaviour was other- induced. Examples: \"I think she was born weird. Something from when she was in her mom's stomach and her mom always got drunk. That gave her brain damage.\" \"Maybe she's new in the school and in the old school people were always making fun of her because she was shy and she's afraid they'll do i t here too so she's just staying on her own.\" 1 point: The child answered \"born that way\" and elaborated somewhat, suggest-ing something was wrong with Sandy when he/she was born. 0 points: The child could not think of an etiology but selected \"born that way\" when given the choice of \"born that way\" or \"experience\"; the child was not able to elaborate upon the choice despite the probe. The child suggested Sandy's behaviour was entirely self-induced. Example: \"She saw someone else doing i t once and decided to try being that way and now she can't stop.\" Desire to act this way (1 point) 1 point: The child's answer included the suggestion that Sandy could not help i t , was not aware that his/her behaviour was strange, or was reacting to the environment. 0 points: The child's answer implied that Sandy was just behaving this way for attention or because she/he enjoyed i t . Mechanics of change (2 points) 2 points: The child described change involving other-initiated help. Example: \"If people just keep trying to be nice even though she isn't nice, maybe some day she'll let them be nice to her back and she'll l i k e i t and see i t ' s good to have friends.\" \"Her parents should take her to a doctor.\" 1 point: The child's answer included sel f - i n i t i a t e d help involving others as reinforcers or suggesting Sandy w i l l always be that way because he/she was born that way. Examples: \"He might get too lonely one day and go over to them when 143 they're working and say, 'Hi, I ' l l work too' and they'll let him work too and then he'd change because he'd l i k e i t . \" \"I don't think he'll change because something, is wrong inside his brain. There's nothing to do about i t . 0 points: The answer emphasized Sandy's change by \"growing out of i t \" or by trying hard. Examples: \"He w i l l just try to be nicer.\" \"When she gros up she'll have to get a job and then she'll just have to talk to people too or she'll get fired.\" Difficulty of change (1 point) 1 point: The child thought i t would be d i f f i c u l t for Sandy to change. 0 points: The child thought i t would be easy for Sandy to change. Chris Statement of Chrisproblem (2 points) 2 points: The child's answer indicated that Chris has d i f f i c u l t y learning things. Examples: \"He has a disabi l i t y in learning.\" \"He can't learn so fast.\" 1 point: The child suggested that Chris doesn't understand things well. Example: \"He don't understand stuff good.\" Identification of Chris's feelings (1 point) 1 point: The child identified Chris's mood as happy or happy and sad. Example: \"He's a pretty happy guy, but sometimes he's sad because he doesn't know the answer there.\" 0 points: The child perceived Chris as an unhappy person. Example: \"He's sad because he doens't know nothing.\" Description of etiology (2 points) 2 points: The child indicated that Chris was \"born that way\" before she/he was offered the choice of \"born that way or experience\". 1 point: The child chose \"born that way\" after having suggested an experien-t i a l etiology. 0 points: The child suggested Chris's behaviour was a function of experiences, such as not studying hard enough or starting school late. 144 Desire to act this way (1 point) 1 point: The child provided an acceptable, logically consistent answer. Examples: \"I doubt he knows he's acting that way.\" \"Yes, he's happy the way he i s . \" \"He can't help i t . He was born that way.\" 0 points: The child's answer was i l l o g i c a l or incorrect. Example: \"He doesn't want to be that way, but he doesn't try hard enough.\" Mechanics of change (2 points) 2 points: The child's response included the idea of other-initiated help, a special school, or a tutor. 1 point: The answer focused primarily upon self- i n i t i a t e d help but also the involvement of others as reinforcers, or the answer suggested Chris w i l l always be that way because he was born that way. Examples: \"He'll t e l l his mom and dad that he doesn't like to not understand so many things and they'll help him extra and take him on a t r i p . \" \"No theres, just nothing that can help you i f you were borned like that.\" 0 points: The child suggested a \"try harder\" or a \"grow out of i t \" solution. Example: \"He'll try hard and hard and someday he ' l l be smart.\" Diff i c u l t y of change (1 point) 1 point: The child suggested that changing would be d i f f i c u l t . 0 points: The child believed that changing would be easy. Corry Statement of Corry's problem (2 points) 2 points: The child recognized that braces and the crutches in the cartoon represented a permanent or serious condition. Examples: \"He has paralyzed legs.\" \"He has something very wrong with his legs. Something happened to them in an accident I think.\" 1 point: The child perceived Corry's legs as broken and implied that the condition was temporary. (The implication that the condition was was not permanent or serious may have come later in the interview.) Example: \"He has a broken leg.\" 0 points: The child did not comment on Corry's physical condition at any point in the interview. 145 Identification of Corry's feelings (2 points) 2 points: The child mentioned that Corry lacked self-confidence. Example: \"He doesn't think he's good. He thinks he shouldn't try to do stuff.\" 1 point: . The .child, identified Corry's unhappiness. Example: \"She's sad.\" Description of etiology (2 points) 2 points: The child's answer included both an illness/accident/birth condition comment as well as identification of the self-reflective or inter-personal factors which contributed to Corry's behaviour. Example: \"He's sad because he was borned that way and when he was a baby, he saw other babies didn't have crutches and he couldn't move so fast so he's sad.\" 1 point: The child's answer suggested Corry was born that way or had an accident but included no further elaboration, even with a probe. Desire to act this way (1 point) 1 point: The child indicated that Corry didnot want to act that way, but that he/she had no control over his/her condition. 0 points: The child's answer suggested Corry liked to be that way. Mechanics of change (2 points) 2 points: The child's answer included the idea of other-initiated help. Example: \"If other people just encourage him and t e l l him his crippledness doesn't really matter, he ' l l get happier.\" 1 point: The child suggested primarily s e l f - i n i t i a t e d help but with the involvement of others as reinforcers, or the child said Corry would always be that way because of his/her condition. Examples: \"She could try really really hard to learn some games that just crippled people could play and then maybe some of the other kids might be interested to learn them too.\" \"He'll probably always be that way because he'll always be crippled and people w i l l always laugh at him.\" 0 points: The child believed Corry could \"grow out\" of her/his condition or she/he could overcome i t entirely by trying hard. Examples: \"He needs to try and try and try and get his own l i t t l e thing he can do well. That's a l l he needs and whammo, he'l l be like a new person.\" \"When she's a grown up, she'll be much happier. Kids won't be teasing her then.\" Difficulty of change (1 point) 1 point: The child believed Corry could only change with d i f f i c u l t y . 0 points: The child suggested i t would be easy for Corry to change. 147 APPENDIX I Coding Categories for Interview Data The interview questions (IQ) are directly from the interview schedule. The coding questions (CQ) were questions the coders were asking of the re-sponses to the interview questions. Coding categories (CC) were designed as described in the method section. 1. IOj \"What kind of a person is X?\" \"How do you think X feels?\" CQ: Does the child generally perceive the character's problem? CC: (1) Yes (2) No 2. IQ: \"What do you think made X start acting this way?\" (Probe) \"How did X become this kind of person?\" CQ: What kind of etiology does the child describe? CC: (1) Born that way (2) Nonsocial: Accidents or diseases are the causes of the condition. Examples: \"A dog bit her and gave her brain damage.\" \"He got a cold and i t got badder and badder unt i l he started doing that.\" (3) Social-internal or self-induced: Primary emphasis is on the character's thoughts or behaviour as the major cause of her/his present condition. Examples: \"He saw other kids being perfect and he wanted to be perfect too.\" \"When he was a l i t t l e baby, he did something wrong once so he thought he wasn't ever going to be good ever again.\" (4) Social-external or other-induced: Emphasis is on:lother ind i -viduals as the cause. Examples: \"They were always bugging her.\" \"Her parents never let her do stuff so she started liking being alone a l l the time.\" 3. IQ: \"Is i t X's fault that she/he acts like this?\" CC: (1) Yes, X is at fault. (2) No, X is not at fault. 4. IQ: \"Do you think X wants to act this way?\" CC: (1) Yes, X wants to behave this way. (2) No, X does not want to behave this way. (3) X is not aware that the behaviour is abnormal. 148 4a. If answer is \"yes\" to question 4 IQ: \"Why would he/she want to act like this?\" CC: (1) The behaviour is to get attention or i t is a response to adverse environmental conditions. Examples: \"She wants people to feel sorry for her.\" \"They were mean to her so now she wants to get back at them.\" (2) The character likes being that kind of person. Example: \"She thinks i t ' s fun.\" 4b. If answer is \"no\" to question 4 IQ: \"If he/she doesn't want to act that way, why does he/she?\" CC: (1) The character cannot help i t ; i t is not his/her fault; the en-vironmental situation makes him/her do i t . (2) The character is not trying hard enough; she/he does not put enough effort into behaving differently. 5. IQ_: \"Do you think X could change?\" CC: (1) Yes (2) No If answer is \"yes\" to question 5 IQ: \"How would i t happen that X would change?\" CC: (1) Try harder: Effort i s the only factor necessary in changing. Examples: \"She would try hard to be happy.\" \"He should just try and try and try unt i l he did things better.\" \"He would learn more.\" (E: \"How would he learn more?\") \"He could work a l o t . \" (2) Grow out of i t : The problem w i l l eventually or dramatically disappear without any interference or effort. Examples: \"When she gets older, she'll be different.\" (E: \"How w i l l she become different?\") \"When she gets older she'll just change because grown-ups aren't like that.\" \"One day she'll just wake up and feel different and not want to be like that ever again.\" (3) Self-initiated change but involving others: Change relies largely upon the character's efforts but definitely involves others as reinforcers. Examples: \"He'll try one day to be friendlier and everyone w i l l be so happy and nice to him that he'll feel different. \"He'll practice over and over again un t i l he under-stands and then they'll-see he's good enough to play so they'll ask him and he'll say yes.\" \"She'll be so sad that one day she'll just t e l l her parents and they'll talk to her and she'll get unlonely.\" 149 (4) Other-initiated change: The actions of others induce the change. Examples: \"She'd change i f other people tried really hard to get her to play and f i n a l l y she did and had a good time.\" \"They should send him to a school where they give lots of help to learn better. Special schools for mentals.\" 7. IQ: \"Would i t be hard or easy for X to change?\" CC: (1) Hard (2) Easy APPENDIX J Proportions of Categorized Interview Data Yielding Nonsignificant Differences j . \u00E2\u0080\u009E . , , Proportion by Grade Dependent Variable \u00E2\u0080\u009E r ; * \u00E2\u0080\u0094 I 4 6 Bo rn/Exp erienc e 3 (Born) Chris .47 .66 .63 Sandy .27 .10 .20 Type of Experience Chris 1 (Nonsocial; accident/disease) 2 (Social-internal; self-induced) 3 (Social-external; other-induced) .00 .81 .19 .00 . .80 .20 .00 .45 .55 Fault 3 (Yes, at fault) Corry .17 .17 .20 Chris .27 .27 .20 Control Les 1 (Does not want to act that way) 2 (Wants to act that way) 3 (Not aware of actions) .86 .14 .00 .73 .23 .03 .70 .27 .03 Corry 1 (Does not want to act that way) 2 (Wants to act that way) 3 (Not aware of actions) ...88 .12 .00 1.00 .00 .00 .80 .20 .00 Control: Wants to act that way (Attention) \"Sandy .69 .62 .71 Corry .00 .00 .00 Chris .25 .00 .00 Control: Doesn't want .to act that way (Can't help i t ) Les .44 .41 .62 Corry 1.00 1.00 1.00 Sandy .47 .59 .64 151 , ^ \u00E2\u0080\u009E . , , Proportion by Grade Dependent Variable K : d 1\u00E2\u0080\u0094 2 4 6\" Dif f i c u l t y of Change5 (Hard) Chris .52 .82 .74 a These questions had only two possible answers or categories so only one proportion i s reported. The numbers presented are the proportions of children who selected the answer in parantheses under the specific question. "@en . "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "10.14288/1.0093939"@en . "eng"@en . "Psychology"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en . "Graduate"@en . "Children\u00E2\u0080\u0099s understanding of emotionally, mentally, and physically handicapped behaviours and related mental health concepts : a developmental study"@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/20219"@en .