Adolescent years are a time period in a human beings life where we search for a place that we are most comfortable. It is a time where we try to find friends with similar interests and those who will easily accept us for who we are. Once we are accepted by those friends, we tend to do more things with hopes of getting approval from “the group.” Trying to fit in during adolescence is a significant factor for self-motivation because it determines the level of being accepted and popularity amongst our peers. Through our year of adolescence we experiment and try to discover oneself as a person, but we also find what our strongest traits are that are used in order to be accepted, or to feel more popular. Popularity is defined as a state of being liked or accepted by a group of people (cite). As the group of people gets larger, so does that person’s popularity. For some people, popularity may come easy due to their charisma or looks, but there are those children who feel lonely due to their lack of popularity. Psychologists have studied, in the recent years, about being accepted or being popular in the adolescent years of a person’s life. This research has led them to an interesting question: how does aggression affect popularity or being accepted socially by others? Aggression is an act that may be considered negative when used in most cases. Crick and Grotpeter in 1995 defined aggression “as behaviors to hurt or harm others” (Crick & Grotpeter, 1995, p.710). There are two main types of aggression: relational aggression and overt/psychical aggression. Relational Aggression is “harming others through purposeful manipulations and damage of their peer relationships,” while Overt aggression is “harming others through physical aggression, ... ... middle of paper ... ...atus. Child Dev 75:147–163. Crick, N. R., & Grotpeter, J. K. (1995). Relational aggression, gender, and social-psychological adjustment. Child Development, 66, 710–722. Mayeux, L., & Cillessen, A. N. (2008). It’s not just being popular, it’s knowing it, too: The role of self-perceptions of status in the associations between peer status and aggression. Social Development, 17, 871–888. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2008.00474.x. Rose, A. J., Swenson, L. P., & Waller, E. M. (2004). Overt and relational aggression and perceived popularity: Developmental differences in concurrent and prospective relations. Developmental Psychology, 40(3), 378-387. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.40.3.378 Vaillancourt, T., & Hymel, S. (2006). Aggression and social status: The moderating roles of sex and peer-valued characteristics. Aggressive Behavior, 32, 396–408. doi:10.1002/ab.20138.
Rachel Simmons was amazed there were so many books regarding aggression in boys, but was unable to find any books on the subject of girls’ aggression. The experiments that were conducted regarding aggression were also only performed using males. Many psychologists considered aggression to be behavior such as hitting, punching, name calling and threatening others as a male issue. Simmons discovered from the many interviews she conducted on women that aggression is just as much a female issue. In her book, “The Odd Girl Out: The hidden culture of aggression in girls”, Simmons interviews many women and girls who were victims of bullying, were the actual bully, and also people who witnessed the abuse. Simmons’ purpose for writing this book was to make everyone aware of the secretive way girls bully each other, and to show how they hide their aggression, which many times is the result of their own struggle for acceptance. This book was effective because Simmons also gives the reader suggestions to help everyone involved in some form of aggressive behavior know how to deal with this behavior, and the lifelong consequences it has on everyone involved.
The experience of being socially excluded leads to increases in aggressive behavior. Research has found that when people are excluded by others, they are more likely to behave aggressively, even to people who did not initially exclude them (Twenge, Baumeister, Tice, & Stucke, 2001).
Aggression is a sub-field under social psychology because social psychology is the study of how individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior changes in groups while interacting with other people. In comparison, aggression falls directly under this category because psychologist’s main goal is to try to understand how aggressive people tend to change in their behavior and mentality when their objective is to cause pain. People who are aggressive either physically or psychological educe pain and suffering upon an individual by verbally assaulting someone, berating them, spreading vicious rumors, or even name calling. Everyday schoolchildren are getting bullied, spouses are facing domestic violence, families encounter arguments, and the list continues because everyday aggressors react negatively to these scenarios. However, they are levels of extreme aggressive behavior compare to the others, such as violence being the highest form of aggression. Kassin et al. states compared to violence, the other forms of aggression, such as anger and hostility are less harmful compare to violence because “people can be angry with others and regard them with great hostility without ever trying to harm them” (2014). When someone is angry, they are usually experiencing irritation, hate, or other displeasing feelings. Similarly, those who express hostility, which are negative feelings the aggressor
Snyder, J., Dishion, T. J., & Patterson, G. R. (1986). Determinants and consequences of associating with deviant peers during preadolescence and adolescence. The Journal of Early Adolescence.
The evolution of human aggression can be said as a reproductive response from our ancestors. It includes jealousy, infidelity, as well as group displays of aggressive behaviour. According to Daly and Wilson (1988), male sexual jealousy and paternal uncertainty leads to vigilance to violence as strategies to avoid their partners from committing adultery. Sexual jealousy is the most common reason for aggression in a relationship. Male sexual jealousy
Boys reported using significantly more physically aggressive behaviors at school than girls and higher overall exposure to physically aggressive programs than girls. They also reported higher overall television exposure than girls but this data fell short of significance. Girls reported higher overall exposure to socially aggressive programs than did boys, but there was no significant sex difference in the perpetration of socially aggressive behaviors (Martins & Wilson, 2011, p. 59).
This assignment will evaluate two theories of aggression; Lorenze’s ethological approach and the Social Learning Theory. It will then determine the role of media on pro and anti-social behavior and will finally discuss individual, social and cultural diversity in pro and anti-social behavior.
In addition to playing difficult games, children start to become part of a social world. School is age graded, meaning that students are placed in grades based on their age. Children tend to only talk to those in their grade. Children in the same age tend to form their own social status. It is in this social aspect of middle childhood where popularity comes...
10. M. Lefkowitz, L. Eron, L. Walder, and L. Huesmann, Growing Up to Be Violent: A longitudinal Study of the Development of Aggression, Pergamon, New York, 1977.
When researching the following question, I intend to find multiple resources which depict different perspectives such as life stories, articles and statistics that show the connection between anti-social behavior and relationships in both a positive and negative light. It is best to consider both perspectives that help formulate an objective answer to the question, giving readers a unbiased response. While researching, there will be a multi-disciplinary approach, as I expect to find information regarding the three social sciences including anthropology, psychology, and sociology which gives a fair response to the question. This can include links on how brain development during prenatal development, or how socialization of the child can impact
Behavior, Aggressive Cognition, Aggressive Affect, Physiological Arousal, and Prosocial Behavior: a Meta-Analytic Review of the Scientific Literature." Psychological Science (2001). EBSCO. DePaul Library. 7 Mar. 2008.
Lewin, K., Lippit, R. and White, R.K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created social climates. Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 271-301
This study had a few strengths and weaknesses. One strength was further separating the children into groups based off of sex. This further exemplifies that boys are more aggressive than girls, and that gender does affect how a child thinks they can behave. Another strength was including verbal aggression and not just showing physical abuse. This showed that girls are less are more willing to say verbally aggressive phrases than physically act
different from others, since these variables often serve at risk factors for bullying” (Jvonen and
The popularity that the close friends have among the friends is the main reason on how much influence it has on prosocial behavior and overt aggression that is shown in childhood. It was mentioned that girls are likely to engaged in prosocial behavior than boys when their close friends are popular. Having the understanding from earlier that girls are more affectionate as compared to boys prefer to demonstrate more power could be the possible linked for this finding. As for overt aggression, it is arguable as other children might choose to walk away from participating in such act as it does not fit their personality. Therefore, from these findings it shows that close friendships do have an influence on the social development in