Fourth, fifth and sixth-grade children, assigned to one of four sociometric groups - popular, controversial, isolated and rejected - rated the dimensional meaning of eight social attributions: other's motives, personality, behavioural sociability, mood, third-party intervention, personality interaction, luck and effort. Analysis of these ratings revealed that, in general, children use the locus and controllability dimensions in a manner which closely approximates Weiner's (1979) model of causal attributions. Stability ratings mirror the model only for personality, luck and mood. However, when social experience, reflected by sociometric ratings, is taken into account, a different pattern emerges. Popular and rejected children view the causes differently than do isolated and controversial children. These results are discussed in terms of social experience and the need to evaluate the idiosyncratic meaning of causes. Implications for enhancing social relationships are also presented.
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