Attributions as Moderators of Reactions to Computer-Simulated Responsive and Unresponsive Children

Abstract

Adult women subjects were placed in an analog setting that nominally involved training a child on a computer game. Child behavioral enactments (computer-generated) were displayed for subjects on a computer screen. Child enactments involved “behaviors” that appeared to be either responsive or unresponsive to training efforts. Those subjects with low perceived control over caregiving outcomes (as measured by the Parent Attribution Test), were found, as predicted, to be maximally influenced by child responsiveness. When interacting with unresponsive “children”, they demonstrated (a) increased efforts to regain control (as measured by a post-experimental unitizing task), (b) decreasing positivity of ideation (as measured by thought listing procedures), and (c) increasing negativity of ideation. These results support the notion that caregiving attributions act as moderators of responses to child behavior, and extend past findings obtained from naturalistic observations of distressed families.