Instructors Manual for Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence 4ce
Part 3: Language, Learning, and Cognitive Development
Chapter 8: Cognitive Development: Piaget’s Theory, Cases’s Neo-Piagetian Theory, and Vygotsky’s Sociocultural
Viewpoint
Copyright © 2013 by Nelson Education Ltd. 8-13
Another body of research that bears on the question of children's understanding of causality is that dealing
with children's understanding of the causes of illness (e.g., see Siegal, 1988; Sigelman, Maddock, Epstein, &
Carpenter, 1993).
Resources
Goldman, R. J., & Goldman, J. D. (1982). How children perceive the origin of babies and the roles of
mothers and fathers in procreation: A cross-national study. Child Development, 53, 491-504.
Siegal, M. (1988). Children's knowledge of contagion and contamination as causes of illness. Child
Development, 59, 1353-1359.
Sigelman, C., Maddock, A., Epstein, J., & Carpenter, W. (1993). Age differences in understandings of
disease causality: AIDS, colds, and cancer. Child Development, 64, 272-284.
Conclusions About Causality
Considerable literature was generated during the 70s and '80s regarding children's understanding of
causality, i.e., cause and effect relations. Piaget had characterized the preschooler as acausal or tending to
attribute causes to immanent justice ("I got hurt because I forgot to do my jobs."), magic, or a higher power.
But any parent knows that infants and toddlers quickly figure out that light switches cause lights to come on
or go off, that door knobs open doors, that dropping dishes on the floor causes a crash, etc. They seem very
in tune with cause and effect relations. This recent body of research indicates that parental perception is
correct. Young children are not acausal, but do show some limitations in their understanding of causality.
There are developmental differences. The following generalizations can be made (Gelman & Baillargeon,
1983; Goldman & Goldman, 1982; Sedlak & Kurtz, 1981; Shultz, 1982):
• Preschoolers are not acausal and do not attribute everything to immanent justice, magic, or higher powers.
• Preschoolers recognise that causes precede outcomes—when the causes are observable or readily
inferable.
• Preschoolers tend to err when the most salient of possible causes in a situation is the incorrect one.
• Preschoolers are likely to generate (or accept) a myth regarding a cause when the cause is not easily seen,
heard, or inferred (e.g., regarding procreation, toothaches, Santa Claus, the tooth fairy), or in responses to
such questions as "What makes clouds move?" or "What makes the water in the river move?" (Questions
asked by Piaget that often led to acausal or animistic responses.)
• Preschoolers are easily misled by co-variance that is inconsistent. They ignore the inconsistency and the
reality that an inconsistent co-variant could not possibly be the cause.
• Education/knowledge influence the likelihood of making mature causal inferences, suggesting that early
educational effort can be effective in facilitating understanding of causation (e.g., of AIDS, pregnancy,
illness, etc.). However, children may distort educational explanations of complex phenomena (by
assimilating them to existing schemes), may be misled by analogies, and need repeated exposures to the
same content as they progress to different developmental levels.
Resources
Gelman, R., & Baillargeon, R. (1983). A review of some Piagetian concepts. In P. H. Mussen (Ed.),
Handbook of child psychology, Vol. III, Cognitive development, 4th edition.
Goldman, R. J., & Goldman, J. D. (1982). How children perceive the origin of babies and the roles of
mothers and fathers in procreation: A cross-national study. Child Development, 53, 491-504.
Sedlak, A. J., & Kurtz, S. T. (1981). A review of children's use of causal inference principles. Child
Development, 52, 759-784.
Shultz, T. R. (1982). Rules of causal attribution. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child
Development, 47, Serial No. 194.